Notice2025-13000
Taking and Importing Marine Mammals; Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to U.S. Navy Operations of Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System Low Frequency Active Sonar in the Western and Central North Pacific Ocean and Eastern Indian Ocean
Primary source
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Published
July 11, 2025
Issuing agencies
Commerce DepartmentNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Abstract
NMFS has received a request from the U.S. Department of the Navy (Navy) for authorization to take marine mammals incidental to training and testing activities using Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System (SURTASS) Low Frequency Active (LFA) sonar systems in the western and central North Pacific and eastern Indian oceans over the course of 7 years from August 2026 through August 2033. Pursuant to regulations implementing the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), NMFS is announcing receipt of the Navy's request for the development and implementation of regulations governing the incidental taking of marine mammals and issuance of a 7-year Letter of Authorization (LOA). NMFS invites the public to provide information, suggestions, and comments on the Navy's application and request.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 131 (Friday, July 11, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 131 (Friday, July 11, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 30877-30879]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-13000]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
[RTID 0648-XE848]
Taking and Importing Marine Mammals; Taking Marine Mammals
Incidental to U.S. Navy Operations of Surveillance Towed Array Sensor
System Low Frequency Active Sonar in the Western and Central North
Pacific Ocean and Eastern Indian Ocean
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notice; receipt of application for regulations and letter of
authorization; request for comments and information.
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SUMMARY: NMFS has received a request from the U.S. Department of the
Navy (Navy) for authorization to take marine mammals incidental to
training and testing activities using Surveillance Towed Array Sensor
System (SURTASS) Low Frequency Active (LFA) sonar systems in the
western and central North Pacific and eastern Indian oceans over the
course of 7 years from August 2026 through August 2033. Pursuant to
regulations implementing the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), NMFS
is announcing receipt of the Navy's request for the development and
implementation of regulations governing the incidental taking of marine
mammals and issuance of a 7-year Letter of Authorization (LOA). NMFS
invites the public to provide information, suggestions, and comments on
the Navy's application and request.
DATES: Comments and information must be received no later than August
11, 2025.
ADDRESSES: Comments should be addressed to Ben Laws, Incidental Take
Program Supervisor, Permits and Conservation Division, Office of
Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries Service, and should be
sent to <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#7d34292d531e11180b18130e091413183d13121c1c531a120b"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="0d44595d236e61687b68637e796463684d63626c6c236a627b">[email protected]</span></a>. An electronic copy of the Navy's
application may be obtained online at: <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-mammal-protection/incidental-take-authorizations-military-readiness-activities">https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-mammal-protection/incidental-take-authorizations-military-readiness-activities</a>. In case of problems accessing the
document, please call the contact listed below.
Instructions: NMFS is not responsible for comments sent by any
other method, to any other address or individual, or received after the
end of the comment period. Comments, including all attachments, must
not exceed a 25-megabyte file size. All comments received are a part of
the public record and will be generally posted online at: <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-mammal-protection/incidental-take-authorizations-military-readiness-activities">https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-mammal-protection/incidental-take-authorizations-military-readiness-activities</a> without change. All
personal identifying information (e.g., name, address) voluntarily
submitted by the commenter may be publicly accessible. Do not submit
confidential business information or otherwise sensitive or protected
information.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Alyssa Clevenstine, Office of
Protected Resources, NMFS, (301) 427-8401.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
The MMPA prohibits the ``take'' of marine mammals, with certain
exceptions. Sections 101(a)(5)(A) and (D) of the MMPA (16 U.S.C. 1361
et seq.) direct the Secretary of Commerce (as delegated to NMFS) to
allow, upon request, the incidental, but not intentional, taking of
small numbers of marine mammals by U.S. citizens who engage in a
specified activity (other than commercial fishing) within a specified
geographical region if certain findings are made and either regulations
are proposed or, if the taking is limited to
[[Page 30878]]
harassment, a notice of a proposed authorization is provided to the
public for review.
Authorization for incidental takings shall be granted if NMFS finds
that the taking will have a negligible impact on the species or
stock(s), and will not have an unmitigable adverse impact on the
availability of the species or stock(s) for taking for subsistence uses
(where relevant). Further, NMFS must prescribe the permissible methods
of taking and other ``means of effecting the least practicable adverse
impact'' on the affected species or stocks and their habitat, paying
particular attention to rookeries, mating grounds, and areas of similar
significance, and on the availability of the species or stocks for
taking for certain subsistence uses (referred to in shorthand as
``mitigation''); and requirements pertaining to the monitoring and
reporting of the takings.
NMFS has defined ``negligible impact'' in 50 CFR 216.103 as an
impact resulting from the specified activity that cannot be reasonably
expected to, and is not reasonably likely to, adversely affect the
species or stock through effects on annual rates of recruitment or
survival.
The MMPA states that the term ``take'' means to harass, hunt,
capture, kill or attempt to harass, hunt, capture, or kill any marine
mammal.
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2004
(Pub. L. 108-136) amended section 101(a)(5) of the MMPA to remove the
``small numbers'' and ``specified geographical region'' provisions and
amended the definition of ``harassment'' as applied to a ``military
readiness activity'' to read as follows (section 3(18)(B) of the MMPA):
(i) Any act that injures or has the significant potential to injure a
marine mammal or marine mammal stock in the wild (Level A Harassment);
or (ii) Any act that disturbs or is likely to disturb a marine mammal
or marine mammal stock in the wild by causing disruption of natural
behavioral patterns, including, but not limited to, migration,
surfacing, nursing, breeding, feeding, or sheltering, to a point where
such behavioral patterns are abandoned or significantly altered (Level
B Harassment). On August 13, 2018, the NDAA for Fiscal Year 2019 (Pub.
