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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 195 / Wednesday, October 13, 2021 / Proposed Rules TABLE 3MARINE MAMMAL SPECIES LIKELY TO OCCUR NEAR THE PROJECT AREA
Common name
Scientific name
Stock abundance CV, Nmin, most recent abundance survey 2

ESA/
MMPA
status;
strategic Y/N 1

Stock
PBR

Annual M/SI 3

Superfamily Odontoceti toothed whales, dolphins, and porpoises Family Delphinidae:
Atlantic white-sided dolphin
Lagenorhynchus acutus

Western North Atlantic

-, -; N

Common dolphin

Delphinus delphis

Western North Atlantic

-, -; N

Family Phocoenidae porpoises:
Harbor porpoise

Phocoena phocoena

Gulf of Maine/Bay of Fundy

-, -; N

93,233 0.71; 54,443;
2016.
172,974 0.21; 145,216;
2016.

95,543 0.31; 74,034;
2016.

544

26

1,452

399

851

217

2,006

350

1,389

4,729

unknown unknown
232,422
1,680

Order CarnivoraSuperfamily Pinnipedia Family Phocidae earless seals:
Harbor seal

Phoca vitulina

Western North Atlantic

-,-; N

Gray seal

Halichoerus grypus

Western North Atlantic

-,-; N

Harp seal
Hooded seal

Pagophilus groenlandicus
Cystophora cristata

Western North Atlantic
Western North Atlantic

-,-; N
-,-; N

75,834 0.15; 66,884, 2012.
27,131 0.19, 23,158, 20164.
7,400,000
593,500

1 Endangered Species Act ESA status: Endangered E, Threatened T/MMPA status: Depleted D. A dash - indicates that the species is not listed under the ESA or designated as depleted under the MMPA. Under the MMPA, a strategic stock is one for which the level of direct human-caused mortality exceeds PBR or which is determined to be declining and likely to be listed under the ESA within the foreseeable future. Any species or stock listed under the ESA is automatically designated under the MMPA as depleted and as a strategic stock.
2 NMFS marine mammal stock assessment reports online at: https www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-mammal-protection/marine-mammal-stock-assessmentreports-region. CV is coefficient of variation; Nmin is the minimum estimate of stock abundance. In some cases, CV is not applicable.
3 These values, found in NMFS SARs, represent annual levels of human-caused mortality plus serious injury from all sources combined e.g., commercial fisheries, ship strike. Annual Mortality/Serious Injury M/SI often cannot be determined precisely and is in some cases presented as a minimum value or range. A CV associated with estimated mortality due to commercial fisheries is presented in some cases.
4 This abundance value and the associated PBR value reflect the U.S. population only. Estimated abundance for the entire Western North Atlantic stock, including animals in Canada, is 451,131. The annual M/SI estimate is for the entire stock.

As indicated above, all seven species in Table 3 temporally and spatially cooccur with the activity to the degree that take is reasonably likely to occur, and we have proposed authorizing take.
Several depleted species of whales occur seasonally in the waters off Rhode Island including Humpback Megaptera novaeangliae, Fin Balaenoptera physalus, Sei Balaenoptera borealis, Sperm Physeter macrocephalus and North Atlantic Right whales Eubaleana glacialis. These whales are seasonally present in New England waters;
however, due to the depths of Narragansett Bay and near shore location of the project area, these listed marine mammals are unlikely to occur.
Therefore, no takes were requested and none are anticipated or proposed for authorization by NMFS and they are not discussed further.

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Atlantic White-Sided Dolphin Atlantic white-sided dolphins are found in the temperate waters of the North Atlantic and specifically off the coast of North Carolina to Maine in U.S.
waters NOAA Fisheries, 2020a. The Gulf of Maine population of white-sided dolphin primarily occurs in continental shelf waters from Hudson Canyon to Georges Bank, and in the Gulf of Maine and lower Bay of Fundy. From January
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to May they occur in low numbers from Georges Bank to Jeffreys Ledge off New Hampshire. They are most common from June through September from Georges Bank to lower Bay of Fundy, with densities declining from October through December Hayes et al., 2019.
Since stranding recordings for the Atlantic white-sided dolphin began in Rhode Island in the late 1960s, this species has become the third most frequently recorded small cetacean.
There are occasional unconfirmed opportunistic reports of white-sided dolphins in Narragansett Bay, typically in fall and winter. Atlantic white-sided dolphins in Rhode Island are inhabitants of the continental shelf, with a slight tendency to occur in shallower water in the spring when they are most common approximately 64
percent of records. Seasonal occurrence of Atlantic white-sided dolphins decreases significantly following spring with 21 percent of records in summer, 10 percent in winter, and 7.6 percent in fall Kenny and Vigness-Raposa, 2010.
Common Dolphin The common dolphin is one of the most widely distributed species of cetaceans, found world-wide in temperate and subtropical seas. In the North Atlantic, they are common along
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the shoreline of Massachusetts and at sea sightings have been concentrated over the continental shelf between the 100-meter m and 2000-m isobaths over prominent underwater topography and east to the mid-Atlantic Ridge. The common dolphin can be found from Cape Hatteras northeast to Georges Bank from mid-January to May and in Gulf of Maine from mid-summer to autumn Hayes et al., 2019.
Common dolphins occur in the Rhode Island waters encompassing Narragansett Bay, Block Island Sound, Rhode Island Sound, and nearby coastal and continental shelf areas year-round.
They occur across much of the shelf but most commonly in waters deeper than approximately 60 m. Seasonality is not particularly strong, but sightings are more common in spring at approximately 35 percent of records followed by 26 percent in summer, 22
percent in winter, and 18 percent in fall Kenny and Vigness-Raposa, 2010.
Strandings occur year-round. In the stranding record for Rhode Island, common dolphins are the second most frequently stranded cetacean exceeded only by harbor porpoises and the most common delphinid. There were 23
strandings in Rhode Island between 1972 and 2005 Kenny and VignessRaposa, 2010. A common dolphin was
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