Navy Gets OK to Use Underwater Explosives : Environment: Fisheries panel approves offshore exercises to test strength of warships. Activists condemn plan that allows for deaths of protected species during blasts.

A Navy plan to detonate underwater explosives west of the Channel Islands to test the strength and durability of warships was approved Tuesday by the National Marine Fisheries Service, a decision that could prompt legal challenges from environmental groups.

Beginning March 3, the Navy will have the authority to conduct the tests that could involve the “incidental take” or killing of some federally protected sea lions, seals and whales.

The Navy plans to detonate the explosives--some as large as 10,000 pounds--in waters of the Outer Sea Test Range, about 60 miles west of the Point Mugu Naval Air Weapons Station in Ventura County.

The Navy will be able to conduct as many as 10 tests a year for a period of five years but must seek reauthorization yearly from the fisheries service.

Fisheries officials said they decided to grant the Navy’s request because of safeguards in the testing procedure that call for extensive pre- and post-test aerial observation flights. The Navy also agreed that testing would be halted if marine mammals are found in the test zone.

The test zone is in the migratory path of gray whales, and marine biologists have noted four species of seals and sea lions and 17 species of whales in the area. All of these species are protected by federal law and some of them are listed by federal officials as endangered.

“We are pleased to be of assistance in providing additional monitoring and checkpoints so that our obligation to provide environmental protection for marine mammals is carried out appropriately while balancing our national defense obligations,” fisheries service director Rolland Schmitten said in a statement.

Schmitten added that fisheries service biologists have spent more than a year surveying the Point Mugu test range and have pinpointed three sites where marine mammals are least likely to be.

But representatives of local environmental groups say the approval of the testing program shows the federal agency’s disregard for protecting the marine environment.

“I saw this coming down the tracks,” said Alan Godley, a Ventura environmental activist. “I’m disappointed because I think this shows the Clinton Administration’s real disregard for protecting the marine environment.”

Maris Sidenstecker, co-founder of Venice-based Save the Whales, called the Fisheries Service decision “disgusting” and vowed to seek a legal injunction against the Navy before testing can begin.

“We are prepared to do what we have to do legally to try and stop this awful program,” Sidenstecker said. “There is too much on the line out there.”

Alan Alpers, a Point Mugu spokesman, said the fact that the Navy’s permit provides for the incidental deaths of marine mammals does not mean that large numbers of deaths will occur.

“Just because we have that authorization doesn’t mean that there will be a lot of animals killed,” Alpers said. “We have designed the testing procedure to very carefully prevent harming animal life.”

Lt. Cmdr. Frank Thorp, a Navy surface fleet spokesman in San Diego, said the test is part of a $35-million Naval trial program.

He said that initially the Navy will conduct the testing on one of its high-tech Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, the John Paul Jones. The Jones is equipped with the Navy’s Aegis weapons system--a computerized system capable of tracking and engaging multiple targets.

Navy officials say that the testing program is of critical importance in determining the “survivability” factor of new vessels before they face combat--specifically, testing ship hulls, electronic systems and the vessels’ ability to protect their crews.