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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 171 / Wednesday, September 8, 2021 / Proposed Rules
operations could last up to 3 hrs.
Second-day operations are only conducted if needed; flights on the second day do not always occur.
For the final day of operations, the Society could conduct a maximum of eight flights four arrivals and four departures to transport the crew members and equipment/material back to the Crescent City Airport. The total duration of the third days helicopter operations could last up to 2 hrs. Thus the total number of flights for restoration work on a 3 day trip is 20
i.e., 8 Friday, 4 Saturday, 8 Sunday.
The Society proposes no more than 14
3-day work sessions per year.
The number of flights and days of flights on a one to two week restoration trip would be similar to a 3 day trip.
That is eight flights on the first and last days of the trip plus four flights potentially on 1 day in the middle of the trip as needed. The Society is proposing no more than eight long trips per year.
To date no more than three trips per year have ever been conducted. The Society would have no more than two restoration work trips per month.
On a 3-day restoration trip tours may occur on the last day. The tours would be scheduled on a weekend day on the beginning and or the end of the work party for the one to two week duration restoration trips. Additional flights would be conducted solely for the transport of tourists to and from the Lighthouse; those flights would be conducted in the later hours of the morning and early afternoon. The maximum number of expected tourists is 36 people per tour day. Thus the number of helicopter flights needed for tourists is 18 9 arrivals and 9
departures. It is expected that each flight would land every 1520 minutes.
The scheduled duration of each visit is one hour per tour group each tour group is one helicopter load of people.
The last tour group would leave the
island before 2 p.m. The total number of helicopter flights on a tour day is thus no more than 26 18 for tourists, 8 for work crew members.
Light maintenance is expected to take no longer than 3 hours and one crew of two-three people. Only one-two helicopter landings at the Lighthouse are anticipated to ferry the crew an equipment to service the light. Thus a light maintenance trip requires a maximum of four flights on one day.
Most if not all of the disturbance from the Societys activity occurs on the flight days. When helicopters are not at the Station work crews remain inside or on the platform far above the marine mammals on the rocks below. Thus the number of flight days represents the general extent of the disturbance from these activities. The society proposes no more than 70 days of flight operations per year 4 for regular or emergency light maintenance trips and 66 for work restoration trips with additional flights, but not days of flight activity on no more than 30 tour days.
Proposed mitigation, monitoring, and reporting measures are described in detail later in this document please see Proposed Mitigation and Proposed Monitoring and Reporting.
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 or stocks for which take is expected and proposed to be authorized for this action, and summarizes information related to the population or stock, including regulatory status under the MMPA and the Endangered Species Act ESA and potential biological removal PBR, where known. For taxonomy, we follow Committee on Taxonomy 2020. 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. Pacific Marine Mammal SARs e.g., Carretta et al. 2020. All values presented in Table 1 are the most recent available at the time of publication and are available in the 2019 SARs Carretta et al. 2020 and draft 2020 SARs available online at:
https www.fisheries.noaa.gov/
national/marine-mammal-protection/
draft-marine-mammal-stockassessment-reports.

TABLE 1SPECIES THAT SPATIALLY CO-OCCUR WITH THE ACTIVITY TO THE DEGREE THAT TAKE IS REASONABLY LIKELY
TO OCCUR
Common name
Scientific name
Stock
I

ESA/
MMPA
status;
Strategic Y/N 1

I

Stock abundance CV, Nmin, most recent abundance survey 2

Annual M/SI 3

PBR

I

I

jbell on DSKJLSW7X2PROD with PROPOSALS

Order CarnivoraSuperfamily Pinnipedia Family Otariidae eared seals and sea lions California sea lion

Zalophus californianus

U.S

-, -, N

Northern fur seal

Callorhinus ursinus

California Breeding

-, D, N

Steller sea lion

Eumetopias jubatus

Eastern U.S

-, -, N

257,606 N/A, 233,515, 2014.
14,050 N/A, 7,524, 2013.
43,201 a see SAR, 43,201, 2017.

Family Phocidae earless seals
VerDate Sep<11>2014

16:57 Sep 07, 2021

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14,011

>320

451

1.8

2,592

113