[PUBLISH]

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT

________________________

No. 12-15680

________________________

D.C. Docket No. 2:10-cv-00014-LGW-JEG

DEFENDERS OF WILDLIFE, et al., 

 Plaintiffs/Appellants,

versus

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY, et al., 

 Defendants/Appellees.

________________________

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Southern District of Georgia

________________________

(October 1, 2013)

Before TJOFLAT and WILSON, Circuit Judges, and COOGLER,* District Judge.

COOGLER, District Judge: 

I. INTRODUCTION

 

* Honorable L. Scott Coogler, United States District Judge for the Northern District of 

Alabama, sitting by designation.

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Appellants, Defenders of Wildlife, the Humane Society of the United States, 

Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, Natural Resources Defense Council, 

Center for a Sustainable Coast, Florida Wildlife Federation, South Carolina 

Coastal Conservation League, North Carolina Wildlife Federation, Animal Welfare 

Institute, Ocean Mammal Institute, Citizens Opposing Active Sonar Threats, and 

Cetacean Society International (hereinafter, “Appellants”), appeal the district 

court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Appellees, the United States 

Department of the Navy, Secretary of the Navy, National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service, and Secretary, 

United States Department of Commerce. In this appeal, Appellants challenge the 

United States Department of the Navy’s (“the Navy’s”) decision to install and 

operate an instrumented Undersea Warfare Training Range (“USWTR” or “the 

range”) fifty nautical miles offshore of the Florida/Georgia border in waters 

adjacent to the only known calving grounds of the endangered North Atlantic right 

whale, and the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (“NMFS’s”) biological opinion 

assessing the impacts of the USWTR on threatened and endangered species. This 

action is predicated on alleged violations of the National Environmental Policy 

Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 4321 et seq. (“NEPA”), the Endangered Species Act, 16 U.S.C. 

§§ 1531 et seq. (“ESA”), and the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. §§ 701-

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706 (“APA”), in analyzing and approving the USWTR. We have jurisdiction 

pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we AFFIRM.

II. BACKGROUND

A. The Navy’s Need for the USWTR

The Navy has used instrumented undersea ranges to train its personnel since 

the 1960s. These ranges allow shore-based operators to evaluate the performance 

of the participants and to provide feedback in both real time and later replays of the 

exercises. In 1996, the Navy published a Notice of Intent to build such a range 

somewhere in the Atlantic to more effectively train its personnel in shallow-water 

anti-submarine warfare. Training in shallow water is important because the 

Navy’s Atlantic fleet is deployed to many shallow-water environments worldwide, 

and this range would be the first designed especially for shallow-water training. 

B. The National Environmental Policy Act

The Navy then began the process of complying with its statutory mandates, 

including the two environmental statutes relevant here, NEPA and the ESA. 

NEPA was designed to infuse environmental considerations into government 

decision-making. See 40 C.F.R. § 1501.1 (explaining NEPA’s purpose). See also 

Wilderness Watch & Pub. Emps. for Envtl. Responsibility v. Mainella, 375 F.3d 

1085, 1094 (11th Cir. 2004) (“NEPA essentially forces federal agencies to 

document the potential environmental impacts of significant decisions before they 

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are made, thereby ensuring that environmental issues are considered by the agency 

and that important information is made available to the larger audience that may 

help to make the decision or will be affected by it.”) (citing Robertson v. Methow 

Valley Citizens Council, 490 U.S. 332, 349, 109 S. Ct. 1835, 1845, 104 L.Ed.2d 

351 (1989)). “NEPA imposes procedural requirements rather than substantive 

results, and so long as an agency has taken a ‘hard look’ at the environmental 

consequences, a reviewing court may not impose its preferred outcome on the 

agency.” Wilderness Watch, 375 F.3d at 1094 (citing Fund for Animals, Inc. v. 

Rice, 85 F.3d 535, 546 (11th Cir. 1996)). 

To ensure a well-considered decision, NEPA requires that when a federal 

agency proposes a “major Federal action[] significantly affecting the quality of the 

human environment,” it must prepare and file an environmental impact statement 

(“EIS”) that examines the environmental impact or impacts of the proposed action, 

compares the action to other alternatives, and discusses means to mitigate any 

adverse environmental impacts. 42 U.S.C. § 4332(C). Preparing an EIS requires 

several steps, the first of which is determining whether one is needed. If the 

agency finds, based on a less formal “environmental assessment,” that the 

proposed action will not significantly affect the environment, the agency is 

permitted to issue a “Finding of No Significant Impact” in lieu of an EIS. 40 

C.F.R. §§ 1501.4, 1508.9, 1508.13. However, when an EIS is required, the federal 

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agency first prepares a draft EIS and solicits public comments. Id. § 1503.1. The 

agency must then “assess and consider” the comments in drafting the final EIS and 

publish a notice of availability of the final EIS in the Federal Register. Id. §§ 

1503.4, 1506.10(b). When the agency makes its final decision regarding the 

proposed action and alternatives discussed in the final EIS, the agency prepares “a 

concise public record of decision” identifying the agency’s action and the 

alternatives it considered. Id. § 1505.2. The record of decision (“ROD”) states 

what the decision was, identifies all alternatives considered by the agency, and 

states whether all practicable means to avoid or minimize environmental harm 

from the alternative selected have been adopted, and if not, why not. Id. After 

issuing the ROD, the agency is then authorized to implement its decision. Id. § 

1506.1. 

C. The Navy’s NEPA Compliance 

The Navy originally considered four alternative sites for the range: the Gulf 

of Maine, near Wallops Island, Virginia, off the coast of North Carolina, and 

offshore of Charleston, South Carolina. Pursuant to NEPA, the Navy released a 

draft EIS in 2005 proposing to build the USWTR off the coast of North Carolina

but then issued a revised draft EIS three years later, changing the proposed range

site to fifty nautical miles offshore of Jacksonville, Florida, in a Navy training area 

known as the Jacksonville Operating Area. Several factors prompted the Navy’s 

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decision to relocate the proposed site for the range. The Navy had closed the 

Naval Air Station in Brunswick, Maine and had relocated several maritime aircraft 

squadrons to Naval Air Station Jacksonville in 2005, with the result that five fleet 

squadrons, one fleet replacement squadron, and all of the East Coast antisubmarine warfare helicopters were then based at either Naval Air Station 

Jacksonville or Naval Station Mayport. Further, Florida has been a fleet 

concentration area since before World War II and has one of the largest Atlantic 

fleet assemblages of ships, aircraft and personnel. 

The Navy concluded that co-locating the range facility in the same area as 

the primary user represented the greatest efficiency in applying limited resources to 

support training. The Navy also concluded that locating the proposed range in the 

Jacksonville Operating Area would provide the required shallow-water 

environment and would be available for training given the climate. Finally, the 

Navy has conducted anti-submarine warfare training in the Jacksonville Operating 

Area for more than sixty years with its training there already the subject of 

previous comprehensive environmental review and analyses pursuant to NEPA and 

the ESA. 

