Takes of Marine Mammals Incidental to Specified Activities; Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to the Duckabush Estuary Restoration Project in Washington

What it does

NMFS, upon request from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) issues this final rule pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), to govern the taking of marine mammals incidental to the Duckabush Estuary Restoration Project (DERP) in Hood Canal, Washington over 5 years (2027-2032). This final rule, which allows for the issuance of a 5-year letter of authorization (LOA) allowing for the incidental take of marine mammals during the described activities and timeframes, prescribes the permissible methods of taking and other means of effecting the least practicable adverse impact on marine mammal species and their habitat, and establishes requirements pertaining to the monitoring and reporting of such taking.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's summary, as published in the Federal Register.

What changed in the regulation

1 part of Title 50 of the Code of Federal Regulations:

50 CFR 217

Compared with

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has published 185 final rules in 2026 so far, compared with 184 in all of 2025.

Counted by the Tribune from Federal Register records since Jan. 1, 2025.

Before this

1 earlier Federal Register document under regulation identifier 0648-BN42 since Jan. 1, 2025.

• Aug. 15, 2025 Proposed rule, request for comments. Takes of Marine Mammals Incidental to Specified Activities; Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to the Duckabush Estuary Restoration Project in Washington

What happens next and when

Effective from July 9, 2027, through July 8, 2032.

The agency's dates, word for word.

Check it yourself

• The document in the Federal Register
• Docket NOAA-NMFS-2025-0636 on Regulations.gov
• Title 50 on eCFR

The record as published

Source: the Federal Register (public domain). The document in the Federal Register