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Keep Dangerous Sonar Testing Out of Critical Whale and Dolphin Habitat

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Sponsor: Free The Ocean

Military readiness should not come at the cost of injured, deafened, or stranded whales and dolphins.

Dolphins swimming underwater near the surface in open ocean.

Whales and dolphins depend on sound to feed, communicate, migrate, and survive. Powerful military sonar can disrupt those essential behaviors, and federal records show the Navy has sought repeated authorization to incidentally “take” marine mammals during training and testing activities.1

NOAA Fisheries has active or proposed military readiness authorizations across major ocean training areas, including Hawaii-California, the Atlantic, the Mariana Islands, and the western and central North Pacific. These approvals can last seven years and may allow Level A and Level B harassment of protected marine mammals.1

The Risk Is Not Theoretical

NOAA-linked research found a strong connection between sonar activity and beaked whale strandings in the Mariana Archipelago. Researchers identified multiple stranding events and reported that some occurred during or shortly after anti-submarine training activity.2,5

Scientific research has also found that whales, dolphins, and porpoises can be affected by military sound at lower levels than previously expected. The absence of visible strandings does not mean animals were unharmed, especially in remote areas where dead or injured animals may never be found.3

Safer Training Is Possible

NOAA’s own incidental take process requires mitigation, monitoring, and reporting to reduce harm. Recent federal notices already discuss geographic limits, passive acoustic monitoring, visual monitoring, and adaptive management for Navy sonar activities.4

Those safeguards should be stronger. The Navy and NOAA should expand sonar-free areas in sensitive habitat, use real-time acoustic monitoring, avoid high-risk seasons, reduce sonar intensity where possible, and require transparent public reporting when protected animals are injured, stranded, or killed.

Sign the petition urging the Navy and NOAA Fisheries to adopt stronger protections before more whales and dolphins are harmed by military sonar.

More on this issue:

  1. NOAA Fisheries, NOAA Fisheries (4 February 2026), "Incidental Take Authorizations Under the Marine Mammal Protection Act."
  2. National Marine Fisheries Service, Federal Register (10 March 2026), "Takes of Marine Mammals Incidental to Specified Activities."
  3. NOAA Fisheries, NOAA Fisheries (19 February 2020), "Beaked Whale Strandings in the Mariana Archipelago May Be Associated with Sonar."
  4. E.C.M. Parsons et al., Frontiers in Marine Science (12 September 2017), "Impacts of Navy Sonar on Whales and Dolphins."
  5. Marcel Honoré, Honolulu Civil Beat (29 December 2025), "New Navy Report Gauges Training Disruption Of Hawaiʻi’s Marine Mammals."

The Petition

Secretary of the Navy and Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries,

I am writing to urge you to strengthen protections for whales, dolphins, and other marine mammals during military sonar training and testing activities.

The need for national defense does not erase the responsibility to prevent avoidable harm to protected wildlife. Whales and dolphins rely on sound to navigate, communicate, feed, avoid danger, and care for their young. When powerful sonar enters critical habitat, it can disrupt the very senses these animals need to survive.

Federal records show that Navy training and testing activities can result in authorized incidental take of marine mammals, including harassment that may disturb behavior or cause injury. NOAA Fisheries has also recognized that military sonar and training exercises are among the activities that may require incidental take authorization under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Scientific evidence has linked sonar activity to beaked whale strandings in the Mariana Archipelago, and broader research shows that whales, dolphins, and porpoises may be affected by military sound at levels lower than previously expected. These risks demand stronger safeguards, not routine approvals that rely on minimal mitigation.

I urge the Navy and NOAA Fisheries to require stronger protections before authorizing or conducting sonar-based military readiness activities. These protections should include expanded seasonal exclusion zones in biologically important habitat, real-time passive acoustic monitoring, stronger visual monitoring requirements, reduced sonar intensity where feasible, transparent reporting of injuries and strandings, and adaptive management that responds quickly when new science shows greater risk.

These steps do not ask the military to abandon readiness. They ask federal agencies to plan training with care, science, and restraint. Marine mammals should not be treated as acceptable collateral damage when safer practices are available.

Humanity and compassion must guide decisions that affect intelligent, social animals in shared ocean ecosystems. Whales and dolphins cannot speak in public comment periods, challenge permits, or demand safer oceans. That responsibility belongs to us.

Please use your authority to make military sonar training safer for marine mammals and the ocean habitats they depend on. These actions will ensure a better future for all.

Sincerely,

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