View Rule

Based on NMFS's receipt of an application from the U.S. Navy for incidental take regulations and a Letter of Authorization under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, this action proposes regulations to govern the unintentional taking of marine mammals incidental to the use of Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System Low Frequency Active (SURTASS LFA) sonar onboard U.S. Navy surveillance ships. This rule would cover the use of SURTASS LFA sonar for training and testing activities conducted under the authority of the Secretary of the Navy in the western and central North Pacific and eastern Indian oceans (except in Arctic and Antarctic waters and certain geographical restrictions) beginning August 2019, for a seven-year period. The proposed regulations will set forth the permissible methods of taking; other "means of effecting the least practicable adverse impact" on the affected species or stocks and their habitats and, if applicable, on their availability for taking for subsistence uses (i.e., mitigation); and requirements pertaining to the monitoring and reporting of such taking. Letters of Authorization issued under the regulations would authorize the take of marine mammals incidental to the specified activities. This will be the fourth such rule for SURTASS LFA sonar. The previous rule expired in August 2017 and the Navy is currently operating under an MMPA National Defense Exemption (NDE), which expires in August 2019.