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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 24 / Monday, February 8, 2021 / Notices
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Washington State Department of Transportation WADOT to incidentally harass, by Level B
harassment only, marine mammals during construction activities associated with a Purdy Bridge Rehabilitation Project in Pierce County, WA.
DATES: This Authorization is effective from July 16, 2021 through February 15, 2022.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Dwayne Meadows, Ph.D., Office of Protected Resources, NMFS, 301 427
8401. Electronic copies of the application and supporting documents, as well as a list of the references cited in this document, may be obtained online at: https
www.fisheries.noaa.gov/permit/
incidental-take-authorizations-undermarine-mammal-protection-act. In case of problems accessing these documents, please call the contact listed above.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background The MMPA prohibits the take of marine mammals, with certain exceptions. Sections 101a5A and D of the MMPA 16 U.S.C. 1361 et seq. direct the Secretary of Commerce as delegated to NMFS to allow, upon request, the incidental, but not intentional, taking of small numbers of marine mammals by U.S. citizens who engage in a specified activity other than commercial fishing within a specified geographical region if certain findings are made and either regulations are issued or, if the taking is limited to harassment, a notice of a proposed incidental take authorization may be provided to the public for review.
Authorization for incidental takings shall be granted if NMFS finds that the taking will have a negligible impact on the species or stocks and will not have an unmitigable adverse impact on the availability of the species or stocks for taking for subsistence uses where relevant. Further, NMFS must prescribe the permissible methods of taking and other means of effecting the least practicable adverse impact on the affected species or stocks and their habitat, paying particular attention to rookeries, mating grounds, and areas of similar significance, and on the availability of the species or stocks for taking for certain subsistence uses referred to in shorthand as mitigation; and requirements
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pertaining to the mitigation, monitoring and reporting of the takings are set forth.
The definitions of all applicable MMPA statutory terms cited above are included in the relevant sections below.
Summary of Request On July 27, 2020, NMFS received an application from WADOT requesting an IHA to take small numbers of six species of marine mammals incidental to pile driving and removal associated with the Purdy Bridge Rehabilitation Project. The application was deemed adequate and complete on December 1, 2020.
WADOTs request is for take of a small number of each species by Level B
harassment. Neither WADOT nor NMFS
expects serious injury or mortality to result from this activity and, therefore, an IHA is appropriate.
Description of Specified Activity Overview The purpose of the project is to rehabilitate the 2 in-water support piers of the State Route 302 Purdy Bridge by removing the top 3 inches 7.5
centimeter cm of decaying concrete on each support pier and replacing with fiberglass reinforced concrete. Twenty steel H piles and 44 sheetpiles will be driven to create a caisson-like dewatered structures around the bridge piers to allow the work to be completed.
Once the work on the piers is completed the piles will be removed. A needle gun will be used to remove 3 inches 7.5 cm of decayed concrete from the two inwater bridge piers. Pile driving/removal and concrete removal is expected to take no more than 20 days. Pile driving/
removal would be by vibratory pile driving. A detailed description of the planned project is provided in the Federal Register notice for the proposed IHA 85 FR 81886; December 17, 2020.
Since that time, no changes have been made to the planned activities.
Therefore, a detailed description is not provided here. Please refer to that Federal Register notice for the description of the specific activity.
Comments and Response A notice of NMFSs proposal to issue an IHA to WADOT was published in the Federal Register on December 17, 2020
85 FR 81886. That notice described, in detail, WADOTs activity, the marine mammal species that may be affected by the activity, and the anticipated effects
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on marine mammals. During the 30-day public comment period, NMFS received no public comment or comment letter from the Marine Mammal Commission.
Description of Marine Mammals in the Area of Specified Activities Sections 3 and 4 of the application summarize available information regarding status and trends, distribution and habitat preferences, and behavior and life history, of the potentially affected species. Additional information regarding population trends and threats may be found in NMFSs Stock Assessment Reports SARs; https
www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/
marine-mammal-protection/marinemammal-stock-assessments and more general information about these species e.g., physical and behavioral descriptions may be found on NMFSs website https
www.fisheries.noaa.gov/find-species.
Table 1 lists all species with expected potential for occurrence in the project area and summarizes information related to the population or stock, including regulatory status under the MMPA and Endangered Species Act ESA and potential biological removal PBR, where known. For taxonomy, we follow Committee on Taxonomy 2020.
PBR is defined by the MMPA as the maximum number of animals, not including natural mortalities, that may be removed from a marine mammal stock while allowing that stock to reach or maintain its optimum sustainable population as described in NMFSs SARs. While no mortality is anticipated or authorized here, PBR and annual serious injury and mortality from anthropogenic sources are included here as gross indicators of the status of the species and other threats.
Marine mammal abundance estimates presented in this document represent the total number of individuals that make up a given stock or the total number estimated within a particular study or survey area. NMFSs stock abundance estimates for most species represent the total estimate of individuals within the geographic area, if known, that comprises that stock. For some species, this geographic area may extend beyond U.S. waters. All managed stocks in this region are assessed in NMFSs U.S. Pacific or Alaska SARs e.g., Caretta et al., 2020; Muto et al., 2020.

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