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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 21 / Wednesday, February 3, 2021 / Notices recent dry dock project https
www.fisheries.noaa.gov/action/
incidental-take-authorization-us-navyfloating-dry-dock-project-naval-basesan-diego where we estimate two California sea lions per day, to be conservative, we have estimated four California sea lions could be present
each day. As noted above, there are 250
days of in-water work for this project.
Multiplication of the above estimate of animals per day 4 times the days of work 250 results in a Level B
harassment take of 1000 California sea lions Table 7. The Navy intends to avoid Level A harassment take by
shutting down activities if a California sea lion approaches within 20 m of the project site, which encompasses all Level A harassment ensonification zones. Therefore, no take by Level A
harassment is anticipated or authorized.

TABLE 7AUTHORIZED AMOUNT OF TAKING, BY LEVEL A HARASSMENT AND LEVEL B HARASSMENT, BY SPECIES AND
STOCK AND PERCENT OF TAKE BY STOCK
Authorized take
Percent of stock
Species Level B

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California sea lion Zalophus californianus U.S. Stock

Mitigation In order to issue an IHA under section 101a5D of the MMPA, NMFS must set forth the permissible methods of taking pursuant to the activity, and other means of effecting the least practicable impact on the species or stock and its habitat, paying particular attention to rookeries, mating grounds, and areas of similar significance, and on the availability of the species or stock for taking for certain subsistence uses latter not applicable for this action.
NMFS regulations require applicants for incidental take authorizations to include information about the availability and feasibility economic and technological of equipment, methods, and manner of conducting the activity or other means of effecting the least practicable adverse impact upon the affected species or stocks and their habitat 50 CFR
216.104a11.
In evaluating how mitigation may or may not be appropriate to ensure the least practicable adverse impact on species or stocks and their habitat, as well as subsistence uses where applicable, we carefully consider two primary factors:
1 The manner in which, and the degree to which, the successful implementation of the measures is expected to reduce impacts to marine mammals, marine mammal species or stocks, and their habitat. This considers the nature of the potential adverse impact being mitigated likelihood, scope, range. It further considers the likelihood that the measure will be effective if implemented probability of accomplishing the mitigating result if implemented as planned, the likelihood of effective implementation probability implemented as planned;
and 2 The practicability of the measures for applicant implementation, which may consider such things as cost, impact on operations, and, in the case
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of a military readiness activity, personnel safety, practicality of implementation, and impact on the effectiveness of the military readiness activity.
The following mitigation measures are in the IHA:
For in-water heavy machinery work other than pile driving, if a marine mammal comes within 10 m, operations shall cease and vessels shall reduce speed to the minimum level required to maintain steerage and safe working conditions. This type of work could include the following activities: 1
Movement of the barge to the pile location; or 2 positioning of the pile on the substrate via a crane i.e., stabbing the pile;
Conduct briefings between construction supervisors and crews and the marine mammal monitoring team prior to the start of all pile driving activity and when new personnel join the work, to explain responsibilities, communication procedures, marine mammal monitoring protocol, and operational procedures;
For those marine mammals for which Level B harassment take has not been requested, in-water pile installation/removal will shut down immediately if such species are observed within or entering the Level B
harassment zone; and If take reaches the authorized limit for an authorized species, pile installation will be stopped as these species approach the Level B
harassment zone to avoid additional take.
The following mitigation measures would apply to the Navys in-water construction activities.
Establishment of Shutdown ZonesThe Navy will establish shutdown zones for all pile driving and removal activities. The purpose of a shutdown zone is generally to define an area within which shutdown of the
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activity would occur upon sighting of a marine mammal or in anticipation of an animal entering the defined area.
Shutdown zones typically vary based on the activity type and marine mammal hearing group Table 4. In this case there is only one species affected and all level A harassment isopleths are less than 10 m radius. To be conservative, the Navy will establish a 20 m shutdown zone for all pile driving or removal activities.
The placement of Protected Species Observers PSOs during all pile driving and removal activities described in detail in the Monitoring and Reporting section will ensure that the entire shutdown zone is visible during pile installation. Should environmental conditions deteriorate such that marine mammals within the entire shutdown zone would not be visible e.g., fog, heavy rain, pile driving and removal must be delayed until the PSO is confident marine mammals within the shutdown zone could be detected.
Monitoring for Level B
HarassmentThe Navy will monitor the Level A and B harassment zones.
Monitoring zones provide utility for observing by establishing monitoring protocols for areas adjacent to the shutdown zones. Monitoring zones enable observers to be aware of and communicate the presence of marine mammals in the project area outside the shutdown zone and thus prepare for a potential halt of activity should the animal enter the shutdown zone.
Placement of PSOs will allow PSOs to observe marine mammals within the Level B harassment zones.
Pre-activity MonitoringPrior to the start of daily in-water construction activity, or whenever a break in pile driving/removal of 30 minutes or longer occurs, PSOs will observe the shutdown and monitoring zones for a period of 30
minutes. The shutdown zone will be considered cleared when a marine
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