Documents › Agency rules › 2026-07536
Commerce Department, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Taking and Importing Marine Mammals; Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to Geophysical Surveys in the Gulf of America
Published April 17, 2026. Takes effect April 20, 2026. printed at 91 FR 20784. amending 50 CFR 217.
Some work at sea can disturb sea mammals. This sets the terms for that.
What the Rule Says It Does
In accordance with the regulations implementing the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), as amended, notification is hereby given that NMFS promulgates regulations to govern the incidental taking of marine mammals during geophysical survey activity conducted in the Gulf of America (GOA), over the course of 5 years. These regulations, which allow for the issuance of Letters of Authorization (LOA) to survey operators for the incidental take of marine mammals during the described activities and specified timeframe, prescribe the permissible methods of taking and other means of effecting the least practicable adverse impact on marine mammal species or stocks and their habitat, as well as requirements pertaining to the monitoring and reporting of such taking.
This is the rule's own summary, as the Federal Register prints it.
The Order It Names
The rule names this order itself. What it does about it is a reading, and none is recorded here.
- The rule itself
Commerce Department, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “Taking and Importing Marine Mammals; Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to Geophysical Surveys in the Gulf of America,” 91 FR 20784 (April 17, 2026). Effective April 20, 2026.
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/04/17/2026-07536/taking-and-importing-marine-mammals-taking-marine-mammals-incidental-to-geophysical-surveys-in-the - This page
“Taking and Importing Marine Mammals; Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to Geophysical Surveys in the Gulf of America,” a final rule naming an order indexed here. Read the Mandate, https://readthemandate.org/rules/rule-2026-07536/ (retrieved August 26, 2026).
Cite the document when the claim is about what the document says. Cite this page when the indexing, the wording or the record of what has happened is what is being relied on.
How This Rule Is Quoted
Federal Register documents are United States government works and are not under copyright. The summary is quoted as printed and the rule itself is one click away, because an index is not a mirror.