Public comment ends Monday for a U.S. Navy proposal to more than quadruple the area its ships are allowed to maneuver for a war games exercise next summer in the Gulf of Alaska, APM reports.

In the past, the Navy has worked within a 55,000 square mile zone east of Kodiak and south of Prince William Sound. But for 2023, it wants to add 246,000 square miles, stretching west to a point south of Dutch Harbor.

Northern Edge is a biennial, large-scale training exercise that involves the Air Force, Army and Marine Corps, as well as the Navy, which says it needs more room.

Critics of Northern Edge include coastal Alaska city councils, commercial fishers and environmental and Alaska Native groups. They say such a massive exercise – often conducted in May, with live munitions and active sonar – disrupts fish and marine mammals during a critical time, as they’re migrating and breeding in the Gulf of Alaska.