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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 99 / Tuesday, May 25, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
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specified activities until NMFS is able to review the circumstances of the incident and determine what, if any, additional measures are appropriate to ensure compliance with the terms of the LOA. Point Blue must not resume their activities until notified by NMFS. The report must include the following information:
1 Time, date, and location latitude/
longitude of the first discovery and updated location information if known and applicable;
2 Species identification if known or description of the animals involved;
3 Condition of the animals including carcass condition if the animal is dead;
4 Observed behaviors of the animals, if alive;
5 If available, photographs or video footage of the animals; and 6 General circumstances under which the animal was discovered.
A draft final report shall be submitted to the NMFS Office of Protected Resources within 60 days after the conclusion of the fifth year. A final report shall be submitted to the Director of the NMFS Office of Protected Resources within 30 days after receiving comments from NMFS on the draft final report. If no comments are received from NMFS, the draft final report will be considered the final report.
Negligible Impact Analysis and Determination NMFS has defined negligible impact as an impact resulting from the specified activity that cannot be reasonably expected to, and is not reasonably likely to, adversely affect the species or stock through effects on annual rates of recruitment or survival 50 CFR 216.103. A negligible impact finding is based on the lack of likely adverse effects on annual rates of recruitment or survival i.e., populationlevel effects. An estimate of the number of takes alone is not enough information on which to base an impact determination. In addition to considering estimates of the number of marine mammals that might be taken through harassment, NMFS considers other factors, such as the likely nature of any responses e.g., intensity, duration, the context of any responses e.g., critical reproductive time or location, migration, as well as effects on habitat, and the likely effectiveness of the mitigation. We also assess the number, intensity, and context of estimated takes by evaluating this information relative to population status. Consistent with the 1989
preamble for NMFSs implementing regulations 54 FR 40338; September 29,
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1989, the impacts from other past and ongoing anthropogenic activities are incorporated into this analysis via their impacts on the environmental baseline e.g., as reflected in the regulatory status of the species, population size and growth rate where known, ongoing sources of human-caused mortality, or ambient noise levels.
To avoid repetition, the discussion of our analyses applies to all the species listed in Table 3, given that the anticipated effects of this activity on these different marine mammal stocks are expected to be similar. For reasons stated previously in this document and based on the following factors, NMFS
does not expect Point Blues specified activities to cause long-term behavioral disturbance that would negatively impact an individual animals fitness, or result in injury, serious injury, or mortality. Although Point Blues survey activities may disturb marine mammals, NMFS expects those impacts to occur to localized groups of animals at or near survey sites. Behavioral disturbance would be limited to short-term startle responses and localized behavioral changes due to the short duration ranging from <15 minutes for visits at most locations up to 25 hours from AprilAugust at SEFI of the research activities. At some locations, where resupply activities occur, visits will occur once every two weeks. Minor and brief responses including short-duration startle reactions, are not likely to constitute disruption of behavioral patterns, such as migration, nursing, breeding, feeding, or sheltering. These short duration disturbances in many cases animals will return in 30 minutes or less will generally allow marine mammals to reoccupy haulouts relatively quickly; therefore, these disturbances would not be anticipated to result in long-term disruption of important behaviors. No surveys will occur at or near rookeries as researchers will have limited access to SEFI, ANI, and PRNS during the pupping season and will not approach sites should pups be observed. Furthermore, breeding animals tend to be concentrated in areas that researchers are not scheduled to visit. Therefore, NMFS does not expect mother and pup separation or crushing of pups during stampedes.
Level B behavioral harassment of pinnipeds may occur during the operation of small motorboats. However, exposure to boats and associated engine noise would be brief and would not occur on a frequent basis. Results from studies demonstrate that pinnipeds generally return to their sites and do not permanently abandon haul-out sites after exposure to motorboats Henry and
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Hammil 2001; Johnson and AcevedoGutierrez 2007. The chance of a vessel strike is very low due to small boat size and slow transit speeds. Researchers will delay ingress into the landing areas until after the pinnipeds enter the water and will cautiously operate vessels at slow speeds.
In summary and as described above, the following factors primarily support our determination that the impacts resulting from this activity are not expected to adversely affect the species or stock through effects on annual rates of recruitment or survival:
No serious injury or mortality, or Level A harassment, is anticipated or authorized;
There is no activity near rookeries and researchers will avoid areas where pups are present;
There is likely to be limited impact from boats due to their small size, maneuverability and the requirement to delay ingress until after hauled out pinnipeds have entered the water;
No impacts to pinniped habitat are anticipated; and Only limited behavioral disturbance in the form of short-duration startle reactions is expected, and mitigation requirements employed by researchers e.g. move slowly, use hushed voices should further decrease disturbance levels.
Based on the analysis contained herein of the likely effects of the specified activity on marine mammals and their habitat, and taking into consideration the implementation of the required monitoring and mitigation measures, NMFS finds that the total marine mammal take from Point Blues planned activity will have a negligible impact on all affected marine mammal species or stocks.
Small Numbers As noted above, only small numbers of incidental take may be authorized under Sections 101a5A of the MMPA for specified activities other than military readiness activities. The MMPA does not define small numbers and so, in practice, where estimated numbers are available, NMFS compares the number of individuals taken to the most appropriate estimation of abundance of the relevant species or stock in our determination of whether an authorization is limited to small numbers of marine mammals.
Additionally, other qualitative factors may be considered in the analysis, such as the temporal or spatial scale of the activities.
The annual amount of take NMFS has authorized is less than one-third of any stocks best population estimate Table
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