Mammal Relief

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is proposing to relax requirements on the Navy for obtaining regulatory authorizations allowing unintentional harassing or harming of marine mammals due to training activities across 12 of the service's water ranges, Defense Environment Alert reports today. Further:

While the regulator says the change is "technical" in nature, one major environmental group sees it as undermining the regulator's review of Navy impacts and plans to file critical comments on the proposal, according to a source with the group.

At issue is a proposed rule the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Fisheries Service published in the Federal Register Nov. 15, saying it wants to modify regulations it issued between January 2009 and May 2011. These are five-year regulations governing Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) unintentional "takes," or harassing, harming or killing, of marine mammals incidental to Navy training, at 12 ranges. Activities that can cause takes include use of active sonar systems and explosive munitions on the ranges. The proposed rule change also would affect five-year MMPA regulations governing unintentional takings of marine mammals incidental to Air Force space vehicle and test flight activities out of Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA, the proposed rule says. Under the existing rules, NOAA Fisheries has to issue "Letters of Authorization" (LOAs) annually allowing for negligible takes of a marine mammal species by the military for specific activities.

But NOAA Fisheries now says it wants to change these rules to respond to Navy requests for flexibility.

"Since the issuance of the rules, the Navy realized that their evolving training programs, which are linked to real world events, necessitate greater flexibility in the types and amounts of sound sources that they use," NOAA Fisheries writes in the proposed rule. As a result, it is proposing to amend its regulations governing the 12 Navy ranges to both allow for more flexibility within the authorizations it grants and to grant LOAs with longer periods of validity than the standard one-year authorization, the agency says. . . .

The changes would affect the Hawaii Range Complex, Southern California Range Complex, Atlantic Fleet Active Sonar Training Study Area, Jacksonville Range Complex, Virginia Capes Range Complex, Cherry Point Range Complex, Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division, Mariana Islands Range Complex, Northwest Training Range Complex, Keyport Range Complex, Gulf of Mexico Range Complex and Gulf of Alaska Temporary Maritime Activities Area, the proposed rule says.

NOAA Fisheries has not decided on exactly how often the multi-year LOAs will be issued, although they will not surpass five years, according to NOAA Fisheries. "The ability to issue multi-year LOAs reduces administrative burdens on both [NOAA Fisheries] and the Navy," the proposed rule says. "In addition, multi-year LOAs would avoid situations where the last minute issuance of LOAs necessitated the commitment of extensive resources by the Navy for contingency planning." A NOAA Fisheries source says it can be difficult to get the LOAs issued in time and if there are any delays on NOAA's end, it requires the Navy to revert to expensive contingency plans.