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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 51 / Thursday, March 18, 2021 / Notices
would cover a subset of the take authorized in an IHA previously issued HPMS to incidentally take marine mammals, by Level A and Level B
harassment only, during construction activities associated with the Old Sitka Dock North Dolphins Expansion Project in Sitka, Alaska. Some changes have occurred during this years evaluation of the project. Pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act MMPA, NMFS
is requesting comments on its proposal to issue an IHA to incidentally take marine mammals during the specified activities. NMFS is also requesting comments on a possible one-year renewal IHA that could be issued under certain circumstances and if all requirements are met, as described in Request for Public Comments at the end of this notice. NMFS will consider public comments prior to making any final decision on the issuance of the requested MMPA authorizations and agency responses will be summarized in the final notice of our decision.
DATES: Comments and information must be received no later than April 19, 2021.
ADDRESSES: Comments should be addressed to Jolie Harrison, Chief, Permits and Conservation Division, Office of Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries Service. Written comments should be submitted via email to ITP.Meadows@noaa.gov.
Instructions: NMFS is not responsible for comments sent by any other method, to any other address or individual, or received after the end of the comment period. Comments, including all attachments, must not exceed a 25megabyte file size. Attachments to comments will be accepted in Microsoft Word or Excel or Adobe PDF file formats only. All comments received are a part of the public record and will generally be posted online at https
www.fisheries.noaa.gov/permit/
incidental-take-authorizations-undermarine-mammal-protection-act without change. All personal identifying information e.g., name, address voluntarily submitted by the commenter may be publicly accessible. Do not submit confidential business information or otherwise sensitive or protected information.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Dwayne Meadows, Ph.D., Office of Protected Resources, NMFS, 301 427
8401. Electronic copies of the original application, request for a new IHA, and supporting documents including NMFS
Federal Register notices of the original proposed and final authorizations, and the previous IHA, as well as a list of the references cited in this document, may be obtained online at: https

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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 is 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 such species or stocks for taking for certain subsistence uses referred to here as mitigation measures. Monitoring and reporting of such takings are also required. The meaning of key terms such as take, harassment, and negligible impact can be found in section 3 of the MMPA
16 U.S.C. 1362 and the agencys regulations at 50 CFR 216.103.
National Environmental Policy Act To comply with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969
NEPA; 42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq. and NOAA Administrative Order NAO
2166A, NMFS must review our proposed action i.e., the issuance of an IHA with respect to potential impacts on the human environment.
This action is consistent with categories of activities identified in Categorical Exclusion B4 IHAs with no anticipated serious injury or mortality of the Companion Manual for NOAA
Administrative Order 2166A, which do not individually or cumulatively have the potential for significant impacts on the quality of the human environment
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and for which we have not identified any extraordinary circumstances that would preclude this categorical exclusion. Accordingly, NMFS has preliminarily determined that the issuance of the proposed IHA qualifies to be categorically excluded from further NEPA review.
We will review all comments submitted in response to this notice prior to concluding our NEPA process or making a final decision on the IHA
request.
History of Request On July 30, 2019, NMFS received a request from HPMS for an IHA to take marine mammals incidental to dock expansion activities. On April 8, 2020, NMFS issued an IHA to HPMS to take marine mammals incidental to the Old Sitka Dock North Dolphins Expansion Project in Sitka, Alaska 85 FR 21399, April 17, 2020, effective from October 1, 2020 through February 28, 2021. On February 3, 2021, NMFS received an application to complete the remaining work from the 2020 IHA. The application was deemed adequate and complete on February 21, 2021. As described in the application for the new IHA, the activities for which incidental take is requested were covered by the 2020 authorization but will not be completed prior to its expiration. HPMS
requested the new IHA be effective from April 15, 2021 through April 14, 2022.
Description of the Specified Activities and Anticipated Impacts As described in the 2020 IHA, HPMS
is adding two additional dolphin structures and strengthening two existing dolphin structures at their deep-water dock facility in Sitka Sound.
Construction at the dock facility includes vibratory pile installation and small impact if necessary and vibratory removal of eight temporary, 30-inch template pile structures, vibratory and impact installation of ten 48-inch permanent piles comprising the dolphins, and down-the-hole drilling to install eight bedrock anchors for the permanent piles of the dolphins. The only remaining work for this IHA is constructing one new dolphin i.e., four 30-inch template piles and four 48-inch piles. The remaining work consists of 9
days of in-water work.
Vibratory pile removal and installation, impact pile installation, and drilling activity will introduce underwater sounds that may result in take, by Level A and Level B
harassment, of seven species Level A
harassment is authorized for only two of the seven species of marine mammals across approximately 55.9 square
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