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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 108 / Tuesday, June 8, 2021 / Notices
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description is not provided here. Please refer to that Federal Register notice and the original proposed IHA documents referenced therein for a detailed description of the specified activity.
Comments and Responses A notice of NMFS proposal to issue an IHA to the Navy was published in the Federal Register on April 8, 2021
86 FR 18244. That notice described, in detail, the Navys activity, the marine mammal species that may be affected by the activity, and the anticipated effects on marine mammals. During the 30-day public comment period, NMFS received comments from the Marine Mammal Commission Commission. For full details of the comments, please see the Commissions letter, which is available online at: https
www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/
marine-mammal-protection/incidentaltake-authorizations-constructionactivitiesactive-authorizations. A
summary of the Commissions recommendations as well as NMFS
responses is below.
Comment 1: As a result of its belief that NMFS did not provide the public with an adequate basis for review of NMFS proposed action, due to what it asserts are errors in the notice of the proposed authorization, the Commission recommends that NMFS
either deny the proposed incidental harassment authorization or publish a revised Federal Register notice and draft authorization with another 30-day comment period.
Response: NMFS does not agree with the Commission and does not adopt the recommendation. Although the initial Federal Register notice and proposed authorization contained certain errors and omissions, which have been addressed in this notice and authorization according to the Commissions recommendations, the description of the specified activity and analysis of potential acoustic impacts on marine mammals in the vicinity of the project area in the notice of the proposed authorization 86 FR 18422;
April 8, 2021 provided sufficient information upon which to determine whether or not the activities would have a negligible impact on the species or stocks for which take is likely to occur, and on which the public had an opportunity to comment. The information utilized in take estimation i.e., source levels, thresholds, densities, and number of construction days for each specified activity has largely been retained from the proposed to the final authorization, with the exception of revised source levels for impact pile driving of an 18-inch flat-webbed sheet
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pile which reduced the harassment zone sizes and take estimates for gray and harbor seals. The Commission noted that the thresholds associated with slight lung injury and mortality were incorrectly specified in the notice of the proposed IHA. However, the distances to the isopleths for onset of and 50 percent probability of gastrointestinal tract injury, and the resulting estimate of zero take for harbor porpoises and phocids, provided accurate information regarding the potential for this type of non-auditory injury. The distances to thresholds associated with gastrointestinal injury harbor porpoises, 26 meters m;
phocids, 26 m, slight lung injury harbor porpoises, 48 meters; phocids, 34 m and mortality harbor porpoises, 21 m; phocids, 18 m calculated for the City of Juneaus Statter Harbor Project see 84 FR 11066; March 25, 2019 are similar to each other in magnitude. The distances to slight lung injury and mortality thresholds are not expected to be substantially different for blasting at PNSY than those calculated for Statter Harbor, and would likely be within tens of meters from those estimated here for onset of and 50 percent probability of gastrointestinal tract injury. All of these zones would be smaller than the Level A harassment zones for harbor porpoises and phocids, and would be encompassed by the large shutdown zone for blasting at DD1. The mitigation requirements for blasting events, including the use of stemmed charges, installation of a double bubble curtain across openings to the super flood basin in which blasting will occur, and implementation of shutdown procedures, are sufficiently protective to minimize the potential for non-auditory injury such that the potential for nonauditory injury is considered discountable. No mortality is anticipated or authorized for these activities. Per the Commissions recommendations, additional mitigation and monitoring requirements for blasting have been incorporated into the issued authorization.
The majority of the Commissions comments pertained to errors or inconsistencies that have been addressed in this notice and the final authorization. NMFS small numbers finding and negligible impact determination were not affected by the changes from the proposed to the final authorization; therefore, NMFS is not republishing a notice of the proposed authorization.
Comment 2: The Commission recommends that NMFS return the IHA
application to the Navy as incomplete and refrain from processing future
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authorization applications until the Commissions perceived issues are resolved.
Response: NMFS appreciates the Commissions concern but will consider any future requests for incidental take authorization from the Navy according to the requirements of the MMPA.
Changes From the Proposed IHA to the Final IHA
The following corrections and additions have been incorporated into this notice and/or the issued IHA:
Corrected the reference for the 28inch Z-shaped sheet pile source level NAVFAC 2020; Table 6;
Revised source levels for impact pile driving of 18-inch flat-webbed sheet piles, as well as all associated acoustic analyses and take estimation;
Included a description of transmission loss modeling, as well as the coefficients used to estimate Level B
harassment zones for construction activities;
Included the input parameters used to estimate Level A harassment zones for pile driving and removal, and blastcharge hole drilling Table 8;
Corrected distance to the Level B
harassment isopleth for removal of 30inch steel pipe piles to 13.6 kilometers km from 46 km Table 8;
Corrected typographical errors specifying ensonified zones in Tables 8
and 9;
Included ranges to peak SPL
thresholds for PTS for blasting events as a footnote of Table 9;
Refined identification of the specific activities to which take is attributed Table 11;
Corrected take estimate for harbor porpoises reduced from 6 to 4 to align with the IHA application, and adjusted take estimates for impact pile driving of 18-inch flat-webbed sheet piles based on revised source levels Table 11;
Added additional mitigation requirements for blasting, including 1
requiring stemmed charges, 2
restricting blasting to a time period at least 30 minutes after sunrise and one hour before sunset, 3 requiring monitoring to occur for at least one hour after blasting activities cease, 4
requiring that the Navy notify NMFS
and the Greater Atlantic Regional Stranding Coordinator or local stranding network at least 24 hours prior to commencing a blasting event and within 24 hours after a blasting event ceases if occurring on consecutive days, the Navy can provide notice of how long blasting is scheduled to last and when it has been completed, and 5 requiring that the Navy immediately report any injured or dead marine mammal to the
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