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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 23 / Friday, February 5, 2021 / Notices
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration RTID 0648XA661

Takes of Marine Mammals Incidental to Specified Activities; Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to Construction of the South Fork Offshore Wind Project National Marine Fisheries Service NMFS, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA, Commerce.
ACTION: Notice; proposed incidental harassment authorization; request for comments on proposed authorization and possible renewal.
AGENCY:

NMFS has received a request from South Fork Wind, LLC South Fork Wind to take marine mammals incidental to construction of a commercial wind energy project southeast of Rhode Island, within the Rhode Island-Massachusetts Wind Energy Area RI/MA WEA. Pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act MMPA, NMFS is requesting comments on its proposal to issue an incidental harassment authorization IHA to incidentally take marine mammals during the specified activities. NMFS is also requesting comments on a possible one-time, one-year renewal that could be issued under certain circumstances and if all requirements are met, as described in Request for Public Comments at the end of this notice.
NMFS will consider public comments prior to making any final decision on the issuance of the requested MMPA
authorizations and agency responses will be summarized in the final notice of our decision.
DATES: Comments and information must be received no later than March 10, 2021.
SUMMARY:

Comments should be addressed to Jolie Harrison, Chief, Permits and Conservation Division, Office of Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries Service and should be sent to ITP.Esch@noaa.gov.
Instructions: NMFS is not responsible for comments sent by any other method, to any other address or individual, or received after the end of the comment period. Comments, including all attachments, must not exceed a 25megabyte file size. Attachments to comments will be accepted in Microsoft Word or Excel or Adobe PDF file formats only. All comments received are a part of the public record and will generally be posted online at www.fisheries.noaa.gov/permit/

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ADDRESSES:

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incidental-take-authorizations-undermarine-mammal-protection-act without change. All personal identifying information e.g., name, address voluntarily submitted by the commenter may be publicly accessible. Do not submit confidential business information or otherwise sensitive or protected information.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Carter Esch, Office of Protected Resources, NMFS, 301 4278421.
Electronic copies of the application and supporting documents, as well as a list of the references cited in this document, may be obtained online at:
www.fisheries.noaa.gov/permit/
incidental-take-authorizations-undermarine-mammal-protection-act. In case of problems accessing these documents, please call the contact listed above.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background The MMPA prohibits the take of marine mammals, with certain exceptions. Sections 101a5A and D of the MMPA 16 U.S.C. 1361 et seq. direct the Secretary of Commerce as delegated to NMFS 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 incidental take authorization may be provided to the public for review.
Authorization for incidental takings shall be granted if NMFS finds that the taking will have a negligible impact on the species or stocks and will not have an unmitigable adverse impact on the availability of the species or stocks for taking for subsistence uses where relevant. Further, NMFS must prescribe the permissible methods of taking and other means of effecting the least practicable adverse impact on the affected species or stocks and their habitat, paying particular attention to rookeries, mating grounds, and areas of similar significance, and on the availability of such species or stocks for taking for certain subsistence uses referred to in shorthand as mitigation; and requirements pertaining to the mitigation, monitoring and reporting of such takings are set forth.
The definitions of all applicable MMPA statutory terms cited above are included in the relevant sections below.

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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 i.e., the issuance of an incidental harassment authorization with respect to potential impacts on the human environment. In compliance with NEPA, as implemented by the regulations published by the Council on Environmental Quality 40 CFR parts 15001508 1978, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management BOEM prepared an Environmental Impact Statement EIS to consider the direct, indirect and cumulative effects to the human environment resulting from the South Fork Wind project. NMFS is a cooperating agency on BOEMs EIS.
Accordingly, NMFS plans to adopt the Bureau of Ocean Energy Managements BOEM Environmental Impact Statement EIS, provided our independent evaluation of the document finds that it includes adequate information analyzing the effects of the proposed IHA issuance on the human environment. BOEMs draft EIS was made available for public comment from January 8, 2021 to February 22, 2021 and is available at:
www.boem.gov/South Fork-Wind.
NMFS will review all comments submitted in response to this notice prior to concluding our NEPA process or making a final decision on the IHA
request.
This project is covered under Title 41
of the Fixing Americas Surface Transportation Act, or FAST41.
FAST41 includes a suite of provisions designed to expedite the environmental review for covered infrastructure projects, including enhanced interagency coordination as well as milestone tracking on the public-facing Permitting Dashboard. The dashboard for this project is available at https
www.permits.performance.gov/
permitting-projects/south-fork-windfarm-and-south-fork-export-cable.
Summary of Request On March 15, 2019, NMFS received a request from South Fork Wind for an IHA to take marine mammals incidental to construction of an offshore wind energy project southeast of Rhode Island. Following a delay of the project, South Fork Wind submitted an updated version of the application on June 3, 2020, and then a revised version September 14, 2020. The application was deemed adequate and complete on September 15, 2020. However, on December 15, 2020, South Fork Wind
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