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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 154 / Friday, August 13, 2021 / Notices
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration RTID 0648XB309

Taking and Importing Marine Mammals; Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to Geophysical Surveys Related to Oil and Gas Activities in the Gulf of Mexico National Marine Fisheries Service NMFS, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA, Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of issuance of Letter of Authorization.
AGENCY:

SUMMARY: In accordance with the Marine Mammal Protection Act MMPA, as amended, its implementing regulations, and NMFS MMPA
Regulations for Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to Geophysical Surveys Related to Oil and Gas Activities in the Gulf of Mexico, notification is hereby given that a Letter of Authorization LOA has been issued to Taylor Energy Company LLC Taylor for the take of marine mammals incidental to geophysical survey activity in the Gulf of Mexico.
DATES: The LOA is effective from August 15, 2021, through August 15, 2022.

The LOA, LOA request, and supporting documentation are available online at: www.fisheries.noaa.gov/
action/incidental-take-authorization-oiland-gas-industry-geophysical-surveyactivity-gulf-mexico. In case of problems accessing these documents, please call the contact listed below see FOR
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ben Laws, Office of Protected Resources, NMFS, 301 4278401.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
ADDRESSES:

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Background Sections 101a5A and D of the MMPA 16 U.S.C. 1361 et seq. direct the Secretary of Commerce 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 authorization is provided to the public for review.
An authorization for incidental takings shall be granted if NMFS finds that the taking will have a negligible
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impact on the species or stocks, will not have an unmitigable adverse impact on the availability of the species or stocks for subsistence uses where relevant, and if the permissible methods of taking and requirements pertaining to the mitigation, monitoring and reporting of such takings are set forth. NMFS has defined negligible impact in 50 CFR 216.103 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.
Except with respect to certain activities not pertinent here, the MMPA
defines harassment as: Any act of pursuit, torment, or annoyance which i has the potential to injure a marine mammal or marine mammal stock in the wild Level A harassment; or ii has the potential to disturb a marine mammal or marine mammal stock in the wild by causing disruption of behavioral patterns, including, but not limited to, migration, breathing, nursing, breeding, feeding, or sheltering Level B
harassment.
On January 19, 2021, we issued a final rule with regulations to govern the unintentional taking of marine mammals incidental to geophysical survey activities conducted by oil and gas industry operators, and those persons authorized to conduct activities on their behalf collectively industry operators, in Federal waters of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico GOM over the course of 5 years 86 FR 5322; January 19, 2021. The rule was based on our findings that the total taking from the specified activities over the 5-year period will have a negligible impact on the affected species or stocks of marine mammals and will not have an unmitigable adverse impact on the availability of those species or stocks for subsistence uses. The rule became effective on April 19, 2021.
Our regulations at 50 CFR 217.180 et seq. allow for the issuance of LOAs to industry operators for the incidental take of marine mammals during geophysical survey activities and prescribe the permissible methods of taking and other means of effecting the least practicable adverse impact on marine mammal species or stocks and their habitat often referred to as mitigation, as well as requirements pertaining to the monitoring and reporting of such taking. Under 50 CFR
217.186e, issuance of an LOA shall be based on a determination that the level of taking will be consistent with the findings made for the total taking allowable under these regulations and a determination that the amount of take
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authorized under the LOA is of no more than small numbers.
Summary of Request and Analysis Taylor plans to conduct a 2D high resolution seismic survey in Mississippi Canyon Block 20. Taylor plans to use a single, 10-cubic inch airgun, and would also use a suite of high-resolution geophysical acoustic sources aboard an autonomous underwater vehicle. Please see Taylors application for additional detail.
Consistent with the preamble to the final rule, the survey effort proposed by Taylor in its LOA request was used to develop LOA-specific take estimates based on the acoustic exposure modeling results described in the preamble 86 FR 5322, 5398; January 19, 2021. In order to generate the appropriate take number for authorization, the following information was considered: 1 Survey type; 2
location by modeling zone 1; 3
number of days; and 4 season.2 The acoustic exposure modeling performed in support of the rule provides 24-hour exposure estimates for each species, specific to each modeled survey type in each zone and season.
Exposure modeling results were generated using the single airgun proxy.
Because those results assume use of a 90-in3 airgun, the take numbers authorized through this LOA are considered conservative i.e., they likely overestimate take due to differences in the sound source planned for use by Taylor, as compared to those modeled for the rule. The survey is planned to occur for 3 days in Zone 5. The season is not known in advance. Therefore, the take estimates for each species are based on the season that has the greater value for the species i.e., winter or summer.
In this case, use of the exposure modeling produces results that are substantially smaller than average GOM
group sizes for multiple species i.e., estimated exposure values are less than 10 percent of assumed average group size for the majority of species MazeFoley and Mullin, 2006. NMFS typical practice in such a situation is to increase exposure estimates to the assumed average group size for a species in order to ensure that, if the species is encountered, exposures will not exceed the authorized take number. However, other relevant considerations here lead to a determination that increasing the estimated exposures to average group 1 For purposes of acoustic exposure modeling, the GOM was divided into seven zones. Zone 1 is not included in the geographic scope of the rule.
2 For purposes of acoustic exposure modeling, seasons include Winter DecemberMarch and Summer AprilNovember.

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