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: * 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. * 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. * 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 PRIVILEGE AND CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE This message is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged, confidential, and exempt from disclosure under applicable law as attorney-client and work-product confidential or otherwise confidential communications. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication or other use of a transmission received in error is strictly prohibited. If you have received this transmission in error, immediately notify me at the above telephone number.