The legal challenge to Woodside's geological survey off the WA coast hangs on claims of 'whale songlines' and an island of fecund turtles. The first instinct is to laugh that someone would file such a preposterous claim and, less funny, that a court might take it seriously. That's when the giggling stops because here we have yet another warning of the threat to development and national wealth posed by activists, not least those on the bench