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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 145 / Monday, August 2, 2021 / Rules and Regulations Coastal Area 4Northern California Coast Area: U.S. marine waters from the OR/CA border 420000 N south to Cape Mendocino, CA 402619 N, between the 6.1m and 200-m isobath contours. This area covers 1,606.8 mi2
4,161.5 km2 and includes waters off Del Norte and Humboldt counties in California. The primary essential feature of this area is prey.
Coastal Specific Area 5North Central California Coast Area: U.S.
marine waters from Cape Mendocino, CA 402619 N south to Pigeon Point, CA 371100 N, between the 6.1-m and 200-m isobath contours. This area covers 3,976.2 mi2 10,298.4 km2 and includes waters off Humboldt, Mendocino, Sonoma, Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo counties in California. The primary essential feature of this area is passage.
Coastal Specific Area 6Monterey Bay Area: U.S. marine waters from Pigeon Point, CA 371100 N south to Point Sur, CA 361800 N, between the 6.1-m and 200-m isobath contours.
This area covers 709.7 mi2 1,838.2 km2
and includes waters off San Mateo, Santa Cruz, and Monterey counties in California. The primary essential feature of this area is prey.
Need for Special Management Considerations or Protection Joint NMFS and USFWS regulations at 50 CFR 424.02 define special management considerations or protection to mean methods or
procedures useful in protecting physical and biological features essential to the conservation of listed species.
Human activities managed under a variety of legal mandates have the potential to affect the habitat features essential to the conservation of Southern Resident killer whales, including those that could increase water contamination and/or chemical exposure, decrease the quantity or quality of prey, or could inhibit safe, unrestricted passage between important habitat areas to find prey and fulfill other life history requirements.
Examples of these types of activities include but are not limited to: 1
Salmon fisheries and fisheries that take salmon as bycatch; 2 salmon hatcheries; 3 offshore aquaculture/
mariculture; 4 alternative energy development; 5 oil spills and response;
6 military activities; 7 vessel traffic;
8 dredging and dredge material disposal; 9 oil and gas exploration and production; 10 mineral mining including sand and gravel mining; 11
geologic surveys including seismic surveys; and 12 activities occurring adjacent to or upstream of critical habitat that may affect essential features, that we refer to as upstream activities including activities contributing to point-source water pollution, power plant operations, liquefied natural gas terminals, desalinization plants. We identified these activities based on our ESA section 7 consultation history since
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2006 for existing Southern Resident killer whale critical habitat, along with additional information that has become available since the original designation.
This is not an exhaustive or complete list of potential activities; rather, these activities are of primary concern because of their potential effects that we are aware of at this time and that should be considered in accordance with section 7 of the ESA when Federal agencies authorize, fund, or carry out these activities. The ESA section 7
requirement that Federal agencies ensure their actions are not likely to destroy or adversely modify critical habitat applies not only to actions occurring within designated critical habitat, but also to actions occurring outside of designated areas which may impact the features of the critical habitat. For example, consultation would be required on activities that occur in waters shallower than 20 ft 6.1
m or in upstream freshwater locations if those actions are likely to adversely affect essential habitat features in designated critical habitat.
Table 1 lists the activities that may affect the essential features in each of the six specific coastal areas such that the essential features may require special management or consideration.
The Final Biological Report NMFS
2021a and FEA IEc 2021 provide a more detailed description of the potential effects of these activities on the essential features.

TABLE 1SIZE OF EACH SPECIFIC AREA AND ACTIVITIES THAT MAY AFFECT THE ESSENTIAL FEATURES AND NECESSITATE
THE NEED FOR SPECIAL MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS OR PROTECTION WITHIN EACH AREA ARE LISTED. SOME
ACTIVITIES OCCUR UPSTREAM BUT MAY AFFECT FEATURES IN THE SPECIFIC AREA
Size mi2

Specific area 1Coastal Washington/Northern Oregon Inshore Area
2 Coastal Washington/Northern Oregon Offshore Area
3Central/Southern Oregon Coast Area
4Northern California Coast Area
5North Central California Coast Area
6Monterey Bay Area

1,437.9
4,617.2
4,962.6
1,606.8
3,976.2
709.7

Activities FISH, FISH, FISH, FISH, FISH, FISH,
HAT, HAT, HAT, HAT, HAT, HAT,
SPILL, MIL, VESS, DR, POLL, PP.
SPILL, MIL, VESS, DR, POLL, PP.
EN, SPILL, MIL, VESS, DR, GEO, POLL, PP, LNG.
SPILL, MIL, VESS, DR, POLL, PP.
SPILL, MIL, VESS, DR, MIN, POLL, PP.
SPILL, VESS, DR, POLL, PP, DESAL.

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Activities: FISH = fisheries, HAT = hatcheries, EN = alternative energy projects, SPILL = oil spills and response, MIL = military activities, VES
= vessel traffic, DR = dredging and dredge material disposal, MIN = mineral mining, GEO = geologic surveys, POLL = point-source water pollution, PP = power plants, LNG = LNG terminals, DESAL = desalinization plants.
Revisions to area size from proposed are based on best available spatial data at the time of the final rule.

Unoccupied Areas The ESA section 35Aii definition of critical habitat includes unoccupied areas, which are defined as specific areas outside the geographical area occupied by the species at the time it is listed if such areas are determined to be essential to the conservation of the species. At the present time, we have not identified additional specific areas outside the geographic area occupied by
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Southern Resident killer whales that may be essential for the conservation of the species. We considered potential future impacts that climate change might have on the geographical area occupied by the whales, particularly with respect to shifts in distribution of their salmon prey. In accordance with NMFS guidance on the treatment of climate change in NMFS ESA decisions NMFS 2016, we determined that there
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is insufficient evidence to identify unoccupied areas that are essential to the conservation of Southern resident killer whales based on potential impacts from climate change.
Application of ESA Section 4a3Bi Military Lands Section 4a3B of the ESA prohibits designating as critical habitat any lands or other geographical areas owned or
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