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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 23 / Friday, February 5, 2021 / Notices
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harassment of humpback whales in the form of a slight PTS;
Potential instances of exposure above the Level A harassment threshold are limited to four of the 16 species expected to occur in the project area and are expected to be relatively low, and the severity of any PTS would be minimized by proposed mitigation measures including clearance zones;
The availability of alternate areas of similar habitat value for marine mammals to temporarily vacate the project area during the proposed project to avoid exposure to sounds from the activity;
Effects on species that serve as prey species for marine mammals from the proposed project are expected to be short-term and are not expected to result in significant or long-term consequences for individual marine mammals, or to contribute to adverse impacts on their populations;
There are no known important feeding, breeding or calving areas in the project area. A biologically important migratory area exists for North Atlantic right whales; however, the proposed seasonal moratorium on construction is expected to largely avoid impacts to the North Atlantic right whale migration, as described above.
The proposed mitigation measures, including visual and acoustic monitoring, clearance and exclusion zones, soft start pile driving only, ramp up HRG only, shutdown, are designed to reduce frequency and intensity of exposures and are, therefore, expected to minimize potential impacts to marine mammals.
Total proposed authorized takes as a percentage of population are very low for all species and stocks i.e., less than 3.5 percent for four stocks, and less than 1 percent for the remaining 12 stocks;
Based on the analysis contained herein of the likely effects of the specified activity on marine mammals and their habitat, and taking into consideration the implementation of the proposed monitoring and mitigation measures, NMFS preliminarily finds that the total marine mammal take from the proposed activity will have a negligible impact on all affected marine mammal species or stocks.
Small Numbers As noted above, only small numbers of incidental take may be authorized under sections 101a5A and D of the MMPA for specified activities other than military readiness activities. The MMPA does not define small numbers and so, in practice, where estimated numbers are available, NMFS compares the number of individuals taken to the
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most appropriate estimation of abundance of the relevant species or stock in our determination of whether an authorization is limited to small numbers of marine mammals. When the predicted number of individuals to be taken is less than one third of the species or stock abundance, the take is considered to be of small numbers.
Additionally, other qualitative factors may be considered in the analysis, such as the temporal or spatial scale of the activities.
NMFS proposes to authorize incidental take of 16 marine mammal stocks. The total amount of taking proposed for authorization is less than 3.5 percent for four of these stocks, and less than 1 percent for the 12 remaining stocks Table 23, which NMFS
preliminarily finds are small numbers of marine mammals relative to the estimated overall population abundances for those stocks.
Based on the analysis contained herein of the proposed activity including the proposed mitigation and monitoring measures and the anticipated take of marine mammals, NMFS preliminarily finds that small numbers of marine mammals will be taken relative to the population size of all affected species or stocks.
Unmitigable Adverse Impact Analysis and Determination There are no relevant subsistence uses of the affected marine mammal stocks or species implicated by this action.
Therefore, NMFS has determined that the total taking of affected species or stocks would not have an unmitigable adverse impact on the availability of such species or stocks for taking for subsistence purposes.
Endangered Species Act Section 7a2 of the ESA 16 U.S.C.
1531 et seq. requires that each Federal agency insure that any action it authorizes, funds, or carries out is not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of any endangered or threatened species or result in the destruction or adverse modification of designated critical habitat. To ensure ESA compliance for the issuance of IHAs, NMFS consults internally whenever we propose to authorize take for endangered or threatened species.
NMFS is proposing to authorize take of North Atlantic right, fin, sei, and sperm whales, which are listed under the ESA. The NMFS Office of Protected Resources has requested initiation of Section 7 consultation with the NMFS
Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office for the issuance of this IHA.
NMFS will conclude the ESA

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consultation prior to reaching a determination regarding the proposed issuance of the authorization.
Proposed Authorization As a result of these preliminary determinations, NMFS proposes to issue an IHA to South Fork Wind for conducting construction activities southeast of Rhode Island for a period of one year, provided the previously mentioned mitigation, monitoring, and reporting requirements are incorporated.
A draft of the proposed IHA can be found at: www.fisheries.noaa.gov/
permit/incidental-take-authorizationsunder-marine-mammal-protection-act.
Request for Public Comments NMFS requests comment on the analyses, the proposed authorization, and any other aspect of this Notice of Proposed IHA for the proposed construction of the South Fork Wind offshore wind project. NMFS also requests comment on the potential for renewal of this proposed IHA as described in the paragraph below.
Please include with your comments any supporting data or literature citations to help inform NMFS final decision on the request for MMPA authorization.
On a case-by-case basis, NMFS may issue a one-time, 1 year IHA renewal with an expedited public comment period 15 days when: 1 Another year of identical or nearly identical activities as described in the Specified Activities section is planned or 2 the activities would not be completed by the time the IHA expires and a second IHA would allow for completion of the activities beyond that described in the Dates and Duration section, provided all of the following conditions are met:
A request for renewal is received no later than 60 days prior to expiration of the current IHA;
The request for renewal must include the following:
1 An explanation that the activities to be conducted under the proposed Renewal are identical to the activities analyzed under the initial IHA, are a subset of the activities, or include changes so minor e.g., reduction in pile size that the changes do not affect the previous analyses, mitigation and monitoring requirements, or take estimates with the exception of reducing the type or amount of take because only a subset of the initially analyzed activities remain to be completed under the Renewal; and 2 A preliminary monitoring report showing the results of the required monitoring to date and an explanation showing that the monitoring results do
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