Hi all --  Just a reminder that the comment deadline for the U.S. Navy’s SURTASS LFA sonar system is next week.

Last week, the National Marine Fisheries Service proposed allowing use of the system, which produces high-intensity, low-frequency sound, within some 70 percent of the world’s oceans.  This proposal would undo most of the mitigation that has governed the system’s use for the last 5 years -- including a court order that significantly restricted where the Navy could operate (mostly to pelagic areas of the western Pacific), in order to avoid important habitat for marine mammals.  NMFS’ proposal would also allow the Navy to double the number of systems in the water, from two to four.

NMFS is giving the public only 15 days to comment on its proposal.  The deadline is **this Tuesday, July 24th.**

Among the topics for comment:

Ø Mitigation that NMFS should require.  As it stands, NMFS’ proposal would reduce the Navy’s current coastal exclusion zone from 30nm to 12nm, and, with very few exceptions (the Costa Rica Dome, the Gully off Nova Scotia, an area in the Antarctic), would not proscribe use of the system in any offshore area outside the U.S.

Ø The effectiveness of the Navy’s monitoring system.  NMFS and the Navy claim that the monitoring system is close to 100% effective at detecting all species of marine mammals approaching 1 km of the ship.

Ø Impacts of ocean noise and low-frequency sound on marine mammals.

NMFS’ proposal is available at www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/permits/lfa_proposedrule0707.pdf. Comments should be emailed to P. Michael Payne at PR1.062306A@noaa.gov. 

If you have any thoughts or questions, please feel free to email me directly.

Many thanks,

Michael

Michael Jasny

Senior Policy Analyst

Natural Resources Defense Council

4479 W. 5th Avenue

Vancouver, BC  V6R1S4

tel. 604-736-9386

fax 310-434-2399

mjasny@nrdc.org

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