NOAA clears Atlantic survey with marine mammal limits

In Washington, NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service, or NMFS, issued Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory an incidental harassment authorization under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, or MMPA. The legal tool is narrow by design. It lets a lawful activity go forward even if it may incidentally disturb marine mammals, as long as federal limits are built around the work.

Effective date: June 16, 2026

Here, the activity is a marine geophysical survey off the Eastern North American Margin in the Western Central Atlantic Ocean. That kind of survey is used to gather information about the seafloor, and NOAA’s authorization applies only to that project, not to marine research in general.

A legal box around the work

The point of the authorization is not to give researchers free rein. Under the MMPA, NOAA can allow the incidental, unintentional taking of small numbers of marine mammals by harassment, but it also has to spell out the methods and safeguards that come with the approval.

That means the survey can proceed only within the conditions NOAA set to reduce harm and track what happens in the water. The real-world effect is a tradeoff the law is built to make: room for research, but not a blank check over marine life.

A one-year window

The authorization lasts for one year from the date Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory is notified, and it cannot run longer than one year from June 16, 2026. After that, the permission expires.

For readers, the practical meaning is simple. NOAA is allowing incidental disturbance inside a defined legal box, while the broader protections for marine mammals remain in place.

Agency: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce. Effective date: June 16, 2026 Contact: Jenna Harlacher • Office of Protected Resources, NMFS • (301) 427-8401