50 C.F.R. § 218.235 — Requirements for monitoring and reporting.

(a)

Notification of take. If the Navy reasonably believes that the specified activity identified in § 218.230 resulted in the mortality or serious injury of any marine mammals, or in any Level A harassment or Level B harassment of marine mammals not identified in this subpart, then the Navy must notify NMFS immediately or as soon as operational security considerations allow.

(b)

Monitoring and reporting under the LOA. The Navy must conduct all monitoring and reporting required under the LOA.

(c)

Notification of injured, live stranded,— or dead marine mammals. Navy personnel must abide by the Notification and Reporting Plan, which sets out notification, reporting, and other requirements when dead, injured, or live stranded marine mammals are detected. The Notification and Reporting Plan is available at: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-mammal-protection/incidental-take-authorizations-military-readiness-activities.

(d)

Mitigation monitoring. The Navy must conduct all monitoring required under the LOA, including:

(1)

Visual observations. Visual observations must be conducted by trained Lookouts on the vessel's bridge using standard binoculars (7x) and the naked eye. Pedestal-mounted 'Big Eye' (20 x 110 mm) binoculars (if installed) must be used to assist in the detection of marine mammals in the vicinity of the vessel.

(i)

Lookouts must conduct visual monitoring from the vessel's bridge during all daylight hours (30 minutes before sunrise until 30 minutes after sunset);

(ii)

During training and testing activities that employ SURTASS LFA sonar in the active mode, Lookouts must conduct visual monitoring beginning 30 minutes before sunrise or 30 minutes before SURTASS LFA sonar begins to transmit and continue until 30 minutes after sunset or until 15 minutes after the SURTASS LFA sonar transmissions cease;

(iii)

Lookouts must log all detections of marine mammals during SURTASS LFA sonar transmissions during training and testing activities;

(iv)

Lookouts must record the number, identification, bearing, and range of observed marine mammals during training and testing activities, and must identify marine mammals to the lowest taxonomic level possible; and

(v)

Lookouts must continue visual observations until 15 minutes have passed since the last detection of the marine mammal.

(2)

Passive Acoustic Monitoring. During activities specified in § 218.230(c) that employ SURTASS LFA sonar in the active mode, Navy personnel must conduct passive acoustic monitoring using the SURTASS towed horizontal line array to detect vocalizing marine mammals.

(i)

Passive acoustic monitoring must begin 30 minutes before the SURTASS LFA sonar begins to transmit and continue until 15 minutes after SURTASS LFA sonar transmissions cease; and

(ii)

If a detected sound is estimated to be from a vocalizing marine mammal, the sonar technician must notify the senior military member-in-charge, who must alert the HF/M3 sonar operator and Lookouts (during daylight).

(3)

Active Acoustic (HF/M3) Monitoring. During activities specified in § 218.230(c) that employ SURTASS LFA sonar in the active mode, Navy personnel must use the HF/M3 sonar to detect, locate, and track marine mammals in relation to the SURTASS LFA sonar array and the LFA mitigation zone, subject to the ramp-up requirements in § 218.234(e).

(i)

HF/M3 sonar monitoring must begin 30 minutes before the SURTASS LFA sonar begins to transmit and continue until 15 minutes after SURTASS LFA sonar transmissions cease; and

(ii)

If a marine mammal is detected during HF/M3 monitoring within the SURTASS LFA mitigation zone, the sonar operator must notify the senior military member-in-charge.

(4)

Cessation of Monitoring. Navy personnel must continue monitoring either for at least 15 minutes after completion of the SURTASS LFA sonar training and testing transmission or, if marine mammals are exhibiting unusual changes in behavioral patterns, until behavior patterns return to normal or conditions prevent continued observations.

(e)

Designation of qualified individuals. The Navy must designate qualified on-site individuals to conduct the mitigation, monitoring, and reporting activities specified in these regulations and LOA issued under §§ 216.106 of this chapter and 218.236.

(f)

Marine Mammal Monitoring Program. The Navy must continue to assess data from the Marine Mammal Monitoring Program and work toward making some portion of that data, after appropriate security reviews, available to scientists with appropriate clearances. Any portions of the analyses conducted by these scientists based on these data that are determined to be unclassified after appropriate security reviews will be made publicly available.

