Whales and dolphins live by sound. They use it to find prey, stay with their groups, avoid danger, communicate across distance, and move through dark water.

Military sonar can overwhelm that world.

The U.S. Navy uses powerful active sonar during training and testing. These activities are tied to national defense, but they also carry known risks for marine mammals. Under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, NOAA Fisheries may authorize the incidental “take” of marine mammals if legal standards are met. NOAA explains that these authorizations can apply to underwater sound from military sonar and training exercises.

That legal process should not become a blank check.

Military sonar can disrupt essential marine mammal behavior.

Federal Authorizations Cover Huge Ocean Areas

NOAA Fisheries lists active and proposed military readiness authorizations across multiple regions, including Hawaii-California, the Atlantic, the Mariana Islands, the Gulf of Alaska, and the western and central North Pacific. Some authorizations last seven years.

A 2026 Federal Register notice states that the Navy requested authorization for Level A and Level B harassment from Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System Low Frequency Active sonar. The request covered 44 marine mammal species for behavioral harassment and nine species for potential injury-level harassment.

The same notice discusses possible mitigation, including geographic limits, monitoring, reporting, and adaptive management. Those tools matter. But they must be strong enough to protect animals before harm occurs.

Whales and dolphins rely on sound for survival.

The Science Shows Real Risk

NOAA Fisheries has reported that beaked whale strandings in the Mariana Archipelago may be associated with sonar. Researchers identified eight beaked whale stranding events between 2007 and 2019. Three occurred during or within six days after anti-submarine training activities, and the likelihood of coincidence was reported as less than 1 percent.

Beaked whales are especially hard to study. They dive deep. They spend little time at the surface. Injured animals may never wash ashore.

That means the absence of visible deaths does not prove safety.

A peer-reviewed review in Frontiers in Marine Science found strong evidence that whales, dolphins, and porpoises can be affected by military sound. It also noted that effects may occur at lower sound levels than previously expected.

Sonar risk is especially serious for deep-diving beaked whales.

Better Safeguards Are Possible

Military readiness matters. So does the duty to prevent avoidable harm.

The Navy and NOAA Fisheries should expand sonar-free zones in biologically important habitat. They should require seasonal restrictions during migration, feeding, breeding, and calving periods. They should mandate real-time passive acoustic monitoring, stronger visual monitoring, lower sonar intensity where feasible, and transparent public reporting after strandings, injuries, or vessel strikes.

A Honolulu Civil Beat report on Navy training impacts in Hawaiʻi noted continued concern over hearing loss and other injuries from some exercises. That is exactly why stronger oversight is needed.

The Marine Mammal Center explains that the Marine Mammal Protection Act exists to protect whales, dolphins, seals, sea lions, manatees, sea otters, and other marine mammals from human-caused decline. That purpose must remain central when federal agencies approve military activities in the ocean.

Whales and dolphins cannot petition the government. People must do it for them.

The Navy and NOAA should make military sonar training safer now, before more protected marine mammals are injured, displaced, or lost.

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