After soliciting and receiving public comment on the revised draft EIS, the 

Navy issued its final EIS in 2009 for the installation and operation of the range at 

the Jacksonville Operating Area. The range will consist of undersea, fiber optic 

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telecommunications cables and up to 300 nodes over a 500-square-nautical-mile 

area of ocean. The nodes will transmit and receive acoustic signals from ships and 

submarines operating within the range, thus allowing the position of exercise 

participants to be determined and stored electronically for real-time feedback and 

future evaluation. The latest projections are that construction will begin in fiscal 

year 2014, with the range partially functional in 2018 and fully operational in 

2023. 

The Navy’s final EIS fully analyzed the environmental impacts of both 

constructing and operating the range. In analyzing the impacts of constructing the 

range, the Navy took a hard look at that portion of the critical habitat for the North 

Atlantic right whale, an endangered species, which is located off the coast of 

Florida, 35 nautical miles inshore of the proposed range. Only 300 to 400 North 

Atlantic right whales remain, and each fall, females return to the waters off 

Georgia and Florida to give birth to their calves before migrating north to their 

feeding grounds in the spring. Because the area offshore Georgia and Florida is 

the species’ only known calving ground, regulations have been adopted in adjacent 

waters to protect right whales from threats of fishing gear entanglement and ship 

collisions. The Navy’s EIS noted that the only construction that will take place in 

the right whale’s critical habitat is installation of the trunk cable connecting the 

range with the onshore cable termination facility at Mayport. Cable installation 

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will be suspended during the right whale calving season, and the trunk cable will 

be buried. The Navy thus concluded that any impacts of constructing the range 

will be minimal, and none of the Navy’s analyses of that part of the range project is 

challenged in this appeal. 

The EIS also fully analyzed the expected impacts of operating the range for 

anti-submarine warfare training when deciding when and where to build it. A wide 

range of ships, submarines, and aircraft that already conduct anti-submarine 

warfare training in the Jacksonville Operating Area will be the users of the range. 

The most frequent expected users of the range will be Navy helicopters and aircraft 

based in Mayport and Jacksonville, not submarines or surface vessels. The Navy 

analyzed the expected environmental impacts of the 470 exercises expected to 

occur annually on the range, including the impacts to endangered and threatened 

species such as right whales and various species of sea turtles. 

The Navy examined the risks of operating the range at each of the four 

alternative sites studied,

1 including the impacts from ship strikes, entanglements, 

and the use of sonar. The Navy’s analysis of the impacts from operations was 

informed by its previous analyses of the impacts of its ongoing anti-submarine 

warfare training in the Jacksonville Operating Area. For example, with respect to 

 

1 Specifically, the Navy compared the Jacksonville Operating Area location with sites off 

the coast of South Carolina, off the coast of North Carolina, and off the coast of Virginia. The 

Maine location that was originally proposed was abandoned after the Navy closed its air station 

there.

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ship strikes, the Navy determined that because the range will be used by vessels 

and aircraft that already conduct anti-submarine warfare training in the 

Jacksonville Operating Area, the range is not expected to increase ship traffic in 

the area, including traffic across right whale habitat. Appellants do not challenge 

these substantive conclusions in the Navy’s EIS in this appeal.

D. The Endangered Species Act

In addition to submitting its EIS pursuant to NEPA, the Navy also was 

required to comply with the ESA in planning for the USWTR. The policy of 

Congress in enacting the ESA was to ensure “that all Federal departments and 

agencies . . . seek to conserve endangered species and threatened species . . .” 16 

U.S.C. § 1531(c)(1). See also Tenn. Valley Auth. v. Hill, 437 U.S. 153, 184, 98 S.

Ct. 2279, 2297, 57 L.Ed.2d 117 (1978) (“The plain intent of Congress in enacting 

this statute was to halt and reverse the trend toward species extinction, whatever 

the cost.”). In accordance with this policy, the ESA provides for the listing of 

species as threatened or endangered and the designation of their critical habitat. 16 

U.S.C. § 1533. The Secretary of Commerce has responsibility for listed marine 

species (including marine mammals and sea turtles when in the marine 

environment) and administers the ESA through the NMFS, while the Secretary of 

the Interior is responsible for listed terrestrial species, inland fish species, and 

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manatees, and administers the ESA through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 

(“FWS”). Id. §§ 1532(15), 1533(c); 50 C.F.R. §§ 17.11, 402.01(b). 

The ESA protects listed species in several ways. Section 9 establishes a 

prohibition on the “taking” of any member of a listed endangered or threatened 

species. 16 U.S.C. § 1538(a)(1)(B). The ESA defines the term “take” broadly, as 

“to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect, or to 

attempt to engage in any such conduct.” Id. § 1532(19). Section 7 of the ESA

directs federal agencies to “insure that any action authorized, funded, or carried out 

by such agency . . . is not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of any 

endangered species or threatened species” or destroy critical habitat. Id. § 

1536(a)(2). To comply with this provision, the ESA requires that a federal agency 

consult with the appropriate expert agency, either the NMFS or the FWS, under 

certain circumstances. In determining whether formal consultation with the FWS 

or NMFS is necessary, the federal agency first prepares a biological assessment to 

evaluate the potential effects of its proposed action “on listed and proposed species 

and designated and proposed critical habitat and determine whether any such 

species or habitat are likely to be adversely affected by the action . . . .” 50 C.F.R. 

§ 402.12(a). If the biological assessment determines that an action “may affect” a 

listed species or critical habitat, formal consultation is required. Id. § 402.14(a). 

Formal consultation is not required when the biological assessment determines that 

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the proposed action is not likely to adversely affect any listed species or critical 

habitat. Id. § 402.14(b)(1). 

If formal consultation is necessary, the NMFS or the FWS is then 

responsible for formulating a “biological opinion as to whether the action, taken 

together with cumulative effects, is likely to jeopardize the continued existence of 

listed species or result in the destruction or adverse modification of critical 

habitat.” Id. § 402.14(g)(4). The biological opinion must include a “detailed 

discussion of the effects of the action on listed species or critical habitat” in 

addition to the expert agency’s ultimate opinion on jeopardy. Id. § 402.14(h)(2). 

In preparing the biological opinion, the NMFS or the FWS is to use “the best 

scientific and commercial data available.” 16 U.S.C. § 1536(a)(2); 50 C.F.R. § 

402.14(g)(8). If the NMFS or the FWS concludes the action is likely to jeopardize 

the continued existence of listed species, it must suggest “reasonable and prudent 

alternatives” which can be taken by the federal agency to ensure that its action

does not jeopardize the continued existence of the species. 16 U.S.C. § 

1536(b)(3)(A). 

In 1982, the ESA was amended “to resolve the situation in which a federal 

agency . . . has been advised that the proposed action will not violate Section 

7(a)(2) of the Act [i.e., the prohibition on jeopardizing the continued existence of 

listed species] but . . . will result in the taking of some species incidental to that 

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action.” H.R. Rep. No. 97-567 at 26 (1982), reprinted in 1982 U.S.C.C.A.N. 2807, 

2826. In that situation, the NMFS’s or the FWS’s biological opinion must include 

an incidental take statement specifying the amount or extent of anticipated take. 

