Environment

The U.S. Navy is committed to protecting the marine environment. The Navy partners with federal agencies, universities, research institutions, federal laboratories, and private researchers around the world to better understand marine species ecology and physiology and adheres to mitigations measures that avoid or reduce effects of training on marine resources.  The Navy shares these mitigation measures with joint and coalition forces during RIMPAC.

The Navy uses a tool called Protective Measure Assessment Protocol, which is a Geographic Information System– based mapping tool that serves as the Navy’s comprehensive data source for at-sea mitigations. These mitigations include:

• Establishing activity-based mitigation zones
• Posting qualified lookouts to visually observe mitigation zones for marine species prior to and during activities
• Maneuvering vessels and/or reducing speed, to maintain distance from observed marine species
• Implementing geographic mitigation areas with seasonal, monthly, or year-round restrictions

The U.S. Navy is a world leader in marine species research and monitoring, having funded marine research programs, surveys, and data collection efforts since 1992, and is dedicated to protecting the marine and coastal environments as it trains and tests. Environmental effects of RIMPAC and other Navy training activities in the Hawaiian Islands are comprehensively analyzed in the Hawaii-California Training and Testing Environmental Impact Statement, available at https://www.nepa.navy.mil/hctteis/.