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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 108 / Tuesday, June 8, 2021 / Notices
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BILLING CODE 351022C

Mitigation Requirements In order to issue an IHA under Section 101a5D of the MMPA, NMFS must set forth the permissible methods of taking pursuant to such activity, and other means of effecting the least practicable impact on such species or stock and its habitat, paying particular attention to rookeries, mating grounds, and areas of similar significance, and on the availability of such species or stock for taking for certain subsistence uses. NMFS
regulations require applicants for incidental take authorizations to include information about the availability and feasibility economic and technological of equipment, methods, and manner of conducting such activity or other means of effecting the least practicable adverse impact upon the affected species or stocks and their habitat 50 CFR
216.104a11.
In evaluating how mitigation may or may not be appropriate to ensure the least practicable adverse impact on species or stocks and their habitat, as well as subsistence uses where applicable, NMFS carefully considers two primary factors:
1 The manner in which, and the degree to which, the successful implementation of the measures is expected to reduce impacts to marine mammals, marine mammal species or stocks, and their habitat. This considers the nature of the potential adverse impact being mitigated likelihood, scope, range. It further considers the likelihood that the measure will be effective if implemented probability of accomplishing the mitigating result if implemented as planned, the likelihood of effective implementation probability implemented as planned;
and 2 The practicability of the measures for applicant implementation, which may consider such things as cost, impact on operations, and, in the case of a military readiness activity, personnel safety, practicality of implementation, and impact on the effectiveness of the military readiness activity.
In addition to the measures described later in this section, the Navy will employ the following standard mitigation measures:
The Navy must employ PSOs, establish monitoring locations, and
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monitor the project area to the maximum extent possible based on the required number of PSOs, required monitoring locations, and environmental conditions;
Monitoring must take place from 30
minutes prior to initiation of construction activities through 30
minutes post-completion of pile-driving and drilling, and 60 minutes postcompletion of blasting events;
The Navy must conduct a briefing between construction supervisors and crews and the marine mammal monitoring team prior to the start of construction, and when new personnel join the work, to explain responsibilities, communication procedures, marine mammal monitoring protocol, and operational procedures;
For in-water and over-water heavy machinery work, if a marine mammal comes within 10 m, operations shall cease and vessels shall reduce speed to the minimum level required to maintain steerage and safe working conditions;
With the exception of pre-dawn drilling, work must only occur during daylight hours, when visual monitoring of marine mammals can be conducted;
For those marine mammals for which take has not been requested, pile driving and removal, drilling, and blasting will shut down immediately when the animals are sighted approaching the Level B harassment zone;
If take reaches the authorized limit for an authorized species, activity for which take is authorized will be stopped as these species approach the Level B harassment zone to avoid additional take;
Blasting will not begin until at least one sheet pile face of the west closure wall has been installed;
Blasting must only occur in good visibility conditions between 30
minutes after sunrise and one hour before sunset;
Stemming procedures must be used for blasting events; and A double bubble curtain will be installed across any openings at the entrance of DD1 to mitigate underwater noise impacts outside of the super flood basin during pre-dawn drilling of blastcharge holes and blasting events.
The following measures will apply to the Navys mitigation requirements:
Monitoring Harassment Zones Before the commencement of in-water construction activities i.e., impact pile
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driving, vibratory pile driving and pile removal, drilling, and blasting, Level B
harassment and Level A harassment zones must be established for purposes of monitoring. Monitoring zones enable observers to be aware of and communicate the presence of marine mammals in the project area outside of the shutdown zone see below and thus prepare for a potential cease of activity should the animal enter the shutdown zone. All Level B harassment monitoring zones for the construction activities are equivalent to the maximum ensonified zone, adjusted for landmass interception, or 0.418 km2.
Similarly, harassment monitoring zones must be established for the PTS
isopleths associated with each functional hearing group.
Shutdown ZonesThe Navy will implement shutdown zones for all pile driving and removal, drilling, and blasting activities. The purpose of a shutdown is to prevent some undesirable outcome, such as auditory injury or severe behavioral disturbance of sensitive species, by halting the activity. If a marine mammal is observed entering or within the respective shutdown zone Table 12 after a construction activity has begun, the PSO
will request a temporary cessation of the construction activity. On days when multiple activities are occurring concurrently, the largest shutdown zone between/among the activities will be implemented. The shutdown zone for blasting will be the entire region of influence ROI, equivalent to the maximum ensonified zone adjusted for landmass interception 0.335 km2. If shutdown zones are obscured by fog or poor lighting conditions, pile-driving and blasting will not be initiated until the entire shutdown zones are visible.
Although drilling activities may occur during pre-dawn hours in order to maintain the project schedule, the shutdown distance for drilling is small 10 m and will likely be entirely visible for monitoring despite visibility limitations during this timeframe. As mentioned previously, drilling will not occur between sunset and pre-dawn hours.
Shutdown zones typically vary based on the activity type and marine mammal hearing group. A summary of the shutdown zones is provided in Table 12.

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