16 U.S.C. § 1536(b)(4); 50 C.F.R. § 402.14(i). The incidental take statement must 

discuss reasonable and prudent measures necessary or appropriate to minimize the 

impact of the incidental take. 16 U.S.C. § 1536(b)(4). The incidental take 

statement thus provides an exception to the ESA’s take prohibition; as any take in 

compliance with the terms and conditions of an incidental take statement is lawful. 

Id. § 1536(o)(2). If the NMFS or the FWS decides that no take is likely from the 

implementation of a proposed federal action, no incidental take statement is

required in the biological opinion. Ariz. Cattle Growers’ Ass’n v. U.S. Fish & 

Wildlife, 273 F.3d 1229, 1240 (9th Cir. 2001) (“Absent an actual or prospective 

taking under Section 9, there is no ‘situation’ that requires a Section 7 safe harbor 

provision.”). 

Where a proposed action is likely to result in take of listed marine mammals,

such as right whales in this case, the NMFS is prohibited from issuing an incidental

take statement until the incidental take has first been authorized under the Marine 

Mammal Protection Act (“MMPA”). 16 U.S.C. § 1536(b)(4)(C) (“If after 

consultation under subsection (a)(2) of this section, the Secretary concludes that if 

an endangered species or threatened species of a marine mammal is involved, the 

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taking is authorized pursuant to section 1371(a)(5) of this title; the Secretary shall 

provide the Federal agency and the applicant concerned, if any, with a written 

[incidental take statement] . . . .”). In relevant part, the MMPA generally prohibits 

the take of listed marine mammals but provides for several exceptions to the 

general take prohibition, including “incidental, but not intentional” take of “small 

numbers” of marine mammals by persons “engage[d] in a specified activity” 

during periods of “not more than five consecutive years.” Id. § 1371(a)(5)(A). 

Any incidental take statement for listed marine mammals must also include the 

mitigation measures prescribed by the MMPA take authorization. Id. § 

1536(b)(4)(C)(iii). 

E. The Navy’s and the NMFS’s ESA Compliance

To comply with Section 7(a)(2) of the ESA, the Navy prepared a biological 

assessment and initiated formal consultation with the NMFS about the impacts to 

endangered species of installing and operating the USWTR. The NMFS then 

issued a biological opinion on July 28, 2009, concluding that installation of the 

USWTR is not likely to adversely affect listed species, and that while expected 

operations on the USWTR are likely to adversely affect listed species, including 

some species of sea turtles and ESA-listed marine mammals such as right whales, 

expected operations are not likely to jeopardize their continued existence or 

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destroy or adversely modify their critical habitat. See AR001731-001967.2 

Because USWTR operations are likely to adversely affect listed species and some 

take is expected to occur during operations, the Navy must obtain an incidental 

take statement from the NMFS prior to commencing operations on the USWTR in 

order to avoid potential take liability under Section 9 of the ESA. See 16 U.S.C. § 

1536(b)(4); 50 C.F.R. § 402.14(i). However, the NMFS explained in the 

biological opinion that the document does not include an incidental take statement

for the operations phase of the USWTR at this point because the ESA requires that 

the take of listed marine mammals must first be authorized under the MMPA 

before an incidental take statement may be issued, and any such MMPA take 

authorization issued in 2009, which is only effective for five year periods, would 

expire before operations ever commenced. See AR001731. See also 16 U.S.C. § 

1536(b)(4)(C). Because the NMFS’s proposed issuance of any MMPA take 

authorization would thus trigger a new consultation under ESA Section 7(a)(2), the 

biological opinion states, “If and when such regulations or authorizations are 

issued, the [NMFS] will prepare a new biological opinion to include an incidental 

take statement for the endangered and threatened species that have been considered 

in [the biological opinion] as appropriate.” AR001930. 

 

2 “AR______” refers to the NMFS’s Administrative Record for its Biological Opinion.

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Based on the Navy’s final EIS and the NMFS’s biological opinion, the Navy 

announced its decision to construct the USWTR at the Jacksonville site in a July 

31, 2009 ROD, stating that construction is expected to take at least five years to 

complete and thus operations are not anticipated to occur until at least 2014. See

DON185885.3

 The ROD made a final decision only regarding “a portion of the 

proposed action, a decision to move forward with installation of the USWTR.” Id. 

Because no take is expected to occur during range construction, and due to the 

“anticipated four-to five-year period between now and completion of installation 

and the five-year limit on the period of NMFS’ MMPA rulemaking,” the ROD 

explains that “a MMPA rule related to training would likely expire before training 

could commence.” Id. The ROD continues: “Therefore Navy and NMFS[] have 

determined that their resources would be better utilized by the Navy delaying its 

application for appropriate take authorizations under the MMPA and ESA until the 

Navy has identified with greater specificity the time period for commencement of 

training on the USWTR.” Id. As a result, the Navy authorized construction of the 

range in the ROD, but it deferred authorization of operations on the range until 

closer in time to those operations occurring and until the requisite MMPA take 

authorization has been obtained, which could potentially impose conditions on 

activities.

 

3 “DON______” refers to the Navy’s Administrative Record for its Record of Decision.

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III. PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Appellants filed this case on January 28, 2010, in the United States District 

Court for the Southern District of Georgia, challenging the Navy’s EIS and ROD 

and the NMFS’s biological opinion as arbitrary and capricious under the APA

because, they claimed, the agencies had failed to comply with various requirements 

of NEPA and the ESA. The parties filed cross motions for summary judgment on 

all claims. The district court held a hearing on the motions on March 15, 2012. 

On September 6, 2012, the district court denied Appellants’ motion for summary 

judgment and granted summary judgment to all defendants, concluding that the 

Navy and the NMFS complied fully with NEPA, the ESA, and the APA. Shortly 

after the district court’s ruling, the Navy signed a contract to begin construction of 

the USWTR. Appellants now appeal the district court’s grant of summary 

judgment, narrowing their arguments on appeal to the following three claims: 1) 

the Navy violated NEPA and its implementing regulations by signing a contract for 

construction of the USWTR prior to signing an ROD to operate the USWTR; 2) 

the NMFS violated the ESA and the APA by issuing a biological opinion that 

failed to “meaningfully” analyze impacts from operations on the USWTR; and 3) 

the NMFS violated the ESA and the APA by failing to include in its biological 

opinion a required incidental take statement predicting, assessing the impact of, 

and taking measures to minimize the impact of incidental take of threatened and 

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endangered species that is expected to occur in connection with operation of the 

USWTR.

