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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 33 / Monday, February 22, 2021 / Notices
TABLE 16AUTHORIZED INCIDENTAL TAKE BY LEVEL A AND LEVEL B HARASSMENT, BY SPECIES AND STOCKContinued Level A
harassment take e
Common name
Stock
Bearded Seal

Beringia d

Level B
harassment take e
2b
Total instances of take
300

302

Stock abundance N/A

Percent of stock N/A

a As
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noted in the Description of Marine Mammals in the Area of Specified Activities section, beluga whales in the project area are likely to be from the Beaufort Sea stock. However, we have conservatively attributed all takes to each stock in our analysis.
b Updated to reflect the correct Level A harassment zone size for phocids.
c Updated to reflect the 2020 Draft SAR estimate. The former stock abundance estimate was 20,752.
d These stock names were updated in the 2020 Draft SARs. The stock names were all formerly Alaska.
e The estimated number of takes by Level A harassment and Level B harassment does not necessarily equate to the number of individual animals NMFS expects will be harassed which may be lower, but rather to the instances of take i.e., exposures above the Level A harassment and Level B harassment threshold that are anticipated to occur. These instances may represent either brief exposures minutes or, in some cases, longer durations of exposure within a day. Some individuals may experience multiple instances of take i.e., on multiple days over the course of the year, which means that the number of individuals taken is smaller than the total estimated takes. Repeat takes of the same individual are more likely for pinnipeds given the likelihood of an individual to remain in the project area for a longer period of time in comparison to a cetacean, and the greater anticipated instances of pinniped takes.

Effects of Specified Activities on Subsistence Uses of Marine Mammals The availability of the affected marine mammal stocks or species for subsistence uses may be impacted by this activity. The subsistence uses that may be affected and the potential impacts of the activity on those uses are described below. Measures included in this IHA to reduce the impacts of the activity on subsistence uses are described in the Mitigation Measures section. Last, the information from this section and the Mitigation Measures section is analyzed to determine whether the necessary findings may be made in the Unmitigable Adverse Impact Analysis and Determination section.
The communities of Nuiqsut, Utqiagvik and Kaktovik engage in subsistence harvests off the North Slope of Alaska. Alaska Native communities have harvested bowhead whales for subsistence and cultural purposes with oversight and quotas regulated by the International Whaling Commission IWC. The NSB Department of Wildlife Management has been conducting bowhead whale subsistence harvest research since the early 1980s to collect the data needed by the IWC to set harvest quotas. Bowhead whale harvest percent of total marine mammal harvest, harvest weight, and percent of households using bowhead whale are presented in Table 25 of AGDCs application.
Most of the Beaufort Sea population of beluga whales migrate from the Bering Sea into the Beaufort Sea in April or May. The spring migration routes through ice leads are similar to those of the bowhead whale. Fall migration through the western Beaufort Sea occurs in September or October.
Surveys of the fall distribution strongly indicate that most belugas migrate offshore along the pack ice front beyond the reach of subsistence harvesters.

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Beluga whales are harvested opportunistically during the bowhead harvest and throughout ice-free months.
No beluga whale harvests were reported in 2006 survey interviews conducted by Stephen R. Braund & Associates SRBA
in any community SRBA 2010. Beluga harvests were also not reported in Nuiqsut and Kaktovik, although households did report using beluga whale, likely through sharing from other communities Brown et al., 2016. We do not expect the planned activities at the AK LNG project site to affect beluga whale subsistence harvests, as none are expected.
Gray whale harvests were not reported by any of the communities surveyed by Alaska Department of Fish and Game ADF&G in any of the survey years, and therefore are not included as an important subsistence species and are not further discussed.
The community of Utqiagviks subsistence activities occur outside of the area impacted by activities considered in this authorization. As described below, we do not expect impacts to Utqiagviks subsistence activities, and therefore they are not discussed further beyond the explanation provided here.
Impacts to marine mammals from the planned construction would mostly include limited, temporary behavioral disturbances of seals, however, some slight PTS within the lower frequencies associated with pile driving is possible.
Additionally, a small number of takes of bowhead whales, by Level B harassment only, are predicted to occur in the vicinity of AGDCs activity. Even if some subset of taken individuals deflected farther offshore near the project site, it is reasonable to predict that most individuals would likely resume a more typical migration path by the time they reach the Utqiagvik hunting area, and therefore, significant impacts to the Utqiagvik hunt would be
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unlikely. Please refer to AGDCs application for additional information.
The planned activities and associated harassment of marine mammals are not expected to impact marine mammals in numbers or locations sufficient to render them unavailable for Utqiagvik subsistence harvest given the shortterm, temporary, and localized nature of construction activities, and the planned mitigation measures. Additionally, no serious injury or mortality of marine mammals is expected or authorized, and the activities are not expected to have any impacts on reproductive or survival rates of any marine mammal species.
Altogether, the authorized take by harassment will not have an unmitigable adverse impact on the availability of any species or stock for subsistence uses.
Kaktovik Kaktovik is the easternmost village in the NSB. Kaktovik is located on the north shore of Barter Island, situated between the Okpilak and Jago rivers on the Beaufort Sea coast. Kaktoviks subsistence-harvest areas are to the east of the project area and target marine mammal species migrating eastward during spring and summer occur seaward of the project area and westward in the fall.
Kaktovik bowhead whale hunters reported traveling between Camden Bay to the west and Nuvagapak Lagoon to the east SRBA 2010. This range does not include the project area impacted by the activities analyzed for this IHA. The small number of takes of bowhead whales, by Level B harassment only, predicted to occur in the vicinity of AGDCs activity are not expected to have any impacts on the fitness of any bowhead whales. Further, we do not expect construction activities to deflect the bowhead whale migration offshore in the Kaktovik hunting area, given the distance from the western extent of the
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