NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service is seeking public comment on a request by the U.S. Navy to operate its Low Frequency Active Sonar on the world's open oceans. The Navy's Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System Low Frequency Active Sonar uses an underwater sound source to locate submarines, and the agency wants to ensure the operation of the system has a negligible impact on marine mammals. Unique to this proposal, NOAA Fisheries and the Navy are proposing to establish "Offshore Biologically Important Areas (OBIAs)" in which the SURTASS LFA sonar ships would not operate. OBIAs are areas of the world's oceans where marine mammals congregate in high numbers to feed, migrate, breed and calve. To date, the U.S.