IV. STANDARD OF REVIEW

We review the district court’s grant of summary judgment de novo and use 

the same standard of review utilized by the district court. Miccosukee Tribe of 

Indians of Florida v. United States, 566 F.3d 1257, 1264 (11th Cir. 2009). The 

Navy’s ROD and the NMFS’s biological opinion are final agency actions subject 

to judicial review under the APA, 5 U.S.C. §§ 701-706. See id. Specifically, the 

standard under the APA is whether the agency’s action is “arbitrary, capricious, an 

abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law.” 5 U.S.C. § 

706(2)(A). The arbitrary and capricious standard is “exceedingly deferential.” 

Fund for Animals, Inc., 85 F.3d at 541. “We are not authorized to substitute our

judgment for the agency’s as long as its conclusions are rational.” Miccosukee 

Tribe of Indians, 566 F.3d at 1264 (citing Sierra Club v. Van Antwerp, 526 F.3d 

1353, 1360 (11th Cir. 2008)). “The court’s role is to ensure that the agency came 

to a rational conclusion, ‘not to conduct its own investigation and substitute its 

own judgment for the administrative agency’s decision.’” Van Antwerp, 526 F.3d 

at 1360 (quoting Pres. Endangered Areas of Cobb’s History, Inc. (“PEACH”) v. 

U.S. Army Corps of Eng’rs, 87 F.3d 1242, 1246 (11th Cir. 1996)). However, an 

agency action may be found arbitrary and capricious:

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where the agency has relied on factors which Congress 

has not intended it to consider, entirely failed to consider 

an important aspect of the problem, offered an 

explanation for its decision that runs counter to the 

evidence before the agency, or is so implausible that it 

could not be ascribed to a difference in view or the 

product of agency expertise.

Miccosukee Tribe of Indians, 566 F.3d at 1264 (quoting Alabama–Tombigbee 

Rivers Coal. v. Kempthorne, 477 F.3d 1250, 1254 (11th Cir. 2007)). 

V. DISCUSSION

A. Appellants’ NEPA Claim

Appellants confine their NEPA claim on appeal to the argument that the 

Navy violated 40 C.F.R. § 1506.1(a) by signing a contract for construction of the 

USWTR before it has issued an ROD for operations on the USWTR. Appellants 

make this argument even though the Navy had issued an ROD for its construction 

of the USWTR. Section 1506.1(a) forbids an agency from taking certain actions 

before the issuance of its ROD, as follows:

(a) Until an agency issues a record of decision as 

provided in § 1505.2 (except as provided in paragraph (c) 

of this section), no action concerning the proposal shall 

be taken which would:

(1) Have an adverse environmental impact; or

(2) Limit the choice of reasonable alternatives.

40 C.F.R. § 1506.1(a). 

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Under the plain language of Section 1506.1(a), Appellants’ argument fails. 

The action taken by the Navy that Appellants challenge as violative of Section 

1506.1(a)—signing a contract for construction of the USWTR— did not occur 

before the Navy signed an ROD concerning that construction, but after, and 

Section 1506.1(a) only precludes agency action taken before the agency signs an 

ROD. Although Appellants challenged the Navy’s EIS before the district court,4

they no longer dispute that the EIS fully analyzed the environmental impacts of 

both installation and future operations on the USWTR, including ruling out 

alternative sites for the range. Having issued an ROD deciding to construct the 

USWTR, the decision to proceed with the very construction authorized by the 

ROD could not have violated Section 1506.1(a), which only prohibits actions taken 

before signing an ROD.

Yet, Appellants take issue with the fact that the ROD only authorized half of 

the entire proposal for the range. Indeed, the ROD states that “[a]t this time the 

Navy is implementing only a portion of the proposed action, a decision to move 

forward with installation of the USWTR.” DON185885. The ROD further states 

 

4 Before the district court, Appellants claimed that the Navy’s EIS failed to take a hard 

look at the environmental impacts of constructing and operating the USWTR and that the 

analysis was impermissibly segmented in violation of 40 C.F.R. § 1508.25(a)(1) because it only 

considered the installation phase of the USWTR and not the operations phase. Section 

1508.25(a)(1) addresses the scope of an EIS and requires connected actions, which are defined as 

those that are “closely related,” to be discussed in the same EIS. 40 C.F.R. § 1508.25(a)(1). The 

district court held that the Navy’s EIS was not impermissibly segmented, and Appellants do not 

renew their segmentation argument on appeal. 

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that any “decision to implement training” at the USWTR “will be based on the 

updated analysis of environmental effects in a future [EIS] in conjunction with 

appropriate coordination and consultation with the [NMFS] and after compliance 

with applicable laws and executive orders including the [MMPA], the [ESA], the 

[NEPA] and the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) as they relate to the 

operation of the proposed USWTR.” Id. The Navy has stated that it will prepare a 

second ROD that specifically authorizes operations based on updated 

environmental data, prior to operations ever commencing on the USWTR. 

In Appellants’ view, the Navy prejudiced its future decision to approve 

operations on the USWTR by proceeding with the $127 million construction of the 

USWTR prior to an ROD approving operations. Once construction starts, 

Appellants argue, the Navy’s future NEPA process will become nothing more than 

an attempt to “rationalize or justify decisions already made.” Andrus v. Sierra 

Club, 442 U.S. 347, 351 n.3, 99 S. Ct. 2335, 2338 n.3, 60 L.Ed.2d 943 (1979). But 

Appellants have presented no authority mandating that an agency must authorize 

all stages of a project in one ROD. Indeed, the EIS is “[a]t the heart of NEPA,”

Dept. of Transp. v. Pub. Cit., 541 U.S. 752, 757, 124 S. Ct. 2204, 2209, 159 

L.Ed.2d 60 (2004), rather than the ROD, which is merely a means of documenting 

the agency’s final decision on a proposed action that required an EIS. While a 

fundamental NEPA principle is that connected actions be analyzed together in one 

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EIS, see 40 C.F.R. § 1508.25(a), Appellants have conceded that the Navy’s EIS 

analyzed both phases of the USWTR, and nothing in NEPA reiterates this “antisegmentation” principle with regard to an ROD.5

 

Nor are the cases cited by Appellants persuasive, as each case involved an 

agency’s commitment of resources to a project prior to any environmental analysis

being conducted. Andrus, cited by Appellants, merely explains NEPA’s policy 

that federal agencies must “commence preparation of an environmental impact 

statement as close as possible to the time the agency is developing or is presented 

with a proposal” so that the EIS will “serve practically as an important contribution 

to the decisionmaking process . . . .” 442 U.S. at 351-52 n.3, 99 S. Ct. at 2338 n.3. 

