The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has received a request from the U.S. Navy for authorization to take marine mammals incidental to the training and testing activities conducted in the Northwest Training and Testing study area from November 2015 through November 2020. Pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act NMFS requests comments on its proposal to issue regulations and subsequent Letters of Authorization to the Navy to incidentally harass marine mammals.
The Navy has also requested that NMFS authorize modifications to watchstander requirements for observed behavior of marine mammals during Major Training Events in the Hawaii-Southern California Training and Testing, Atlantic Fleet Training and Testing, Mariana Islands Training and Testing, and Gulf of Alaska Training study areas. Modifications to the Navy watchstander requirements would require a revision to regulatory text in current regulations governing the taking and importing of marine mammals during testing and/or training activities in these study areas. There are no MTEs associated with Navy training and testing activities in the NWTT study area.
Comments and information on both requests must be received by NMFS no later than July 17, 2015
Click here to read NMFS’ Federal Register notice of these proposed actions.
