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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 106 / Friday, June 4, 2021 / Proposed Rules
while only one such incident 0.75
percent was reported for a research vessel during that time period.
It is possible for ship strikes to occur while traveling at slow speeds. For example, a NOAA-chartered survey vessel traveling at low speed 5.5 kt while conducting multi-beam mapping surveys off the central California coast struck and killed a blue whale in 2009.
The State of California determined that the whale had suddenly and unexpectedly surfaced beneath the hull, with the result that the propeller severed the whales vertebrae, and that this was an unavoidable event. This strike represents the only such incident in approximately 540,000 hours of similar coastal mapping activity p = 1.9
106; 95% CI = 05.5 106; NMFS, 2013. In addition, a non-NEFSC
research vessel reported a fatal strike in 2011 of a dolphin in the Atlantic, demonstrating that it is possible for strikes involving smaller cetaceans or pinnipeds to occur. In that case, the incident report indicated that an animal apparently was struck by the vessels propeller as it was intentionally swimming near the vessel. While indicative of the type of unusual events that cannot be ruled out, neither of these instances represents a circumstance that would be considered reasonably foreseeable or that would be considered preventable.
In summary, we anticipate that vessel collisions involving NEFSC research vessels, while not impossible, represent unlikely, unpredictable events. NEFSC
has not documented any ship strikes or near-misses in their monitoring reports pursuant to the current LOA. In addition, there are several preventive measures to minimize the risk of vessel collisions with right whales and other species of marine mammals. The compliance guide for the right whale ship strike reduction rule states that all vessels 19.8 m in overall length or greater must slow to speeds of 10 kts or less in seasonal management areas.
Northeast U.S. Seasonal Management Areas include: Cape Cod Bay 1 Jan15
May, off Race Point 1 Mar30 Apr and GSC 1 Apr31 July. Mid-Atlantic Seasonal Management Areas include several port or bay entrances from 1
November to 30 April. When operating in these Seasonal Management Areas, Dynamic Management Areas, or in the vicinity of right whales or surface active groups of large baleen whales the vessels speed will not exceed 10 kts.
The purpose of this mandatory regulation is to reduce the likelihood of deaths and serious injuries to these endangered whales that result from collisions with a vessel 78 FR 73726,
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December 9, 2013. Further, because vessels of all sizes can strike a whale, NEFSC research vessels will also reduce speed and change course in the vicinity of resting groups of large whales. When transiting between sampling stations, research vessels can travel at speeds of up to 14 knots. However, when NEFSC
vessels are operating in right whale Seasonal Management Areas, Dynamic Management Areas, or at times and locations when whales are otherwise known to be present, they operate at speeds no greater than 10 knots.
NEFSC research vessel captains and crew watch for marine mammals while underway during daylight hours and take necessary actions to avoid them.
NEFSC surveys using large NOAA
vessels e.g., R/V Henry B. Bigelow include one bridge crew dedicated to watching for obstacles at all times, including marine mammals. At any time during a survey or in transit, any bridge personnel that sights protected species that may intersect with the vessel course immediately communicates their presence to the helm for appropriate course alteration or speed reduction as possible to avoid incidental collisions, particularly with large whales e.g., NARWs.
Finally, the Right Whale Sighting Advisory System RWSAS is a NMFS
program designed to reduce collisions between ships and the critically endangered NARW by alerting mariners to the presence of the right whales. All NOAA research vessels operating in NARW habitat participate in the RWSAS.
No ship strikes have been reported from any fisheries research activities conducted or funded by the NEFSC in the Atlantic coast region. Given the relatively slow speeds of research vessels, the presence of bridge crew watching for obstacles at all times including marine mammals, the presence of marine mammal observers on some surveys, and the small number of research cruises, we believe that the possibility of ship strike is discountable and, further, that were a strike of a large whale to occur, it would be unlikely to result in serious injury or mortality. No incidental take resulting from ship strike is anticipated, and this potential effect of research will not be discussed further in the following analysis.
Fishing Gear Interactions Marine mammals are known to regularly remove catch or bait i.e., depredate from commercial fisheries lines or nets, and some species primarily pinnipeds take fish from mariculture pens. Depredation has been documented in over 30 species of
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marine mammals and from various types of gear e.g., Read 2008; Reeves et al., 2013; Werner et al., 2015. For example, some individuals in populations of sperm, killer, false killer, and pilot whales around the world have become adept at removing a variety of fish species from longline hooks, a behavior also exhibited by other toothed whales and dolphins in a wide range of fisheries. Other species have learned to take catch from trawl or gill nets e.g., Kovaks et al., 2017.
Marine mammals are widely regarded as being quite intelligent and inquisitive, and when their pursuit of prey coincides with human pursuit of the same resources, it should be expected that physical interaction with fishing gear may occur e.g., Beverton, 1985. Fishermen and marine mammals are both drawn to areas of high prey density, and certain fishing activities may further attract marine mammals by providing food e.g., bait, captured fish, bycatch discards or by otherwise making it easier for animals to feed on a concentrated food source. Provision of foraging opportunities near the surface may present an advantage by negating the need for energetically expensive deep foraging dives Hamer and Goldsworthy, 2006. Trawling, for example, can make available previously unexploited food resources by gathering prey that may otherwise be too fast or deep for normal predation, or may concentrate calories in an otherwise patchy landscape Fertl and Leatherwood, 1997. Pilot whales, which are generally considered to be teuthophagous i.e., feeding primarily on squid, were commonly observed in association with Atlantic mackerel Scomber scombrus trawl fisheries from 197788 in the northeast U.S. EEZ
Waring et al., 1990. Not surprisingly, stomach contents of captured whales were observed to have high proportions of mackerel 68 percent of non-trace food items, indicating that the ready availability of a novel, concentrated, high-calorie prey item resulted in changed dietary composition Read, 1994.
These interactions can result in injury or death for the animals involved and/
or damage to fishing gear. Coastal animals, including various pinnipeds, bottlenose dolphins, and harbor porpoises, are perhaps the most vulnerable to these interactions. They are most likely to interact with set or passive fishing gear such as gillnets, traps Beverton, 1985; Barlow et al., 1994; Read et al., 2006; Byrd et al., 2014; Lewison et al., 2014. Although interactions are less common for use of trawl nets and longlines, they do occur
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