Similarly in Metcalf v. Daley, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that because 

a federal agency had committed to support an Indian tribe’s whaling plan long 

before even beginning to prepare the NEPA documents to support that decision, 

including the environmental assessment and EIS, the agency violated 40 C.F.R. § 

 

5 Appellants point out that NEPA refers to the ROD in the singular form. See 40 C.F.R. 

§§ 1506.1 (referencing “a record of decision”), 1505.2 (“each agency shall prepare a concise 

public record of decision” that must “[s]tate what the decision was”). We decline to interpret 

these discrete references as foreclosing an agency from signing an ROD authorizing only part of 

an action. There is no doubt that an ROD is required to finalize an EIS under NEPA. See id. § 

1502.2(f). The ROD did that here, and the Navy has stated that a second ROD will be generated, 

one that finalizes an updated environmental study pertaining to operations, closer in time to 

operations commencing. The Navy analyzed both phases of the USWTR in its EIS, and that was 

all that was required of it under NEPA. See id. § 1508.25(a). See also Strycker’s Bay 

Neighborhood Council, Inc. v. Karlen, 444 U.S. 223, 227-28, 100 S. Ct. 497, 499-500, 62 

L.Ed.2d 433 (1980) (per curiam) (noting that the agency considered the environmental effects of 

its decision and that “NEPA requires no more”). 

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22

1501.2, which requires a federal agency to integrate the NEPA planning process 

with other planning at the earliest possible time. 214 F.3d 1135, 1142-45 (9th Cir. 

2000). The court stated that at the point that the agency signed the contract with 

the tribe it made an “irreversible and irretrievable commitment of resources,” such 

that any environmental assessment prepared by the agency subsequently under 

those circumstances would be “subject to at least a subtle pro-whaling bias.” Id. at 

1143-44. See also Save the Yaak Comm. v. Block, 840 F.2d 714, 718-19 (9th Cir. 

1988) (finding that the agency violated 40 C.F.R. § 1501.2’s timeliness 

requirement because construction contracts were awarded prior to the agency’s 

preparation of an environmental assessment); Nat’l Audubon Soc’y v. Dep’t of the 

Navy, 422 F.3d 174, 206 (4th Cir. 2005) (allowing the Navy to conduct certain 

preliminary activities while it completed its EIS because none of the activities 

“include cutting even a single blade of grass in preparation for construction” of the 

project). The difference is clear here: the Navy did not sign the contract for 

construction of the USWTR until after it issued its EIS and ROD and after those 

documents had been upheld by the district court. 

Although not in their briefs, counsel for Appellants named at oral argument

Sensible Traffic Alternatives & Resources, Ltd. v. Federal Transit Administration 

of U.S. Department of Transportation, 307 F. Supp. 2d 1149 (D. Haw. 2004), as 

the only known case directly addressing the legal question of whether, when an 

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23

EIS is issued and approved for an entire multiphase project and that EIS admittedly 

examines all of the necessary environmental concerns, an agency can issue an 

ROD that accepts only the first phase of the project, leaving acceptance of the 

remainder of the EIS for a later time. Id. at 1166. The district court in that case 

answered the question in the affirmative, stating that “[g]iven the purposes of 

NEPA, there is no categorical bar to the procedure followed here and it was 

reasonable for the agency to employ it.” Id. However, the district court then stated 

that it must examine whether the construction of the project limits the choice of 

reasonable alternatives as to the remainder of the project for which no ROD had 

yet issued. Id. (citing 40 C.F.R. § 1506.1). In this case, that question has already 

been answered. The Navy has already fully analyzed reasonable alternative sites 

for the range in its EIS, an analysis upheld by the district court and no longer 

challenged on appeal. Mere construction on the already decided-upon site cannot 

somehow compromise a future analysis of unidentified additional reasonable 

alternative locations for the range. Having decided, in its EIS and subsequent 

ROD, where to locate the range after considering the impacts of both installation 

and operation in the EIS, the Navy has no obligation to revisit or reanalyze its 

decision in its EIS as to the range’s location. Further, nothing in the record 

indicates that the Navy will not consider and implement other kinds of alternatives 

to minimize negative environmental impacts from operations on the range, should 

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operations be found in the already-planned future consultation to pose a threat to 

listed species. See Brief of Appellees at 50 (“[I]f jeopardy is determined to be 

likely [during the future consultation on operations], having installed the Range 

will not limit the reasonable and prudent measures available for structuring 

operations to avoid jeopardy, including abandonment of the Range.”). 

In sum, Appellants have not pointed to any provision in NEPA requiring an 

agency to authorize all phases of a proposed action evaluated in an EIS at the time 

it issues an ROD. We thus find that it is not an independent violation of NEPA, 

warranting reversal of the district court’s judgment, for the Navy to enter into a 

construction contract after it signs an ROD authorizing construction and after 

having its NEPA analysis upheld by the district court. The district court’s 

judgment that the Navy complied with NEPA is due to be affirmed.

B. Appellants’ ESA Claims 

i. “Meaningful” Analysis of the Entire Action

Appellants also contend that the NMFS’s biological opinion is arbitrary and 

capricious in violation of the ESA because it did not “meaningfully” analyze the 

“entire action” proposed by the Navy—including both the installation and the 

operation phases of the USWTR. In support, Appellants first point to statements in 

the Navy’s ROD and the NMFS’s cover page to its biological opinion that they 

claim indicate that the biological opinion only considered installation. See 

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DON185919 (“[T]he Navy’s [S]ection 7 consultation under the ESA is only with 

regard to the installation of the [R]ange. Navy will initiate another formal 

consultation under Section 7 of the ESA to address A[nti] S[ubmarine] W[arfare] 

training on the USWTR in the 2014/2015 timeframe.”); AR001731 (stating that 

“[e]nclosed is the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) Biological Opinion 

on the effects of the U.S. Navy’s proposal to install an Undersea Warfare Training 

Range . . .” and noting that “[t]his Opinion concludes that the U.S. Navy’s proposal 

to install an Undersea Warfare Training Range (USWTR) is not likely to adversely 

affect endangered or threatened species under NMFS[’s] jurisdiction or critical 

habitat that has been designated for those species . . .”). However, Appellants 

ignore the very next sentence of the cover page which states, “We have concluded 

that anti-submarine warfare training activities the U.S. Navy plans to conduct on 

[the] USWTR are likely to adversely affect endangered whales, but [are] not likely 

to jeopardize the continued existence of those whales.” AR001731 (emphasis

added). Appellants also overlook that the Navy’s ROD explains that the “NMFS 

provided Navy with a Biological Opinion (BO) on July 28, 2009, in which it 

analyzed the effects of both installation and use of the USWTR” and characterizes 

the biological opinion as concluding that “activities associated with the [antisubmarine] training on [the USWTR] are likely to adversely affect but are not 

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likely to jeopardize the continued existence of endangered and threatened species.”

DON185885-185886 (emphasis added).

Irrespective of these statements as to whether the biological opinion 

analyzed only the installation phase or both the installation phase and operation 

phase of the USWTR, the content of the over 100-page biological opinion itself 

confirms that it analyzed both installation and operation. The biological opinion 

defines the proposed action for purposes of analysis to include both USWTR 

installation and operations. It then discloses the nature of the anti-submarine 

warfare training to occur on the USWTR, and it specifies the “operating 

procedures” to be used in anti-submarine warfare activities to protect endangered 

species. The biological opinion also specifically identifies “stressors . . . 

potentially associated with the Operations Phase” of the USWTR, such as ship 

strikes, the effects of sonar, and the risk of entanglement from small parachutes, 

analyzes the likelihood that listed species will be exposed to such stressors 

associated with operations, and analyzes the likely response of listed species that

are exposed to such stressors.

