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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 109 / Wednesday, June 9, 2021 / Notices DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service Docket No. FWSR7ES20200132;
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Marine Mammals; Incidental Take During Specified Activities; Proposed Incidental Harassment Authorization for Southeast Alaska Stock of Northern Sea Otters in the Queen Charlotte Fault Region, Alaska Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of receipt of application;
proposed incidental harassment authorization; request for comments.
AGENCY:

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in response to a request under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, as amended, from the National Science Foundation and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, propose to authorize nonlethal, incidental take by harassment of small numbers of the Southeast Alaska stock of northern sea otters between July 1, 2021, and August 31, 2021. The applicants have requested this authorization for take that may result from high-energy seismic surveys in the Queen Charlotte Fault region of Southeast Alaska. Seismic surveys are being conducted to characterize crustal and uppermost mantle velocity structure, fault zone architecture and rheology, and seismicity in the Queen Charlotte Fault. We estimate that this project may result in the nonlethal incidental take of up to 27 northern sea otters from the Southeast Alaska stock.
This proposed authorization, if finalized, will be for up to 49 takes of 27 northern sea otters by Level B
harassment only. No injury or mortality is expected or will be authorized.
DATES: Comments on the proposed incidental harassment authorization and draft environmental assessment must be received by July 9, 2021.
ADDRESSES: Document availability: You may view this proposed authorization, the application package, supporting information, and the lists of references cited herein at http
www.regulations.gov under Docket No.
FWSR7ES20200132, or these documents may be requested as described under FOR FURTHER
INFORMATION CONTACT.
Comment submission: You may submit comments on this proposed authorization by one of the following methods:
U.S. mail: Public Comments Processing, Attn: Docket No. FWSR7
ES20200132, U.S. Fish and Wildlife
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SUMMARY:

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Service, MS: PRB/3W, 5275 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, Virginia 22041
3803.
Electronic submission: Federal eRulemaking Portal at: http
www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments to Docket No. FWSR7ES20200132.
We will post all comments at http
www.regulations.gov. You may request that we withhold personal identifying information from public review;
however, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so. See Request for Public Comments for more information.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Marine Mammals Management, U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service, MS341, 1011 East Tudor Road, Anchorage, Alaska, 99503, by email at R7mmmregulatory@fws.gov; or by telephone at 18003625148. Persons who use a telecommunications device for the deaf TDD may call the Federal Relay Service FRS at 18008778339, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background Section 101a5D of the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972
MMPA; 16 U.S.C. 1361, et seq., authorizes the Secretary of the Interior Secretary to allow, upon request, the incidental but not intentional taking of small numbers of marine mammals of a species or population stock by U.S.
citizens who engage in a specified activity other than commercial fishing within a specified region during a period of not more than one year.
Incidental take may be authorized only if statutory and regulatory procedures are followed and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hereafter, the Service or we makes the following findings: i Take is of a small number of marine mammals of a species or population stock, ii take will have a negligible impact on the species or stock, and iii take will not have an unmitigable adverse impact on the availability of the species or stock for subsistence uses by coastal-dwelling Alaska Natives.
The term take, as defined by the MMPA, means to harass, hunt, capture, or kill, or to attempt to harass, hunt, capture, or kill any marine mammal 16
U.S.C. 136213. Harassment, as defined by the MMPA, means any act of pursuit, torment, or annoyance that i has the potential to injure a marine mammal or marine mammal stock in the wild the MMPA defines this as Level A harassment, or ii has the potential to disturb a marine mammal or marine mammal stock in the wild by causing
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disruption of behavioral patterns, including, but not limited to, migration, breathing, nursing, breeding, feeding, or sheltering the MMPA defines this as Level B harassment.
The terms negligible impact, small numbers, and unmitigable adverse impact are defined in the Code of Federal Regulations at 50 CFR 18.27, the Services regulations governing take of small numbers of marine mammals incidental to specified activities.
Negligible impact is defined 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. Small numbers is defined as a portion of a marine mammal species or stock whose taking would have a negligible impact on that species or stock. However, we do not rely on that definition, as it conflates the terms small numbers and negligible impact, which we recognize as two separate and distinct requirements see Natural Res. Def.
Council, Inc. v. Evans, 232 F. Supp. 2d 1003, 1025 N.D. Cal. 2003. Instead, in our small numbers determination, we evaluate whether the number of marine mammals likely to be taken is small relative to the size of the overall population. Unmitigable adverse impact is defined as an impact resulting from the specified activity 1
that is likely to reduce the availability of the species to a level insufficient for a harvest to meet subsistence needs by i causing the marine mammals to abandon or avoid hunting areas, ii directly displacing subsistence users, or iii placing physical barriers between the marine mammals and the subsistence hunters; and 2 that cannot be sufficiently mitigated by other measures to increase the availability of marine mammals to allow subsistence needs to be met.
If the requisite findings are made, we will issue an Incidental Harassment Authorization IHA, which sets forth the following: i Permissible methods of taking; ii other means of effecting the least practicable impact on marine mammals and their habitat, paying particular attention to rookeries, mating grounds, and areas of similar significance, and on the availability of marine mammals for taking for subsistence uses by coastal-dwelling Alaska Natives; and iii requirements for monitoring and reporting take.
Summary of Request On December 2, 2019, the National Science Foundation and LamontDoherty Earth Observatory hereafter
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