Voglio sapere a riguardo di…

8594

Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 24 / Monday, February 8, 2021 / Notices
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration RTID 0648XA832

Takes of Marine Mammals Incidental to Specified Activities; Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to the Parallel Thimble Shoal Tunnel Project in Virginia Beach, Virginia National Marine Fisheries Service NMFS, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA, Commerce.
ACTION: Notice; request for comments on proposed Renewal incidental harassment authorization.
AGENCY:

NMFS has received a request from the Chesapeake Tunnel Joint Venture CTJV for the Renewal of their currently active incidental harassment authorization IHA to take marine mammals incidental to Parallel Thimble Shoal Tunnel Project PTST in Virginia Beach, Virginia. These activities are identical to those covered in the current authorization. The project has experienced delays and most of the work covered in the initial IHA will not be completed by the time it expires.
Pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act, prior to issuing the currently active IHA, NMFS requested comments on both the proposed IHA
and the potential for renewing the initial authorization if certain requirements were satisfied. The Renewal requirements have been satisfied, and NMFS is now providing an additional 15-day comment period to allow for any additional comments on the proposed Renewal not previously provided during the initial 30-day comment period.
DATES: Comments and information must be received no later than February 23, 2021.
ADDRESSES: Comments should be addressed to Jolie Harrison, Chief, Permits and Conservation Division, Office of Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries Service and should be submitted via email to ITP.Laws@
noaa.gov.
Instructions: NMFS is not responsible for comments sent by any other method, to any other address or individual, or received after the end of the comment period. Comments, including all attachments, must not exceed a 25megabyte file size. Attachments to comments will be accepted in Microsoft Word or Excel or Adobe PDF file formats only. All comments received are a part of the public record and will
jbell on DSKJLSW7X2PROD with NOTICES

SUMMARY:

VerDate Sep<11>2014

20:48 Feb 05, 2021

Jkt 253001

generally be posted online at www.fisheries.noaa.gov/permit/
incidental-take-authorizations-undermarine-mammal-protection-act without change. All personal identifying information e.g., name, address voluntarily submitted by the commenter may be publicly accessible. Do not submit confidential business information or otherwise sensitive or protected information.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ben Laws, Office of Protected Resources, NMFS, 301 4278401. Electronic copies of the original application, Renewal request, and supporting documents including NMFS Federal Register notices of the original proposed and final authorizations, and the previous IHA, as well as a list of the references cited in this document, may be obtained online at:
www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/
marine-mammal-protection/incidentaltake-authorizations-constructionactivities. In case of problems accessing these documents, please call the contact listed above.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background The Marine Mammal Protection Act MMPA prohibits the take of marine mammals, with certain exceptions.
Sections 101a5A and D of the MMPA 16 U.S.C. 1361 et seq. direct the Secretary of Commerce as delegated to NMFS to allow, upon request, the incidental, but not intentional, taking of small numbers of marine mammals by U.S. citizens who engage in a specified activity other than commercial fishing within a specified geographical region if certain findings are made and either regulations are issued or, if the taking is limited to harassment, a notice of a proposed incidental take authorization is provided to the public for review.
Authorization for incidental takings shall be granted if NMFS finds that the taking will have a negligible impact on the species or stocks and will not have an unmitigable adverse impact on the availability of the species or stocks for taking for subsistence uses where relevant. Further, NMFS must prescribe the permissible methods of taking and other means of effecting the least practicable adverse impact on the affected species or stocks and their habitat, paying particular attention to rookeries, mating grounds, and areas of similar significance, and on the availability of such species or stocks for taking for certain subsistence uses referred to here as mitigation measures. Monitoring and reporting of such takings are also required. The
PO 00000

Frm 00017

Fmt 4703

Sfmt 4703

meaning of key terms such as take, harassment, and negligible impact can be found in section 3 of the MMPA
16 U.S.C. 1362 and the agencys regulations at 50 CFR 216.103.
NMFS regulations implementing the MMPA at 50 CFR 216.107e indicate that IHAs may be renewed for additional periods of time not to exceed one year for each reauthorization. In the notice of proposed IHA for the initial authorization, NMFS described the circumstances under which we would consider issuing a Renewal for this activity, and requested public comment on a potential Renewal under those circumstances. Specifically, on a caseby-case basis, NMFS may issue a onetime, one-year Renewal IHA following notice to the public providing an additional 15 days for public comments when 1 up to another year of identical, or nearly identical, activities as described in the Description of the Specified Activities and Anticipated Impacts section of this notice is planned or 2 the activities as described in the Description of the Specified Activities and Anticipated Impacts section of this notice would not be completed by the time the IHA expires and a Renewal would allow for completion of the activities beyond that described in the Dates and Duration section of the notice of proposed IHA for the initial IHA, provided all of the following conditions are met:
A request for renewal is received no later than 60 days prior to the needed Renewal IHA effective date recognizing that the Renewal IHA expiration date cannot extend beyond one year from expiration of the initial IHA.
The request for renewal must include the following:
1 An explanation that the activities to be conducted under the requested Renewal IHA 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.
2 A preliminary monitoring report showing the results of the required monitoring to date and an explanation showing that the monitoring results do not indicate impacts of a scale or nature not previously analyzed or authorized.
Upon review of the request for Renewal, the status of the affected species or stocks, and any other pertinent information, NMFS
determines that there are no more than minor changes in the activities, the
E:FRFM08FEN1.SGM

08FEN1