Despite these details pertaining to operations on the USWTR, Appellants

still contend that while the biological opinion purports to consider operations, its

analysis with regard to operations was not “meaningful” because it does not reflect 

the “unique nature” of the USWTR. Appellants say that this failure is apparent 

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from portions of the biological opinion that appear to be cut-and-pasted from the 

biological opinions of the Navy’s other anti-submarine warfare training projects 

along the eastern seaboard, including the biological opinions from the much-larger 

Jacksonville Operating Area. The NMFS admits that portions of the biological 

opinion contain summaries of the “results of the analyses” from existing biological 

opinions on the Navy’s anti-submarine warfare training on the eastern seaboard 

and in the Jacksonville Operating Area, where the USWTR will be located. The 

Navy’s stated reason for this overlap is that ongoing anti-submarine warfare 

training operations in the Jacksonville Operating Area are already covered by the 

required NEPA and ESA documentation and permits, and operations at the 

USWTR are not expected to significantly change training already occurring in the 

area.

We agree with the NMFS and the Navy that the summary of impacts of the 

same level of training from other biological opinions does not undermine the 

analysis in the biological opinion for the USWTR because the biological opinion 

also clearly considered the specific types of training proposed for the USWTR. 

For example, in the biological opinion’s actual conclusions, it discusses impacts to 

listed species from operations on the USWTR itself. The section of the biological 

opinion entitled “Integration and Synthesis of Effects” contains ultimate 

conclusions of the analysis as to each listed species. For right whales, it notes that 

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the Navy has likely overestimated the number that will be exposed to sonar 

because of the “relatively short duration” of the planned exercises on the USWTR, 

“the small number of surface and submarine vessels” associated with the training 

and the “very small probabilities [of right whales] occurring in any particular 500

square mile area.” AR001925. For each affected species of sea turtle, the 

biological opinion notes the “relatively small size of the proposed [USWTR]

relative to the density of sea turtles that might occur on the training range” in 

determining the impact from operations. AR001926. In addition, it is clear from 

the biological opinion that the NMFS’s analysis was also informed by the Navy’s 

final EIS and biological assessment, two documents not challenged by Appellants 

in this appeal. These documents are part of the administrative record for the 

biological opinion, and each considered the USWTR-specific environmental 

impacts compared with the other four locations that the Navy proposed for the 

USWTR. For example, the biological opinion discloses that “NMFS relied solely 

on the results of models the U.S. Navy conducted for their NEPA compliance 

documents for the [USWTR]” when evaluating the exposure of marine mammals 

and sea turtles to stressors associated with operating the USWTR. AR001753. 

Those Navy models include modeling of acoustic effects at each of the four 

alternative locations for the USWTR studied, and Appendix D to the EIS contains 

detailed model results for each training scenario at each alternative site. The 

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model results were different for each location studied, demonstrating that the Navy 

considered impacts on the USWTR site selected. The NMFS relied on the Navy’s 

data in the biological opinion, as it discusses the data specifically in the 

“Integration and Synthesis of Effects” section. See AR001923-001928. The 

NMFS therefore adequately considered impacts of operations on the USWTR as

opposed to some broader area.6

 

As further evidence that the biological opinion did not consider the unique 

characteristics of the USWTR as compared with the larger Jacksonville Operating 

Area, Appellants point to a statement made in the Navy’s recent application for an 

MMPA take authorization for marine mammals connected with other Navy 

training on the Atlantic coast, as follows: “[S]onar activities could be concentrated 

on the [USWTR] after it is constructed. Potential acoustic impacts from major 

 6 Contrary to Appellants’ assertions, it makes no difference to our review that some of the 

data supporting the NMFS’s analysis in the biological opinion appears in the Navy’s final EIS 

and biological assessment rather than in the biological opinion itself. The NMFS was a 

cooperating agency in preparing the Navy’s EIS, and the ESA regulations envision agency 

coordination on ESA and NEPA compliance. See 50 C.F.R. § 402.06 (providing that 

consultation, conference, and biological assessment procedures under Section 7 of the ESA may 

be consolidated with interagency cooperation procedures required by other statutes, such as 

NEPA). Moreover, our judicial review under the APA is based on the “whole record.” 5 U.S.C. 

§ 706. There is “no requirement that every detail of the agency’s decision be stated expressly in 

the [biological opinion]” as long as the “rationale is present in the administrative record 

underlying the document.” In re Operation of Mo. River Sys. Litig., 421 F.3d 618, 634 (8th Cir. 

2005) (citations omitted). See also Miller v. Lehman, 801 F.2d 492, 497 (D.C. Cir. 1986) (“[W]e 

are required to uphold a decision of less than ideal clarity if the agency’s path may reasonably be 

discerned. In addition, if the necessary articulation of basis for administrative action can be 

discerned by reference to clearly relevant sources other than a formal statement of reasons, we 

will make the reference.”) (citations and quotation marks omitted). 

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training exercises, especially behavioral impacts, could be more pronounced given 

the duration and scale of the events.” See Navy Request for Regulations and 

Letters of Authorization for the Incidental Taking of Marine Mammals Resulting 

from U.S. Navy Training and Testing Activities in the Atlantic Fleet Training and 

Testing Study Area, available at http://nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/permits

/aftt_navy_loa_application2012.pdf. This communication by the Navy to the 

NMFS was made after the briefing before the district court in this case and over 

three years after the EIS, biological opinion, and ROD were issued. The Court will 

not consider it because it is not part of the administrative record and is thus not 

grounds for setting aside NMFS’s “no jeopardy” opinion, which had to be based on 

the best information available at the time regarding the likely effects of USWTR 

operations. See 16 U.S.C. § 1536(a)(2) (purpose of consultation is to insure that 

proposed action is “not likely” to result in jeopardy and biological opinion must be 

based on the “best scientific and commercial data available”). See also Pres. 

Endangered Areas of Cobb’s History, Inc., 87 F.3d at 1246 (“The focal point for 

judicial review of an administrative agency’s action should be the administrative 

record.”) (citing Camp v. Pitts, 411 U.S. 138, 142, 93 S. Ct. 1241, 1244, 36 

L.Ed.2d 106 (1973)); Sierra Club v. Bosworth, 510 F.3d 1016, 1026 (9th Cir. 

2007) (“Post-decision information may not be advanced as a new rationalization 

either for sustaining or attacking an agency’s decision.”) (internal alterations, 

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31

quotation marks, and citation omitted). Even if the Court were to consider this 

evidence, and to the extent that information does become available indicating that 

the USWTR location has unique characteristics not already considered, or that the 

Navy’s decision to further “concentrate” training on the range results in some 

changes to impacts on listed species, those impacts will be considered in the 

already-planned future consultations before there will actually be any operations 

resulting in impacts. See 50 C.F.R. § 402.16(c) (providing for reinitiation of 

consultation if “the identified action is subsequently modified in a manner that 

causes an effect to the listed species or critical habitat that was not considered in 

the biological opinion”). 

