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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 38 / Monday, March 1, 2021 / Notices
anticipate no take by death and include none in this proposed authorization.
The Service has prepared a draft environmental assessment EA
addressing the proposed IHA and is soliciting public comments on both documents.
DATES: Comments on the proposed IHA
request and the draft EA will be accepted on or before March 31, 2021.
ADDRESSES:
Document availability: The proposed IHA request, the draft EA, and the list of references cited herein are available for viewing at http
www.regulations.gov in Docket No.
FWSR1ES20200131 and at http
www.fws.gov/wafwo. NSFs associated environmental assessments can be found at https www.nsf.gov/geo/oce/
envcomp/.
Comment Submission: You may submit comments on this proposed authorization by one of the following methods:
U.S Mail: Public Comments Processing, Attn: Docket No. FWSR1
ES20200131, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 5275 Leesburg Pike, MS: PRB/
3W, Falls Church, VA 220413803; or Federal eRulemaking Portal: http
www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments to Docket No. FWSR1ES20200131.
We will post all comments on http
www.regulations.gov. You may request that we withhold personal identifying information from public review;
however, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so. See Request for Public Comments for more information.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Brad Thompson, State Supervisor, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington Fish and Wildlife Office, 510 Desmond Drive SE, Suite 102, Lacey, WA 985031273
telephone 3607539440.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background Section 101a5D of the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, as amended MMPA; 16 U.S.C. 1361, et seq., authorizes the Secretary of the Interior 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 region during a period of not more than 1 year.
Incidental take may be authorized only if statutory and regulatory procedures are followed and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hereafter, the Service or we makes the following findings: i The take is of a small number of marine mammals; ii the
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take will have a negligible impact on the species or stock; and iii take will not have an unmitigable adverse impact on the availability of the species or stock for subsistence uses by coastal-dwelling Alaska Natives. As part of the authorization process, we prescribe permissible methods of taking and other means of affecting the least practicable impact on the species or stock and its habitat and prescribe requirements pertaining to the monitoring and reporting of such takings.
The term take, as defined by the MMPA, means to harass, hunt, capture, or kill, or to attempt to harass, hunt, capture, or kill any marine mammal 16
U.S.C. 136213. Harassment, as defined by the MMPA, means any act of pursuit, torment, or annoyance which i has the potential to injure a marine mammal or marine mammal stock in the wild the MMPA refers to this impact as Level A harassment or ii has the potential to disturb a marine mammal or marine mammal stock in the wild by causing disruption of behavioral patterns, including, but not limited to, migration, breathing, nursing, breeding, feeding, or sheltering the MMPA refers to these impacts as Level B harassment See 16 U.S.C. 136218.
The terms negligible impact, small numbers, and unmitigable adverse impact are defined in the Code of Federal Regulations at 50 CFR 18.27, the Services regulations governing take of small numbers of marine mammals incidental to specified activities.
Negligible impact is defined as an impact resulting from the specified activity that cannot be reasonably expected to, and is not reasonably likely to, adversely affect the species or stock through effects on annual rates of recruitment or survival. Small numbers is defined as a portion of a marine mammal species or stock whose taking would have a negligible impact on that species or stock. However, we do not rely on that definition as it conflates the terms small numbers and negligible impact, which we recognize as two separate and distinct requirements see Natural Res. Def.
Council, Inc. v. Evans, 232 F. Supp. 2d 1003, 1025 N.D. Cal. 2003. Instead, in our small numbers determination, we evaluate whether the number of marine mammals likely to be taken is small relative to the size of the overall population. Unmitigable adverse impact is defined as an impact resulting from the specified activity 1
that is likely to reduce the availability of the species to a level insufficient for a harvest to meet subsistence needs by i causing the marine mammals to abandon or avoid hunting areas, ii
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directly displacing subsistence users, or iii placing physical barriers between the marine mammals and the subsistence hunters; and 2 that cannot be sufficiently mitigated by other measures to increase the availability of marine mammals to allow subsistence needs to be met. The subsistence provision does not apply to northern sea otters in Washington and Oregon.
If the requisite findings are made, we will issue an IHA, which sets forth the following: i Permissible methods of taking; ii other means of effecting the least practicable impact on marine mammals and their habitat, paying particular attention to rookeries, mating grounds, and areas of similar significance; and iii requirements for monitoring and reporting take.
Summary of Request On December 19, 2019, the Service received an application from the National Science Foundation hereafter NSF or the applicant for authorization to take the northern sea otter Enhydra lutris kenyoni, hereafter sea otters or otters unless another subspecies is specified by unintentional harassment incidental to a marine geophysical survey of the Cascadia Subduction Zone off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia, Canada. The NSF
subsequently postponed the project until 2021.
Description of the Activities and Specified Geographic Region The specified activity the project consists of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatorys LDEO 2020 Marine Geophysical Surveys by the Research Vessel Marcus G. Langseth R/V
Langseth in the Northeast Pacific Ocean between May 1 and June 31, 2021. The high-energy, two-dimensional 2D
seismic surveys are expected to last for a total of 40 nonconsecutive days, including approximately 37 days of seismic operations, 2 days of equipment deployment/retrieval, and 1 day of transit. A maximum of 6,890 km 4,281
mi of transect lines would be surveyed in marine waters adjacent to Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia from 41 N to 50 N latitude and 124 N and 130 W longitude, of which approximately 6,600 km 4,101 mi would be in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone and 295 km 183 mi in Canadian territorial waters. The Service cannot authorize the incidental take of marine mammals in waters not under the jurisdiction of the United States, and the Washington stock of the northern sea otter is not found within Canadian territorial waters. Therefore, the
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