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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 58 / Monday, March 29, 2021 / Notices surveys is to support site characterization, siting, and engineering design of offshore Project facilities including wind turbine generators WTGs, offshore substations, and submarine cables within the Lease Area and proposed ECR Areas. Atlantic Shores requested renewal of the initial IHA that was issued by NMFS in April 2020 on the basis that 1 up to another year of identical or nearly identical, activities as described in the Specified Activities section of the initial IHA is planned and, 2 the activities as described in the Specified Activities section of the initial IHA 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 initial IHA.
In their 2020 IHA application, Atlantic Shores estimated it would conduct surveys for 350 days at a rate of 85 kilometers km per day for a total of 29,750 km. However, in 2020, Atlantic Shores completed only 16,893
km of geophysical surveys; therefore, approximately 12,857 km remain to be surveyed. Atlantic Shores also recognized they were able to survey approximately 55 km per day versus the predicted rate of 85 km per day considered in the initial IHA. Therefore, Atlantic Shores predicts the 12,857 km of survey planned in 2021 under the renewal IHA will occur over 234 days 12,857 km/55 km per day. The renewal IHA would authorize harassment to marine mammals for this remaining survey distance using survey methods identical to those described in the initial IHA application, hence the anticipated effects on marine mammals remain the same as well. All active acoustic sources and mitigation and monitoring measures would remain as described in the initial IHA. The amount of take requested for the renewal IHA reflects the amount of remaining work in consideration of marine mammal monitoring data from the 2020 survey season resulting in equal or less take than that authorized in the initial IHA.

Detailed Description of the Activity A detailed description of the survey activities for which take is proposed here may be found in the Federal Register notices of the proposed IHA 85
FR 7926, February 12, 2020 and issued IHA 85 FR 21198, April 10, 2020 for the initial authorization. As described above, Atlantic Shores is not able to complete the survey activities analyzed in the initial IHA by the date the IHA
is set to expire April 19, 2021. As such, the surveys Atlantic Shores proposes to conduct under this renewal would be a continuation of the surveys as described in the initial IHA. The location and nature of the activities, including the types of equipment planned for use, are identical to those described in the previous notices.
Because part of the work has already been completed, the duration of the surveys conducted under the renewal IHA will occur over less time than that described for the initial IHA 234 days versus 350 days; however, Atlantic Shores will continue to operate 24 hours per day to complete the work. Atlantic Shores proposes to continue its activities on April 20, 2021, after the initial IHA expires on April 19. The proposed renewal would be effective for a period of one year from the date of issuance.
Description of Marine Mammals A description of the marine mammals in the area of the activities for which authorization of take is proposed here, including information on abundance, status, distribution, and hearing, may be found in the Federal Register notice of the proposed IHA for the initial authorization 85 FR 7926, February 12, 2020. NMFS has reviewed the monitoring data from the initial IHA, recent draft Stock Assessment Reports, information on relevant Unusual Mortality Events, and other scientific literature, and determined that neither this nor any other new information affects which species or stocks have the potential to be affected or the pertinent information in the Description of the Marine Mammals in the Area of Specified Activities contained in the
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supporting documents for the initial IHA.
Potential Effects on Marine Mammals and Their Habitat A description of the potential effects of the specified activity on marine mammals and their habitat for the activities for which take is proposed here may be found in the Federal Register notice of the proposed IHA for the initial authorization 85 FR 7926, February 12, 2020. NMFS has reviewed the monitoring data from the initial IHA, recent draft Stock Assessment Reports, information on relevant Unusual Mortality Events, and other scientific literature, and determined that neither this nor any other new information affects our initial analysis of impacts on marine mammals and their habitat.
Estimated Take A detailed description of the methods used to estimate take for the specified activity are found in the Federal Register notices of the proposed and final IHA for the initial authorization.
The acoustic source types, as well as source levels and marine mammal density and occurrence data applicable to this authorization remain unchanged from the initial IHA. Similarly, the stocks taken, methods of take, and type of take i.e., Level B harassment only remain unchanged from the initial IHA.
In the initial IHA application submitted in 2019 for the 2020 HRG
survey activities, Atlantic Shores used the following parameters to estimate the potential for take: 1 Maximum number of days of survey that could occur over a 12-month period in each of the identified survey areas; 2 maximum distance each vessel could travel per 24hour period in each of the identified survey areas; 3 maximum ensonified area zone of influence ZOI; and 4
maximum marine mammal densities for any given season that a survey could occur. The calculated radial distances to the Level B harassment threshold 160
decibel dB root mean square rms from a survey vessel are included in Table 1.

TABLE 1MODELED RADIAL DISTANCES FROM HRG SURVEY EQUIPMENT TO ISOPLETHS CORRESPONDING TO LEVEL A
HARASSMENT AND LEVEL B HARASSMENT THRESHOLDS
Distance to level B
harassment threshold m
Sound source
Kongsberg EA 400
Teledyne ODOM Echotrac CVM
Applied Acoustics Dura-Spark 240
Edgetech 2000DSS

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