Appellants also rely on a series of decisions from the Ninth Circuit Court of 

Appeals holding that biological opinions must be “coextensive in scope” with the 

agency action. See, e.g., Conner v. Buford, 848 F.2d 1441, 1457-58 (9th Cir. 

1988) (holding that “biological opinions must be coextensive with agency action” 

and rejecting the argument that a federal agency could meet its ESA obligations by 

addressing portions of the agency action incrementally as each portion went into 

effect); Greenpeace v. Nat’l Marine Fisheries Serv., 80 F. Supp. 2d 1137, 1150 

(W.D. Wash. 2000) (“A biological opinion which is not coextensive in scope with 

the identified agency action necessarily fails to consider important aspects of the 

problem and is, therefore, arbitrary and capricious.”); Nat’l Wildlife Fed’n v. Nat’l 

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Marine Fisheries Serv., 524 F.3d 917, 930 (9th Cir. 2008) (finding that allowing 

segmentation under the ESA would mean that “a listed species could be gradually 

destroyed, so long as each step on the path to destruction is sufficiently modest”). 

As an initial matter, the rule that biological opinions must be coextensive in scope 

with the “entire action” or else violate the ESA is nowhere to be found in the 

language of the ESA and we decline to adopt that rule here. In any event, the cases 

relied on by Appellants addressed situations where federal agencies 

compartmentalized the analysis of actions and thereby avoided discussing the 

entire scope of the action. In contrast here, the NMFS’s biological opinion 

analyzed both installation and operations and is therefore “coextensive in scope” 

with the Navy’s entire proposed action. So even if this Court were to adopt the 

Ninth Circuit’s test, the biological opinion in this case would satisfy it. 

In sum, the Court is convinced that the biological opinion and supporting 

administrative record, including the biological assessment and EIS prepared by the 

Navy, sufficiently considered, not only installation, but also the operations that are

expected to occur on the USWTR, in reaching the ultimate conclusion that no take 

of listed species is likely from installation and that “activities associated with the 

Operations Phase of the [USWTR] are likely to adversely affect but are not likely 

to jeopardize the continued existence of” listed species. See AR001929. Section 

7(a)(2) of the ESA required nothing more of the NMFS. 

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Indeed, while Appellants assert that the Navy’s and the NMFS’s decision to 

structure their EPA consultation the way that they did, i.e., deciding to study 

operational impacts again in a new biological opinion before operations are 

authorized, undermines the Navy’s initial consultation with the NMFS or the 

NMFS’s biological opinion, Section 7(a)(2) of the ESA does not require that 

consultation under the act take place in any particular manner. Section 7(a)(2) 

simply directs the federal agency to “insure” in consultation with the NMFS or the 

FWS that its actions are not likely to jeopardize the existence of listed species or 

their critical habitat. See 16 U.S.C. § 1536(a)(2). It is for the agencies to 

determine how best to structure consultation to fulfill Section 7(a)(2)’s mandate. 

The United States Supreme Court has recognized on numerous occasions that “the 

formulation of procedures was basically to be left within the discretion of the 

agencies to which Congress has confided the responsibility for substantive 

judgments.” See, e.g., Vt. Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. v. Nat. Res. Def. Council, 

Inc. 435 U.S. 519, 524, 98 S. Ct. 1197, 1202, 55 L.Ed.2d 460 (1978). The Court 

has described this principle as “an outgrowth of the congressional determination 

that administrative agencies and administrators will be familiar with the industries 

which they regulate and will be in a better position than federal courts or Congress 

itself to design procedural rules adapted to the peculiarities of the industry and the 

tasks of the agency involved.” FCC v. Schreiber, 381 U.S. 279, 290, 85 S. Ct. 

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1459, 1467, 14 L.Ed.2d 383 (1965). Utilizing their administrative discretion, the 

Navy and the NMFS decided that since expected operations on the USWTR will 

have essentially the same impact as ongoing submarine warfare training operations 

that have already been analyzed in previous consultations and biological opinions, 

and that since expected operations on the USWTR are not likely to jeopardize 

listed species, they would analyze the known impacts of expected operations now, 

but in the future consider those impacts again in a new consultation before

operational activities commence. That decision is due deference by this Court 

because there is no statutory basis for ordering that the consultation be carried out 

in some other manner. If anything, it appears that the Navy’s future consultation 

with the NMFS regarding operations on the USWTR will ensure that any adverse 

impacts to listed species will be considered closer in time to when operations will 

actually commence. See DON185885-185886 (“Delaying the application for 

incidental take authorizations will also allow for incorporation of the best available 

science, as required by the MMPA and ESA, at that time in the analysis of 

potential environmental effects.”). After all, the ESA’s requirement that the 

federal agency avoid jeopardy remains in force throughout the life of a project, and 

the project must be abandoned or reasonable and prudent measures to avoid 

jeopardy must be adopted, if later stages of a project result in jeopardy to listed 

species. See 50 C.F.R. §§ 402.14(i)(4), 402.16(a). As long as the initial stage of 

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the project does not foreclose the adoption of these reasonable and prudent 

measures, see 16 U.S.C. § 1536(d), and as long as the conclusions of the biological 

opinion are not arbitrary, a staged structuring of consultation may comply fully 

with Section 7’s mandate. Here, the Navy has expressed that if jeopardy from 

operations is determined to be likely during the future consultation; having 

installed the range will not limit the reasonable and prudent measures available for

structuring operations to avoid jeopardy, including abandonment of the range. 

The record indicates that the NMFS analyzed the entire action, including 

both the installation and operation phases of the USWTR, in its biological opinion,

and the Navy’s and the NMFS’s decision to analyze impacts from operations again 

in a future consultation does not undermine their existing consultation or the 

resulting biological opinion. Therefore, the Court cannot say that the Navy and the 

NMFS acted arbitrarily and capriciously in this regard and summary judgment with 

regard to this issue is due to be affirmed.

ii. Lack of an Incidental Take Statement for Operations

Appellants also claim that the biological opinion is arbitrary and capricious 

for an entirely independent reason: it fails to include an incidental take statement 

for operations on the USWTR. As an initial matter, NMFS’s biological opinion

concluded that no take of listed species is likely to occur from installation of the 

USWTR. Thus, no incidental take statement was required regarding the 

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construction phase of the project. See Ariz. Cattle Growers Ass’n, 273 F.3d at 

1240. Appellants do not challenge the biological opinion on this point. However, 

the biological opinion also concluded that take of listed species may occur in 

connection with operations on the USWTR, but that no jeopardy to listed species

would occur pursuant to operations. Pursuant to the ESA, then, the NMFS is 

required to issue an incidental take statement that relates to operations on the

USWTR, lest the Navy incur take liability pursuant to Section 7 of the ESA. See 

50 C.F.R. §§ 402.14(g)(7) (providing that during formal consultation, the expert 

agency must “[f]ormulate a statement concerning incidental take, if such take may 

occur”), 402.14(i)(1) (requiring that an incidental take statement specifying the 

amount or extent of take, reasonable and prudent measures to minimize such 

impact, required terms and conditions, and measures necessary to comply with the 

MMPA be provided “with the biological opinion”). 