L. 115-232) amended the MMPA to allow incidental take regulations for
military readiness activities to be issued for up to 7 years.
Summary of Request
On April 6, 2025, NMFS received an application from the Navy
requesting authorization to take marine mammals, by Level A and Level B
harassment, incidental to training and testing (characterized as
military readiness activities) using SURTASS LFA sonar in the in the
western and central North Pacific Ocean and eastern Indian Ocean. In
response to our comments and following information exchange, the Navy
submitted a final revised application that we determined was adequate
and complete on July 1, 2025. The Navy requested the regulations and
subsequent LOA be valid for 7 years beginning in August 2026.
This will be the fifth time NMFS has promulgated incidental take
regulations pursuant to the MMPA relating to similar military readiness
activities using SURTASS LFA, following those effective from August 15,
2002 through August 15, 2007 (67 FR 46712, July 16, 2002), from August
16, 2007 through August 15, 2012 (72 FR 46846, August 21, 2007), from
August 15, 2012 through August 15, 2017 (77 FR 50290, August 20, 2012),
and from August 12, 2019 through August 11, 2026 (84 FR 40132, August
13, 2019). Of note, on August 10, 2017, the Secretary of Defense, after
conferring with the Secretary of Commerce, determined that it was
necessary for the national defense to exempt all military readiness
activities that use SURTASS LFA sonar from compliance with the
requirements of the MMPA for 2 years from August 13, 2017 through
August 12, 2019, or until such time when NMFS issues regulations and a
LOA under Title 16, Section 1371 for military readiness activities
associated with the use of SURTASS LFA sonar, whichever is earlier.
Description of the Specified Activity
The Navy proposes to continue utilizing SURTASS LFA sonar systems
onboard Ocean Surveillance Ships (hereafter T-AGOS) for training and
testing conducted under the authority of the Secretary of the Navy in
the western and central North Pacific and eastern Indian oceans. Please
refer to figure 2-1 of the application for a map of the Study Area. The
Navy currently has four T-AGOS surveillance ships equipped with SURTASS
LFA sonar systems and may develop and field additional SURTASS LFA
sonar equipped vessels, either to replace or complement the Navy's
current SURTASS LFA sonar capable fleet.
The Navy is proposing to use 1,100 hours of SURTASS LFA sonar per
year. The analysis for the current SURTASS LFA incidental take
regulations (84 FR 40132, August 13, 2019) analyzed the use of 592
hours. The change from 592 to 1,100 hours does not reflect new or
additional training requirements. Instead, it is the result of a change
in how the Navy counts an ``hour'' of transmission. Previously, SURTASS
LFA sonar hours were calculated by adding the portions of time a sonar
emits sound during its duty cycle (ratio of time the signal is on
compared to off), whereas other Navy sonar systems, such as mid-
frequency and high-frequency active sonar, report hours based on
``duration'' time (total time the source is active, including silent
periods between pings). To bring SURTASS LFA sonar in line with these
other systems, the Navy developed a conversion method that considers
various factors including LFA sonar pings, wave trains, and other
classified considerations. As a result, the 1,100 hours of annual
SURTASS LFA training proposed are equivalent to the 592 hours under the
previous counting method. The SURTASS LFA sonar transmission hours,
which are classified as military readiness activities pursuant to the
section 315(f) of Public Law 101-314 (16 U.S.C. 703), represent a
distribution across three activities that include:
<bullet> Training (i.e., contractor crew proficiency training,
military crew proficiency training, active training);
<bullet> Maintenance and upgrades (i.e., equipment maintenance
checks and performance evaluations); and
<bullet> Exercises (e.g., Valiant Shield, Rim of the Pacific
(RIMPAC)).
The application includes proposed mitigation measures for marine
mammals that would be implemented during SURTASS LFA sonar training and
testing activities (see section 11 of the application). Proposed
activity-based mitigation would generally involve: the use of one or
more trained Lookouts, as well as passive acoustics and active
acoustics, to detect specific biological resources within a mitigation
zone, as well as requirements to implement mitigation (e.g., halt an
activity). Mitigation measures are also proposed for specific
geographic mitigation areas and consist of a variety of measures
including: limiting received levels of sound within a fixed distance
from any emergent land (12 nautical miles (nmi; 22 kilometer (km)) and
offshore biologically important areas (OBIAs; 0.54 nmi (1 km)), and
restricting the amount of SURTASS LFA sonar activities conducted within
or near OBIAs in a given year.
The Navy also proposes to undertake monitoring and reporting
efforts to better understand the impacts of their activities on marine
mammals and their habitat.
Information Solicited
Interested persons may submit information, suggestions, and
comments
[[Page 30879]]
concerning the Navy's request (see ADDRESSES). NMFS will consider all
information, suggestions, and comments related to the request during
the development of proposed regulations governing the incidental taking
of marine mammals by the Navy, if appropriate.
Dated: July 9, 2025.
Kimberly Damon-Randall,
Director, Office of Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries
Service.
[FR Doc. 2025-13000 Filed 7-10-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P
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