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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 108 / Tuesday, June 8, 2021 / Notices
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cannot extend beyond one year from expiration of the initial IHA.
2 The request for Renewal must include the following:
An explanation that the activities to be conducted under the requested Renewal IHA are identical to the activities analyzed under the initial IHA, are a subset of the activities, or include changes so minor e.g., reduction in pile size that the changes do not affect the previous analyses, mitigation and monitoring requirements, or take estimates with the exception of reducing the type or amount of take.
A preliminary monitoring report showing the results of the required monitoring to date and an explanation showing that the monitoring results do not indicate impacts of a scale or nature not previously analyzed or authorized.
3 Upon review of the request for Renewal, the status of the affected species or stocks, and any other pertinent information, NMFS
determines that there are no more than minor changes in the activities, the mitigation and monitoring measures will remain the same and appropriate, and the findings in the initial IHA
remain valid.
An additional public comment period of 15 days for a total of 45 days, with direct notice by email, phone, or postal service to commenters on the initial IHA, is provided to allow for any additional comments on the proposed Renewal. A description of the Renewal process may be found on our website at:
www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/
marine-mammal-protection/incidentalharassment-authorization-renewals.
Any comments received on the potential Renewal, along with relevant comments on the initial IHA, have been considered in the development of this proposed IHA Renewal, and a summary of agency responses to applicable comments is included in this notice. NMFS will consider any additional public comments prior to making any final decision on the issuance of the requested Renewal, and agency responses will be summarized in the final notice of our decision.
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 with respect to environmental consequences on the human environment.
This action is consistent with categories of activities identified in CE
B4 of the Companion Manual for NOAA

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Administrative Order 2166A, which do not individually or cumulatively have the potential for significant impacts on the quality of the human environment 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 Renewal 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
Renewal request.
History of Request On May 06, 2020, NMFS issued an IHA to Vineyard Wind to take marine mammals incidental to marine site characterization survey activities off the coast of Massachusetts in the areas of the Commercial Lease of Submerged Lands for Renewable Energy Development on the Outer Continental Shelf OCSA 0501 and OCSA 0522
and along potential submarine cable routes to landfall locations in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York 85 FR
26940, effective from June 01, 2020
through May 31, 2021. This IHA was reissued on July 14, 2020 with the only change being a change in effective dates from June 21, 2020 through June 20, 2021 85 FR 42357. On March 25, 2021, NMFS received a request for a Renewal of the re-issued IHA. As described in the request for Renewal IHA, the activities for which incidental take is requested consist of activities that are covered by the initial authorization but will not be completed prior to its expiration. As required, the applicant also provided a preliminary monitoring report available at https www.fisheries.noaa.gov/
permit/incidental-take-authorizationsunder-marine-mammal-protection-act which confirms that the applicant has implemented the required mitigation and monitoring, and which also shows that no impacts of a scale or nature not previously analyzed or authorized have occurred as a result of the activities conducted.
Description of the Specified Activities and Anticipated Impacts Vineyard Wind plans to conduct highresolution geophysical HRG surveys in support of offshore wind development projects in the areas of Commercial Lease of Submerged Lands for Renewable Energy Development on the Outer Continental Shelf OCSA 0501
and OCSA 0522 Lease Areas and along potential submarine cable routes
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to landfall locations in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York. The purpose of the marine site characterization surveys is to obtain a baseline assessment of seabed/subsurface soil conditions in the Lease Area and cable route corridors to support the siting of potential future offshore wind projects. Underwater sound resulting from Vineyard Winds planned site characterization surveys has the potential to result in incidental take of 14 marine mammal species in the form of Level B behavioral harassment.
Vineyard Wind requested a Renewal of the initial IHA that was re-issued by NMFS in July 2020 on the basis that the activities as described in the Specified Activities section of the initial IHA
would not be completed by the time the IHA expires and a Renewal would allow for completion of the activities beyond that described in the Dates and Duration section of the initial IHA.
In their 2020 IHA application, Vineyard Wind estimated that it would take a year to complete the HRG
surveys. This schedule was based on 24hour operations and included potential down time due to inclement weather.
With up to eight survey vessels operating concurrently, a maximum of 736 vessel days were anticipated. Each vessel would maintain a speed of approximately 3.5 knots kn; 6.5
kilometers km/hour while transiting survey lines and each vessel would cover approximately 100 km per day.
However, during the 20202021 survey season, Vineyard Wind completed only 184 vessel days of the 736 vessel days estimated to complete the work and only surveyed approximately 25 percent of the planned survey routes. Vineyard Wind predicts that a maximum of 552
vessel days, with up to eight survey vessels operating concurrently, over 181
days will be required to survey the remaining routes, estimated to be approximately 55,200 km. The Renewal IHA would authorize harassment of marine mammals for this remaining survey distance using survey methods identical to those described in the initial IHA application; therefore, the anticipated effects on marine mammals and the affected stocks also remain the same. All active acoustic sources and mitigation and monitoring measures would remain as described in the Federal Register notices of the proposed IHA 85 FR 7952, February 12, 2020
and issued IHA 85 FR 26940, May 06, 2020. The amount of take requested for the Renewal IHA reflects the amount of remaining work in consideration of marine mammal monitoring data from the 2020 survey season resulting in
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