However, the NMFS provided a valid reason for its failure to include an

incidental take statement for operations in the biological opinion. Because an 

MMPA take authorization for listed marine mammal species, such as right whales 

in this case, must precede the NMFS’s issuance of an incidental take statement, see 

16 U.S.C. § 1536(b)(4)(C), and because MMPA take authorizations are only 

effective for five year periods, see 16 U.S.C. § 1371(a)(5)(A), the NMFS and the 

Navy rationally concluded that any MMPA take authorization pertaining to

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operations on the USWTR that the NMFS obtained at the time the biological 

opinion was issued in 2009 would expire long before the USWTR’s operational 

date expected to be sometime between 2018 and 2023. To avoid redundant 

authorizations and wasting resources, the NMFS and the Navy chose to postpone 

the process of obtaining the MMPA take authorization and the resulting incidental 

take statement until the Navy reinitiates formal consultation with the NMFS on 

operations prior to authorizing training. 

In response to the NMFS’s reasoning, Appellants do not dispute that an 

incidental take statement, at least for marine mammals, must be predicated on an 

MMPA authorization of such taking pursuant to 16 U.S.C. § 1371(a)(5). See 16 

U.S.C. § 1536(b)(4)(C). Instead, they restate their argument that in order for the 

biological opinion to be complete it had to “meaningfully” analyze the effects of 

operations on the USWTR as well as installation. See Reply Brief of Appellants p.

25 (“But if Defendants had performed a comprehensive analysis of the entire 

action, rather than segmenting their decision-making, such permit [e.g., the MMPA 

authorization] could have—and indeed should have—already issued.”). Indeed, 

the dispute between the parties is not whether an incidental take statement must 

issue, but when. Appellants say that the Navy could and should have waited to 

authorize both construction and operations until after it had obtained an MMPA 

take authorization, just as it did with the construction and operation of a training 

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range off the coast of Southern California. See MMPA Take Authorization, 74 

Fed. Reg. 3882 (Jan. 21, 2009). 

Irrespective of whether the West Coast range referenced by Appellants also 

complies with the ESA, we find that it was not arbitrary or capricious for the 

NMFS to postpone the issuance of an incidental take statement for right whales in 

this situation. As an initial matter, no incidental take statement is required now, as 

the USWTR is still in the installation phase where no take of any listed species is 

expected. See Ariz. Cattle Growers Ass’n, 273 F.3d at 1240. The biological 

opinion can be upheld on that ground alone. Moreover, an MMPA take 

authorization and corresponding incidental take statement, which will pertain 

solely to operations on the range, will serve no purpose while the USWTR is still 

in the installation phase and no operations are actually occurring. These permits 

will certainly not serve their statutory purpose of creating a safe harbor from take 

liability, and obtaining them now would be a meaningless exercise. In any event, 

the Navy has repeatedly committed to obtaining the required MMPA take 

authorization and incidental take statement during a future consultation with the 

NMFS, prior to operations on the range commencing.

We also reject Appellants’ argument that the current lack of an incidental 

take statement cannot be remedied in the course of a subsequent formal 

consultation because, they claim, without an incidental take statement, the 

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biological opinion omits the important “trigger” of the amount of take of listed 

species necessary to cause the Navy to reinitiate consultation with the NMFS. See 

50 C.F.R. §§ 402.14(i)(4) (“If during the course of the action the amount or extent 

of incidental taking . . . is exceeded, the Federal agency must reinitiate consultation 

immediately.”), 402.16(a) (providing for same). See also Miccosukee Tribe of 

Indians of Fla., 566 F.3d at 1271-72, 1275 (“An incidental take statement may 

lawfully authorize harm to an endangered species as long as the statement sets a 

‘trigger’ for further consultation at the point where the allowed incidental take is 

exceeded, a point at which there is a risk of jeopardizing the species.”) (citing 50 

C.F.R. § 402.14(i)(4)). Appellants’ concern is unwarranted because the current 

biological opinion provides that its lack of an incidental take statement for 

operations means that the Navy must reinitiate consultation with the NMFS if even 

a single take of a listed species occurs. See Biological Opinion, 001931 (“because

this Biological Opinion did not exempt any ‘take’ of endangered or threatened 

species, the U.S. Navy would be required to reinitiate formal consultation if one or 

more individuals of an endangered or threatened species is ‘taken’”). Thus the 

current lack of an incidental take statement means that the “trigger” for reinitiating 

consultation is set to its strictest setting, not that there is no trigger. 

Finally, we must address Appellants’ argument that certain listed species of 

sea turtles are not marine mammals and are thus not covered by the MMPA, so the 

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NMFS has no statutorily-based argument that the biological opinion did not have 

to include an incidental take statement for sea turtles during operations. The 

NMFS responds that it rationally concluded that since the Navy will have to 

engage in further consultation with the NMFS to obtain the MMPA take 

authorization for marine mammals, an incidental take statement for all species, 

including sea turtles as well as right whales, would issue at that time in the new 

biological opinion pertaining to operations. The biological opinion thus provides, 

“If and when such [MMPA] regulations or authorizations are issued, the [NMFS] 

will prepare a new biological opinion to include an incidental take statement for 

the endangered and threatened species that have been considered in the biological 

Opinion, as appropriate.” AR001930 (emphasis added). The Navy’s rationale is

supported by the record and is due deference by this Court. Thus, we do not find 

that it was arbitrary or capricious for the NMFS to postpone the issuance of an 

incidental take statement for sea turtles in this situation. 

To be clear, this Court is not condoning the lack of an incidental take 

statement in a biological opinion, if one is warranted. The incidental take 

statement serves important purposes of measuring conservation and monitoring 

take to ensure both that the agency really does ensure against jeopardy and that any 

take that occurs in minimized. See 50 C.F.R. § 402.14(i). But we read the ESA as 

only requiring the incidental take statement to be included in the biological opinion 

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if take of listed species is likely in the first place. Here, no take is likely because 

no take is expected from installation and because the Navy will not operate the 

range without first engaging in further environmental analysis with the NMFS. In 

other words, there is no possibility that operations will occur on the USWTR that 

may take a listed species that will not be covered by a new biological opinion. 

That new biological opinion will include any necessary incidental take statements 

and MMPA take authorizations. Under the facts of this case, the NMFS’s decision 

to postpone the issuance of the incidental take statement for all listed species until 

closer in time to when the operations that warrant it actually occur was not 

inconsistent with the ESA’s statutory scheme or otherwise arbitrary or capricious. 

The judgment of the district court is due to be affirmed on Appellants’ ESA claims. 

VI. CONCLUSION

For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the district court’s grant of summary 

judgment.

AFFIRMED.

Case: 12-15680 Date Filed: 10/01/2013 Page: 41 of 41