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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 171 / Wednesday, September 8, 2021 / Proposed Rules taking for certain subsistence uses referred to in shorthand as mitigation; and requirements pertaining to the mitigation, monitoring and reporting of the takings are set forth.
NMFS has defined negligible impact in 50 CFR 216.103 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.
The MMPA states that the term take means to harass, hunt, capture, or kill, or attempt to harass, hunt, capture, or kill any marine mammal.
Except with respect to certain activities not pertinent here, the MMPA
defines harassment as: Any act of pursuit, torment, or annoyance which i has the potential to injure a marine mammal or marine mammal stock in the wild 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 Level B
harassment.

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National Environmental Policy Act To comply with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969
NEPA; 42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq. and NOAA Administrative Order NAO
2166A, NMFS must review our proposed action i.e., the issuance of a proposed rule and subsequent LOAs with respect to potential impacts on the human environment.
This action is consistent with categories of activities identified in Categorical Exclusion B4 of the Companion Manual for NAO 2166A, which do not individually or cumulatively have the potential for significant impacts on the quality of the human environment and for which we have not identified any extraordinary circumstances that would preclude this categorical exclusion. Accordingly, NMFS has preliminarily determined that the issuance of the proposed rule qualifies to be categorically excluded from further NEPA review.
Information in the Societys application and this notification collectively provide the environmental information related to proposed issuance of these regulations and subsequent incidental take authorization for public review and comment. We will review all comments submitted in response to this notification prior to concluding our NEPA process or making a final decision on the request.

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Summary of Request On March 23, 2020, NMFS received a request from the Society for a proposed rule and LOAs to take marine mammals incidental to lighthouse maintenance and preservation activities at NWSR, offshore of Crescent City, CA. The application was deemed adequate and complete on April 16, 2020. The Societys request is for take of a small number of California sea lions Zalophus californianus, harbor seals Phoca vitulina, Steller sea lions Eumetopias jubatus, and northern fur seals Callorhinus ursinus by Level B
harassment only. Neither the Society nor NMFS expects serious injury or mortality to result from this activity. On June 9, 2020 85 FR 35268, we published a notice of receipt of the Coast Guards application in the Federal Register, requesting comments and information related to the request for 30
days. We received no comments.
NMFS previously issued nine 1-year Incidental Harassment Authorizations IHAs for similar work 75 FR 4774, January 29, 2010; 76 FR 10564, February 25, 2011; 77 FR 8811, February 15, 2012; 78 FR 71576, November 29, 2013;
79 FR 6179, February 3, 2014; 81 FR
9440, February 25, 2016; 82 FR 11005, February 17, 2017; 83 FR 19254, May 2, 2018; and 84 FR 15598, April 16, 2019.
Generally speaking, the Society complied with the requirements e.g., mitigation, monitoring, and reporting of the previous IHAs. However, misunderstandings in past implementation have resulted in missing or incorrectly recorded monitoring data, which necessitates more frequent reporting in the first year at least of this rule to ensure appropriate monitoring and reporting implementation in the future.
Information regarding their monitoring results may be found in the Potential Effects of Specified Activities on Marine Mammals and their Habitat and Estimated Take sections.
Description of Proposed Activity Overview The St. George Reef Lighthouse Station was built on NWSR in 1892 and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Covering much of the islets surface, the structure consists of a 14.5 meter m high 48 foot ft ovalshaped concrete base the caisson that holds much of the equipment and infrastructure for the lighthouse tower, which sits on the top of one end of the base. The square tower consists of hundreds of granite blocks topped with a cast iron lantern room reaching 45.7
m 150 ft above sea level. An
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observation gallery platform surrounds the lantern room and provides a 360
degree view to the caisson and rocks below.
The purpose of the project is to conduct annual maintenance of the Stations optical light system, emergency maintenance in the event of equipment failure, restoration activities, and lighthouse tours. Because NWSR
has no safe landing area for boats, the Society accesses the Station via helicopter. Restoration work sessions can occur over 3-day weekends or longer one to two week sessions. The following specific aspects of the proposed activities would likely result in the take of marine mammals:
Acoustic and visual stimuli from 1
helicopter landings and takeoffs; 2
noise generated during restoration activities e.g., painting, plastering, welding, and glazing; 3 maintenance activities e.g., bulb replacement and automation of the light system; and 4
human presence. Thus, NMFS
anticipates these activities may occasionally cause behavioral disturbance i.e., Level B harassment of four pinniped species. It is expected that the disturbance to pinnipeds from the activities will be minimal and will be limited to Level B harassment.
The regulations proposed here and any issued LOAs would replace annual IHAs, providing a reduction in the time and effort necessary to obtain individual incidental take authorizations.
Dates and Duration The Society proposes to conduct the activities aircraft operations, lighthouse restoration and maintenance activities, and public tours with a maximum of 70
helicopter flight days per year. The Societys deed restricts normal access from June 1 through October 15
annually, so currently proposed trips under this application would occur from October 16 through May 31.
However, the Society is attempting to have the deed revised to allow visits at any time of the year. Therefore we will consider the implications of possible visits during any month of the year in our analyses below and we could issue LOAs to cover this time of year should the society be successful in revising their deed. The proposed regulations would be valid for a period of 5 years January 1, 2022December 31, 2026.
Over the course of this 5-year authorization, the Society proposes a maximum of 350 days of activities.
Specific Geographic Region The Station is located on NWSR
Figure 1, a small, rocky islet 415024
N, 1242206 W, approximately 9

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