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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 99 / Tuesday, May 25, 2021 / Rules and Regulations Point Reyes National Seashore:
PRNS is approximately 40 miles 64.3
km north of San Francisco Bay and also lies within the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary.
Detailed Description of Specific Activity A detailed description of Point Blues planned activities was provided in our proposed rule 85 FR 44835; July 24, 2020 and is not repeated here. No changes have been made to the specified activities described therein.

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Comments and Responses We published a proposed rule on July 24, 2020 85 FR 44835 and requested comments and information from the public. During the 30-day public comment period, we received a comment letter from the Marine Mammal Commission Commission.
The Commissions comments and our responses are described below. For full detail of the comments and recommendations, please see the comment letter, which is available online at: https
www.fisheries.noaa.gov/action/
incidental-take-authorization-pointblue-conservation-science-seabird-andpinniped-1.
Comment 1: Due to an increasing number of Steller sea lions reported at the SEFI research site, the Commission recommended NMFS increase the annual authorized take of Steller sea lions from 65 to 72 per year.
Response: NMFS concurs with the Commissions recommendation and has increased the authorized take of Steller sea lions accordingly in this final rule.
Comment 2: The Commission recommended that NMFS require Point Blue to include raw sightings data with each annual monitoring report and ensure that the reporting requirements
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align with the required monitoring information to be collected.
Additionally, the Commission recommended that NMFS require Point Blue to avoid visits to research sites if the number of takes that has been authorized for a given species is met.
Response: NMFS concurs with the Commissions recommendations and has revised the LOA and regulations accordingly in this final rule.
Changes From Proposed Rule to Final Rule As described above in response to comments from the Commission, in this final rule NMFS has increased the authorized take of Steller sea lions from 65 to 72 sea lions per year by Level B
harassment see response to Comment 1, and has added additional monitoring, reporting, and mitigation requirements see response to Comment 2.
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 at survey sites in California, and summarizes
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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 the Committee on Taxonomy 2019. 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. 2019 Pacific and Alaska Marine Mammal SARs Carretta et al.
2020a; Muto et al., 2020a and draft U.S.
2020 Pacific and Alaska Marine Mammal SARs Caretta et al., 2020b;
Muto et al., 2020b. All values presented in Table 1 are the most recent available at the time of publication and are available in the 2019 and draft 2020
SARs available online at: https
www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/
marine-mammal-protection/draftmarine-mammal-stock-assessmentreports.

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