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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 21 / Wednesday, February 3, 2021 / Notices
TABLE 1SPECIES THAT SPATIALLY CO-OCCUR WITH THE ACTIVITY TO THE DEGREE THAT TAKE IS REASONABLY LIKELY
TO OCCUR
Common name
Scientific name
ESA/
MMPA
status;
strategic Y/N 1

Stock
Stock abundance CV, Nmin, most recent abundance survey 2

PBR

Annual M/SI 3

Order CarnivoraSuperfamily Pinnipedia Family Otariidae eared seals and sea lions:
California Sea Lion

Zalophus californianus

United States

-, -, N

257,606 N/A, 233,515, 2014.

14,011

>321

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1 Endangered Species Act ESA status: Endangered E, Threatened T/MMPA status: Depleted D. A dash - indicates that the species is not listed under the ESA or designated as depleted under the MMPA. Under the MMPA, a strategic stock is one for which the level of direct human-caused mortality exceeds PBR or which is determined to be declining and likely to be listed under the ESA within the foreseeable future. Any species or stock listed under the ESA is automatically designated under the MMPA as depleted and as a strategic stock.
2 NMFS marine mammal stock assessment reports online at: https www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-mammal-protection/marine-mammal-stock-assessments. CV is coefficient of variation; Nmin is the minimum estimate of stock abundance.
3 These values, found in NMFSs SARs, represent annual levels of human-caused mortality plus serious injury from all sources combined e.g., commercial fisheries, ship strike. Annual Morality/Serious Injury M/SI often cannot be determined precisely and is in some cases presented as a minimum value or range. A CV associated with estimated mortality due to commercial fisheries is presented in some cases.

California sea lions Zalophus californianus spatially co-occur with the activity to the degree that take is reasonably likely to occur, and we are authorizing take of this species. Other marine mammal species observed in San Diego Bay are the coastal bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatus, which is regularly seen in the North Bay; Pacific harbor seal Phoca vitulina, which frequently enters the North Bay; and common dolphins Delphinus spp., which are rare visitors in the North Bay.
Gray whales Eschrichtius robustus are occasionally sighted near the mouth of San Diego Bay during their winter migration Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southwest and Port of San Diego Bay, 2013. Based on many years of observations and numerous Navyfunded surveys in San Diego Bay Merkel and Associates, Inc., 2008;
Sorensen and Swope, 2010; Graham and Saunders, 2014; Tierra Data Inc., 2016, these other marine mammals rarely occur south of the Coronado Bay Bridge, are not known to occur near Naval Base San Diego, and any occurrence in the project area would be very rare.
Therefore, while coastal bottlenose dolphins, Pacific harbor seals, common dolphins, and gray whales have been reported in San Diego Bay, they are not anticipated to occur in the project area and no take of these species is anticipated or authorized.
A detailed description of the of the species likely to be affected by the Navys project, including brief introductions to the species and relevant stocks as well as available information regarding population trends and threats, and information regarding local occurrence, were provided in the Federal Register notice for the proposed IHA 85 FR 80027; December 11, 2020;
since that time, we are not aware of any
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changes in the status of these species and stocks; therefore, detailed descriptions are not provided here.
Please refer to that Federal Register notice for these descriptions. Please also refer to NMFS website https
www.fisheries.noaa.gov/find-species for generalized species accounts.
Potential Effects of Specified Activities on Marine Mammals and their Habitat The effects of underwater noise from the Navys construction activities have the potential to result in behavioral harassment of marine mammals in the vicinity of the survey area. The notice of proposed IHA 85 FR 80027;
December 11, 2020 included a discussion of the effects of anthropogenic noise on marine mammals and the potential effects of underwater noise from the Navys construction activities on marine mammals and their habitat. That information and analysis is incorporated by reference into this final IHA
determination and is not repeated here;
please refer to the notice of proposed IHA 85 FR 80027; December 11, 2020.
Estimated Take This section provides an estimate of the number of incidental takes authorized through this IHA, which will inform both NMFS consideration of small numbers and the negligible impact determination.
Harassment is the only type of take expected to result from these activities.
Except with respect to certain activities not pertinent here, section 318 of the MMPA defines harassment as any act of pursuit, torment, or annoyance, which i has the potential to injure a marine mammal or marine mammal stock in the wild Level A harassment;
or ii has the potential to disturb a marine mammal or marine mammal
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stock in the wild by causing disruption of behavioral patterns, including, but not limited to, migration, breathing, nursing, breeding, feeding, or sheltering Level B harassment.
Authorized takes would be by Level B
harassment, as use of the acoustic source i.e., vibratory or impact pile driving has the potential to result in disruption of behavioral patterns for individual marine mammals. Based on the nature of the activity and the anticipated effectiveness of the mitigation measures i.e., shutdown discussed in detail below in Mitigation section, Level A harassment is neither anticipated nor authorized.
As described previously, no mortality is anticipated or authorized for this activity. Below we describe how the take is estimated.
Generally speaking, we estimate take by considering: 1 Acoustic thresholds above which marine mammals will be behaviorally harassed or incur some degree of permanent hearing impairment; 2 the area or volume of water that will be ensonified above these levels in a day; 3 the density or occurrence of marine mammals within these ensonified areas; and, 4 and the number of days of activities. We note that while these basic factors can contribute to a basic calculation to provide an initial prediction of takes, additional information that can qualitatively inform take estimates is also sometimes available e.g., previous monitoring results or average group size. Due to the lack of marine mammal density, NMFS relied on local occurrence data and group size to estimate take. Below, we describe the factors considered here in more detail and present the take estimate.

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