Comments closed August 21
Stop harassment of polar bears and belugas in Arctic seas
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration · Beaufort Sea, Chukchi Sea
- What
- The Navy wants a ninth straight year of legal permission to disturb polar bears, ringed seals, and belugas in Arctic waters.
- Where
- Beaufort Sea, Chukchi Sea
- How much
- Polar bears, ringed seals, and beluga whales in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas face repeated disturbance from military research operations.
- Decided
- Comments closed August 21, 2026. No decision document is on file yet.Date from Federal Register ↗, read July 23, 2026.
Where these four lines come from
- WhatOur plain-English read of the Federal Register 2026-14816 ↗. Check it against the agency’s own words under Case.
- WhereThe places and states the notice names, as PLAN read them.
- How muchThe first sentence of our What’s at risk read of the notice; the whole read is under Case.
- DecidedAugust 21, 2026, from Federal Register, the document’s comment close date (federalregister.gov) ↗. Read July 23, 2026. The decision document is the one on file in PLAN’s record.
- Read from PLAN’s record November 9, 2026.
Kimberly Damon-Randall
Director, Office of Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries Service
A person signed this, not an agency. The window has closed and the signature stands, which is exactly when accountability matters.
NOAA Fisheries Directorate
Assistant Administrator of Fisheries
Short is better. You are asking the Assistant Administrator of Fisheries to answer for a decision their office made.
My name is [your name] and I'm calling from [your city and state]. Kimberly Damon-Randall, Director, Office of Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries Service, signed the decision on Stop harassment of polar bears and belugas in Arctic seas. I'm asking the NOAA Fisheries Directorate to withdraw that decision and require full environmental review before anything proceeds. Please record that I called and tell me what the office intends to do.
Official channels only, about this decision. No personal phone numbers, no home addresses, no personal social accounts, and nothing abusive. The point is to make the office answer, and an abusive call is the one thing that lets it off the hook.
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.
No decision document is on PLAN’s record for this fight yet. When the agency’s decision lands, what it answered goes here.
Affects public lands
The Navy wants a ninth straight year of legal permission to disturb polar bears, ringed seals, and belugas in Arctic waters.
What’s at risk
If this goes through
Our plain-English read of the official notice ↗. Check it against the agency’s own words below.
In the agency’s own words
NMFS has received a request from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) for authorization to take marine mammals incidental to Arctic Research Activities (ARA) in the Beaufort Sea and eastern Chukchi Sea. Pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), NMFS is requesting comments on its proposal to issue an incidental harassment authorization (IHA) to incidentally take marine mammals during the specified activity. NMFS is also requesting comments on a possible one- time, 1-year renewal that could be issued under certain circumstances and if all requirements are met, as described in Request for Public Comments at…
Who signs it
Kimberly Damon-Randall
Director, Office of Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries Service
Where the notice says so
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.
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