The U.S. Navy is challenging Hawaii's authority to protect whales by restricting the use of sonar during training exercises, environmentalists and military representatives say.

In February, U.S. District Court Judge David Ezra barred the Navy from conducting its undersea exercises within 12 nautical miles, or 13.8 miles (22.2 kilometers), of Hawaii's shoreline. Hawaii wants the Navy to follow Ezra's rules during all warfare drills near the islands and not just undersea exercises.

The Navy responded last week that doing so would prevent it from training its sailors properly. It also questioned whether Hawaii has the authority to use state law to enforce federal marine mammal protections.

You know you live in a bureaucracy when you have so many laws that you have to appeal to a court to save the environment. Why don't we skip the formal crap and do what's necessary to protect the whales? The law machine doesn't save species, it makes us inefficient and neurotic. With the risk of sounding like a hippie, I wish independence to Hawaii and fredom to the whales!