Oppose Takes of Marine Mammals Incidental to Specified Activities

What the proposal said, and what the decision did

No figure from the proposal has been checked against the decision on this fight yet. What the record does hold is the issues ledger below.

NMFS is proposing rules to allow Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to incidentally disturb or harass marine mammals while conducting fisheries research in Texas coastal bays over a 5-year period. The proposal sets conditions for how takes can occur, what mitigation measures must be followed, and how incidents must be monitored and reported. It affects marine mammal populations in Texas coastal waters, and the public can comment before any final authorization is issued.

In the agency’s own words

NMFS has received a request from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) for authorization to take marine mammals incidental to fisheries research in the coastal bays of Texas, over the course of 5 years from the issuance of a final rule and Letter of Authorization (LOA). Pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), NMFS proposes regulations setting forth permissible methods of taking, other means of effecting the least practicable adverse impact on such marine mammal stocks (i.e., mitigation measures), and requirements pertaining to monitoring and reporting such takes, and requests comments on the…

Federal Register 2026-05263 ↗

The groups on this fight

4 groups predicted likely to care in Texas

Predicted likely to care is a guess from the group's sourced work in Texas, with no link to this decision. Give straight to them; nothing routes through us.

• Big Bend Conservancy

  Predicted likely to care · a guess

  Big Bend National Park, Texas: A nonprofit partner of Big Bend National Park.

• Friends of Balcones Canyonlands NWR

  Predicted likely to care · a guess

  Works Texas: They work only in Texas.

• National Parks Conservation Association

  Predicted likely to care · a guess

  Padre Island National Seashore, Texas: Plaintiff in the challenge to the blanket Gulf oil and gas endangered species exemption, naming Padre Island among the threatened parks.

• Southern Environmental Law Center

  Predicted likely to care · a guess

  Padre Island National Seashore, Texas: Filed the D.C. Circuit challenge to the Gulf-wide exemption for the plaintiff coalition.

Every group above is on STAND for Public Lands, with its court record, its filings and who backs it.

Who signs it

The notice names no signer PLAN could read. PLAN names a decision-maker only when the document names one.

The ground

The window has closed, so there’s no watch to set on it here.

In court on this ground

This fight isn’t bound to a land unit in PLAN’s record yet, so there are no court cases to show for its ground.

Who holds the vote

PLAN’s record doesn’t tie a member of Congress to this fight yet. The scorecard grades the votes and bills that decide public lands; nothing joins a vote or a bill to this decision, so there’s no member to name here without guessing.