NOAA Fisheries will issue seven-year regulations under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) to govern the incidental take of marine mammals by the U.S. Navy’s Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System Low Frequency Active (SURTASS LFA) sonar training and testing activities in the central and western North Pacific and eastern Indian Oceans from August 2019 to August 2026.

This will be NOAA Fisheries’ fourth rulemaking for Navy SURTASS LFA sonar training and testing activities under the MMPA. NOAA Fisheries’ final regulations and the subsequent Letter of Authorization, as well as the ESA Biological Opinion, include required mitigation and monitoring measures that are expected to reduce adverse impacts to marine mammals.

The Navy’s SURTASS LFA sonar activities are likely to result in the incidental take of marine mammals by exposing them to sonar. The takes authorized by this action are Level B harassment in the form of behavioral disturbance and temporary threshold shift. No Level A harassment or serious injury or mortality is expected or authorized.  

Please visit our SURTASS LFA sonar webpage for more information on this action or https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/node/23111 for more information on NOAA’s incidental take program under the MMPA.