The department rejected the request, but acknowledged that electrifying the cable at its current depth -- at least for the time being -- would not harm the underwater environment.
TK-8968 and the 501st team are only aware of one other instance in which Stormtrooper armor has done more good than harm: An underwater explorer and filmmaker named Scott Cassell (not a member of the 501st) apparently uses a homemade fiberglass suit modeled after Stormtrooper armor to defend himself against squid attacks.
The fine, silty dust covers underwater grasses, harming an important part of the ecosystem.
A coalition of environmental groups filed suit to stop the Navy from using a powerful new sonar system for detecting enemy submarines, saying the intense underwater sounds can harm whales and dolphins.
Sonar has long been blamed for harming dolphins, whales, and other underwater creatures that use sound to navigate, but it may not be as dangerous as previously believed.
On Nov. 30, NOAA Fisheries issued "incidental take" permits giving five companies permission to harass, harm or kill marine mammals when blasting sounds underwater to map the Atlantic Ocean floor.
As a matter of faithful stewardship of God's gifts, it is a moral imperative to shelter this underwater modern "Noah's ark" from potential harm.
A bat expert says even these sensitive animals wouldn't be harmed by uBeam, and the technology wouldn't be used underwater where it could reach animals like dolphins.
But animals such as water voles are also harmed, as they are unable to escape predators by fleeing into rivers to reach underwater entrances to their burrows.
Kumpel said there was evidence of human-related noise harming wildlife around the world, from oil drilling driving elephants away in Uganda to underwater noise causing mass strandings of whales in the Canary Islands.
