NAVY MARINE SPECIES MONITORING

The Navy is responsible for compliance with a suite of Federal environmental laws and regulations that apply to marine mammals and other marine protected species, including the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). As part of the regulatory compliance process associated with these Acts, the Navy is responsible for meeting specific requirements for monitoring and reporting on military readiness activities involving active sonar and underwater detonations from explosives and explosive munitions. These military readiness activities include Fleet training events and Navy-funded research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) activities... A set of individual range complex monitoring plans were initially developed to address the monitoring requirements of the ESA and MMPA across the various geographic regions where the Navy trains. These plans were designed as a collection of broad "studies" intended to address questions such as whether or not marine..