U.S. Fleet Forces Command’s Marine Species Monitoring Program Team has won the SECNAV Environmental Award for 2026 Natural Resources Conservation – Team Award

The U.S. Fleet Forces Command’s Marine Species Monitoring Program Team has won the SECNAV 2026 Natural Resources Conservation - Team Award. This award recognizes outstanding achievements in environmental programs that support mission sustainment, regulatory compliance, and long-term operational readiness.

“I am very proud of our Marine Species Monitoring team winning this award,” said Rear Adm. Jorge Cuadros, U.S. Fleet Forces Installations and Environmental Director and Commander, Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Atlantic. “The team’s goal is to support Navy regulatory requirements and environmental stewardship responsibilities which enable fleet readiness by ensuring required mitigation measures balance benefits to marine species conservation and conducting realistic training and testing.”

The Navy is responsible for compliance with federal environmental laws and regulations including the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA) that apply to marine mammals and other protected species. As part of the regulatory compliance process associated with these Acts, the Navy monitors and reports environmental impacts of military readiness activities.

The Marine Species Monitoring Program Team consists of U.S. Navy civilians, contractors, and researchers beyond just those named in this award. The team’s purpose is to address these monitoring requirements by conducting a collection of studies intended to address questions about how marine species could be affected by Navy training and testing activities.

The U. S. Fleet Forces Marine Species Monitoring Program Manager, Laura Busch, expressed the importance of the program and her great pride in the team’s efforts.

“The Navy pulled together leaders in the scientific and academic fields to conduct these monitoring studies due to the importance of getting it right. The results of these studies not only help us develop mitigations used by our Sailors, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen to reduce impacts to protected marine resources while conducting training and testing, they also result in the best available science that is then used for renewing our environmental compliance documents and permits. I think the dual objectives of protecting the environment and supporting necessary military training provided the Team with a focused goal that has led to groundbreaking research.”

Specific projects highlighted in the award include the Atlantic Behavioral Response Study and the North Atlantic right whale (NARW) Protection and Conservation Project.

The Behavioral Response Study has been a testament to the successful collaboration between researchers, Navy civilians, and Navy ships. The use of operational Navy Destroyers in conjunction with tagged whales has been invaluable for understanding how military training may affect marine mammals.

Ron Filipowicz, U. S. Fleet Forces Acoustics/Operations Support Lead was responsible for coordinating and scheduling U.S. Navy ships to participate in the Behavioral Response Study. “The successful integration of an operational U.S. Navy Destroyer into the Behavioral Response Study is testament to the extensive and vital coordination between researchers and the U.S. Fleet Forces Team. This complex logistical undertaking, often planned over six months in advance, requires a multi-stage process of scheduling, assessing ship viability, and making real-time adjustments based on animal locations and weather. The Behavioral Response Study demonstrates a remarkable but challenging partnership to achieve critical scientific objectives.”

The Behavioral Response Study has successfully analyzed the affects of training and testing activities on protected species to provide the Navy and regulatory agencies with the information needed to effectively manage marine resources. Accomplishments include conducting controlled exposure experiments using U.S. Navy sonar sources, developing and utilizing experimental sonar sources to collect data when Navy sources are unavailable, and deploying satellite tags on high priority goose-beaked whales that collected tens of thousands of hours of movement and diving behavior.

Joel Bell, from Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) Atlantic, played a key role in the success of the Atlantic Behavioral Response Study.

“The Atlantic BRS project is an extremely challenging and complicated effort, but critical to informing the impact analyses that underly Navy’s environmental compliance for at-sea training and testing,” he said. “This is directly applicable to supporting the Navy’s mission by enabling all training and testing activities.”

The North Atlantic right whale, which is critically endangered, overlaps with important Navy training ranges and it is critical to understand their behavior and movement patterns to reduce interactions between Navy ships and the species. Accomplishments of the NARW Protection and Conservation Project include deploying passive acoustic monitoring buoys to listen for the whales, conducting aerial and vessel surveys, and deploying tags on the whales to collect important data that informs mariners of real-time presence and is used to establish protective slow zones.

Jackie Bort, also from NAVFAC Atlantic, said

“The program contributes not only to public awareness of the North Atlantic right whale but perhaps changing how scientists and regulators prioritize the habitat area as well. As far as the public goes, it’s true that a lot of people are pleasantly surprised to hear how extensive the Navy’s efforts and contributions towards good science and stewardship go. Another important aspect is ‘in-reach’. Our right whale efforts are helping Navy sailors and aviators understand the steps they should take to be good stewards while training at sea, and I have found that they are always very interested and excited to contribute to efforts protecting this species.”

The Marine Species Monitoring Program Team is making a profound impact on marine conservation through the extensive data that is collected by their projects. The information gathered from these innovative studies is invaluable in protecting marine species and ensuring unfettered access to critical sea space so that Navy training and testing can be successfully performed within the many operating areas located in the Atlantic Ocean, and around the world. This team being selected for the SECNAV Environmental Award recognizes the important work they do and demonstrates how the Navy prioritizes expanding environmental science while also supporting required training and testing actions.