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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 23 / Friday, February 5, 2021 / Notices
Marine Mammal Occurrence This section provides information about the presence, density, or group dynamics of marine mammals that will inform the take calculations. The best available information regarding marine mammal densities in the project area is provided by habitat-based density models produced by the Duke University Marine Geospatial Ecology Laboratory Roberts et al., 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020. Density models were originally developed for all cetacean taxa in the U.S. Atlantic Roberts et al., 2016; more information, including the model results and supplementary information for each of those models, is available at seamap.env.duke.edu/
models/Duke-EC-GOM-2015/. In subsequent years, certain models have been updated on the basis of additional data as well as certain methodological improvements. Although these updated models and a newly developed seal density model are not currently publicly available, our evaluation of the changes leads to a conclusion that these represent the best scientific evidence available. Marine mammal density estimates in the SFWF animals/km2
were obtained using these model results Roberts et al., 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020.
As noted, the updated models incorporate additional sighting data, including sightings from the NOAA
Atlantic Marine Assessment Program for Protected Species AMAPPS surveys from 20102016 which included some aerial surveys over the RI/MA & MA
WEAs NEFSC & SEFSC, 2011a, 2011b,
2012, 2014a, 2014b, 2015, 2016.
Roberts et al. 2020 further updated model results for North Atlantic right whales by incorporating additional sighting data and implementing three major changes: Increasing spatial resolution, generating monthly estimates on three time periods of survey data, and dividing the study area into five discrete regions.
Densities of marine mammals and their subsequent exposure risk are different for the wind farm area where impact pile driving will occur, the near shore export cable area where vibratory pile driving will occur, and the HRG
survey area. Therefore, density blocks Roberts et al., 2016; Roberts, 2018
specific to each construction area were selected for evaluating the potential takes of the 16 assessed species. The Denes et al. 2020c model analysis utilized North Atlantic right whale densities from the most recent survey time period, 20102018, as suggested by Roberts et al. 2020.
Monopile Installation Mean monthly densities for all animals were calculated using a 60 km 37.3 mi square centered on SFWF and overlaying it on the density maps from Roberts et al. 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020.
The relatively large area selected for density estimation encompasses and extends beyond the estimated distances to the isopleth corresponding to the Level B harassment with no attenuation, as well as with 6, 10, 12
and 15 dB sound attenuation for all
hearing groups using the unweighted threshold of 160 dB re 1 mPa rms Table 9. Please see Figure 3 in the SFWF COP Appendix P2 for an example of a density map showing Roberts et al. 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020
density grid cells overlaid on a map of the SFWF.
The mean density for each month was determined by calculating the unweighted mean of all 10 x 10 km 6.2
x 6.2 mi grid cells partially or fully within the buffer zone polygon. Mean values from the density maps were converted from units of abundance animals/100 km2 38.6 miles2 to units of density animals/km2. Densities were computed for the months of May to December to coincide with planned pile driving activities as described above, no pile driving would occur from January through April. In cases where monthly densities were unavailable, annual mean densities e.g., pilot whales and seasonal mean densities e.g., all seals were used instead. Table 13 shows the monthly marine mammal density estimates for each species incorporated in the exposure modeling analysis. To obtain conservative exposure estimates, South Fork Wind used the maximum of the mean monthly May to December densities for each species to estimate the number of individuals of each species exposed above Level A harassment and Level B
harassment thresholds. The maximum densities applied are denoted by an asterisk.

TABLE 13ESTIMATED DENSITIES ANIMALS/KM-2 USED FOR MODELING MARINE MAMMAL EXPOSURES WITHIN SOUTH
FORK WIND FARM
Monthly density animals km-2
Common name May Fin whale
Minke whale
Sei whale
Humpback whale
North Atlantic right whale

0.00201
0.00163
0.00019
0.00133
0.00154

Jun 0.00219
0.00143
0.00013
0.00148
0.00011

Jul 0.00264
0.00047
0.00003
0.00069
0.00002

Blue whale
Sperm whale
Atlantic white-sided dolphin
Atlantic spotted dolphin
Common bottlenose dolphin

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0.00251
0.00026
0.00002
0.00094
0.00001

Sep 0.00217
0.00027
0.00003
0.00317
0.00001

0.00002
0.03900
0.00012
0.00496

0.00008
0.03600
0.00016
0.01800

0.00031
0.02500
0.00034
0.03700

0.00024
0.01300
0.00041
0.03800

0.00010
0.01500
0.00051
0.04000

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PO 00000

Nov
Dec
0.00145
0.00049
0.00000
0.00156
0.00005

0.00102
0.00022
0.00001
0.00042
0.00029

0.00105
0.00032
0.00001
0.00061
0.00151

0.00007
0.02200
0.00058
0.02000

0.00007
0.02100
0.00037
0.00962

0.00001
0.02800
0.00007
0.00846

0.00005
0.12800
0.00399
0.00955
0.00955

0.00009
0.09800
0.02400
0.00630
0.00630

0.00019
0.20400
0.02300
0.03400
0.03400

0.00596
0.00005
0.04400
0.03800
0.03900
0.03900

0.00005
0.04600
0.00236
0.02600
0.02600

0.00018
0.04300
0.00160
0.00874
0.00874

0.00026
0.06200
0.00172
0.00357
0.00357

0.00015
0.10200
0.00161
0.00529
0.00529

Denotes the highest monthly density estimated.
1 Longand short-finned pilot whales are grouped together to estimate the total density of both species.

VerDate Sep<11>2014

Oct
0.00001

Pilot whales 1
Rissos dolphin
Common dolphin
Harbor porpoise
Gray seal
Harbor seal

Aug
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