(g)

Annual Pacific SURTASS LFA Study Area marine species monitoring report. The Navy must submit an unclassified annual report (Annual Pacific SURTASS LFA Study Area Marine Species Monitoring Report) of the Study Area marine species monitoring describing the implementation and results from the previous calendar year. Data collection methods will be standardized across range complexes and the Study Area to allow for comparison in different geographic locations. The draft report must be submitted annually to the Director, Office of Protected Resources, NMFS. NMFS will submit any comments or questions on the report within 3 months of receipt. The report will be considered final after the Navy has addressed NMFS' comments, or 3 months after submittal of the draft if NMFS does not provide comments on the draft report. The report must describe progress of knowledge made with respect to new or continuing scientific knowledge of marine mammals.

(h)

Quick look reports. In the event that the sound source amount analyzed in the preambles of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) proposed rule (91 FR 11618, March 10, 2026) and this final rule are exceeded within a given reporting year, the Navy must submit a preliminary report detailing the exceedance within 21 days after the anniversary date of issuance of the LOA.

(i)

Annual Pacific SURTASS LFA training and testing report. The Navy must submit a classified and unclassified report (Annual Pacific SURTASS LFA Training and Testing Report) to the Director, Office of Protected Resources, NMFS, annually within 3 months of the 1-year anniversary of the date of the issuance of the LOA. For the final reporting year, the Navy must submit a final/close-out (year 7) Annual Pacific SURTASS LFA Training and Testing Report. NMFS will submit any comments or questions on the report within 1 month of receipt. The report will be considered final after the Navy has addressed NMFS' comments, or 1 month after submittal of the drafts if NMFS does not provide comments on the draft report.

(1)

Annual Reports. The Annual Pacific SURTASS LFA Training and Testing Report must include elements listed below. The analysis in the report must be based on the data from the current year's report and data collected from previous annual reports.

(i)

Dates, times, and locations of each vessel during each training and testing activity;

(ii)

Information on sonar transmissions during each training and testing activity, including—

(A)

Total annual hours or quantity of each bin of sonar used in all training and testing events,

(B)

Cumulative sonar use quantity from previous years' reports through the current year, and

(C)

Records of any sonar delays or suspensions due to the presence of marine mammals.

(iii)

Marine mammal detection information during specified activities where mitigation was implemented—

(A)

Date, time, and location of sighting;

(B)

Species (if not possible, indication of whale/dolphin/pinniped);

(C)

Number of individuals;

(D)

Initial Detection Sensor (e.g., visual, passive acoustic, HF/M3 sonar);

(E)

Indication of specific type of platform observation was made from (including, for example, what type of surface vessel or testing platform);

(F)

Length of time observers maintained visual contact with marine mammal;

(G)

Sea state;

(H)

Visibility;

(I)

Sound source in use at the time of sighting;

(J)

Indication of whether animal was less than 200 yd (182.9 m), 200 to 500 yd (182.9 to 457.2 m), 500 to 1,000 yd (457.2 to 914.4 m), 1,000 to 2,000 yd (914.4 m to 1.8 km), or greater than 2,000 yd (1.8 km) from sonar source;

(K)

Whether operation of sonar sensor was delayed, or sonar was powered or shut down, and the length of delay;

(L)

Bearing and range from the vessel; and

(M)

For visual observations, Lookouts must report the observed behavior of the animal(s) in plain language and without trying to categorize in any way (such as animal closing to bow ride, paralleling course/speed, floating on surface and not swimming, etc.) and if any calves were present.

(iv)

Delays or suspensions of LFA sonar transmissions due to mitigation monitoring protocol. Information on marine mammal detections would include marine mammal type (i.e., whales, dolphins) and/or species identifications, number of marine mammals detected, time of detections, type of detection (visual, passive acoustic, HF/M3 sonar), bearing and range from the vessel, abnormal behavior (if any), and remarks or narrative as necessary.

(v)

An evaluation (based on data gathered during the reporting year) of the effectiveness of mitigation measures designed to minimize the received level to which marine mammals may be exposed. This evaluation must identify the specific observations that support any conclusions the Navy reaches about the effectiveness of the mitigation.

(2)

Final/close-out report. The final/close-out report at the conclusion of the authorization period (year 7) will also serve as the comprehensive close-out report and provide the annual totals for each sound source bin with a comparison to the annual amount analyzed and the 7-year total for each sound source bin with a comparison to the 7-year amount analyzed.

(j)

National security requirement. If the Navy invokes the national security requirement described in § 218.234(f)(3), Navy personnel must include information about the event in its Annual Pacific SURTASS LFA Training and Testing Report.

§218.235. Requirements for monitoring and reporting.

Source

Authority

Source

Cite this provision

Incoming references