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SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge has ordered the National Science Foundation and several research institutions to stop mapping the ocean floor along the Gulf of California using intense blasts of sound, saying that practice likely has harmed whales. 

U.S. District Judge James Larsen sided Monday with conservationists from the Center for Biological Diversity, ruling that high intensity sonic blasts used for seismic research have disrupted marine life in the vicinity. 

Scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography estimate the airguns aboard the R/V Maurice Ewing research vessel can generate up to 263 decibels, said Brendan Cummings, counsel for the conservation center. 

Larsen noted that the U.S. Navy considers sounds above 180 decibels to be potentially harmful to marine mammals. 

Larsen ordered such aspects of a $1.6 million research project to end immediately.