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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 122 / Tuesday, June 29, 2021 / Notices TABLE 2MARINE MAMMAL OCCURRENCE IN THE PROJECT AREA
Common name
Scientific name
Stock
I

ESA/
MMPA
status;
strategic Y/N 1

Stock abundance CV, Nmin, most recent abundance survey 2

Annual M/
SI 3

PBR

I

Order CetartiodactylaCetaceaSuperfamily Mysticeti baleen whales Family Balaenopteridae rorquals:
Minke Whale

Balaenoptera acutorostrata ..

Alaska

-, -, N

Humpback Whale

Megaptera novaeangliae

Central N Pacific

I-, -, Y

I

N/A see SAR, N/A, see SAR.
10,103 0.3, 7,891, 2006

UND

0

83

26

Superfamily Odontoceti toothed whales, dolphins, and porpoises Family Delphinidae:
Killer Whale

Pacific White-Sided Dolphin.
Family Phocoenidae porpoises:
Dalls Porpoise
Harbor Porpoise

Orcinus orca

Lagenorhynchus obliquidens
Phocoenoides dalli
Phocoena phocoena

Alaska Resident
Northern Resident
West Coast Transient
N Pacific

-, -, -, -,
-, -, -, -,
N N
N N

2,347 N/A, 2347, 2012
302 N/A, 302, 2018
349 N/A,349; 2018
26,880 N/A, N/A, 1990

24
2.2
3.5
UND

1
0.2
0.4
0

AK
Southeast Alaska Inland waters.

-, -, N
-, -, Y

83,400 0.097, N/A, 1991
see SAR see SAR, see SAR, 2012.

UND
see SAR

38
34

2592

112

746

40

Order CarnivoraSuperfamily Pinnipedia Family Otariidae eared seals and sea lions:
Steller sea lion

Eumetopias jubatus

Eastern DPS

T, D, Y

43,201 a see SAR, 43,201, 2017.

Family Phocidae earless seals:
Harbor Seal

Phoca vitulina

Clarence Strait

-, -, N

27,659 see SAR, 24,854, 2015.

1 Endangered Species Act ESA status: Endangered E, Threatened T/MMPA status: Depleted D. A dash - indicates that the species is not listed under the ESA or designated as depleted under the MMPA. Under the MMPA, a strategic stock is one for which the level of direct human-caused mortality exceeds PBR or which is determined to be declining and likely to be listed under the ESA within the foreseeable future. Any species or stock listed under the ESA is automatically designated under the MMPA as depleted and as a strategic stock.
2 NMFS marine mammal stock assessment reports online at: https www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-mammal-protection/marine-mammal-stock-assessmentreports-region. CV is coefficient of variation; Nmin is the minimum estimate of stock abundance. In some cases, CV is not applicable explain if this is the case:
3 These values, found in NMFSs SARs, represent annual levels of human-caused mortality plus serious injury from all sources combined e.g., commercial fisheries, ship strike. Annual M/SI often cannot be determined precisely and is in some cases presented as a minimum value or range. A CV associated with estimated mortality due to commercial fisheries is presented in some cases.

As indicated above, all eight species with 10 managed stocks in Table 2
temporally and spatially co-occur with the activity to the degree that take is reasonably likely to occur, and we have proposed authorizing it.

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Minke Whale In the North Pacific Ocean, minke whales occur from the Bering and Chukchi seas south to near the Equator Leatherwood et al., 1982. In the northern part of their range, minke whales are believed to be migratory, whereas, they appear to establish home ranges in the inland waters of Washington and along central California Dorsey et al. 1990. Minke whales are observed in Alaskas nearshore waters during the summer months National Park Service NPS 2018. Minke whales are usually sighted individually or in small groups of 23, but there are reports of loose aggregations of hundreds of animals NMFS 2018d.
No abundance estimates have been made for the number of minke whales in the entire North Pacific. However,
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some information is available on the numbers of minke whales in some areas of Alaska. Line-transect surveys were conducted in shelf and nearshore waters within 3045 nautical mi of land in 20012003 from the Kenai Fjords in the Gulf of Alaska to the central Aleutian Islands. Minke whale abundance was estimated to be 1,233 CV = 0.34 for this area Zerbini et al., 2006. This estimate has also not been corrected for animals missed on the trackline. The majority of the sightings were in the Aleutian Islands, rather than in the Gulf of Alaska, and in water shallower than 200 m. So few minke whales were seen during three offshore Gulf of Alaska surveys for cetaceans in 2009, 2013, and 2015 that a population estimate for this species in this area could not be determined Rone et al., 2017.
Anecdotal observations suggest that minke whales do not enter Port Chester, and so are expected to occur rarely in the project area L. Bethel, personal communication, June 11, 2020 as cited in the application. In nearby Tongass Narrows, NMFS estimated an
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occurrence rate of three individuals every 4 months 85 FR 673 based on Freitag, 2017 as cited in 83 FR 37473.
A recent monitoring report for Tongass Narrows reported no sightings of minke whales in May 2021 report available at https www.fisheries.noaa.gov/action/
incidental-take-authorization-alaskadepartment-transportation-ferry-berthimprovements.
Humpback Whale The humpback whale is distributed worldwide in all ocean basins and a broad geographical range from tropical to temperate waters in the Northern Hemisphere and from tropical to nearice-edge waters in the Southern Hemisphere. The humpback whales that forage throughout British Colombia and Southeast Alaska undertake seasonal migrations from their tropical calving and breeding grounds in winter to their high-latitude feeding grounds in summer. They may be seen at any time
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