Takes of Marine Mammals Incidental to Specified Activities; Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to a Marine Geophysical Survey in the Nauru Basin of Greater Micronesia in the Northwest Pacific Ocean

<NOTICE> DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE <SUBAGY>National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</SUBAGY> <DEPDOC>[RTID 0648-XE461]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Takes of Marine Mammals Incidental to Specified Activities; Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to a Marine Geophysical Survey in the Nauru Basin of Greater Micronesia in the Northwest Pacific Ocean</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Notice; issuance of an incidental harassment authorization. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> In accordance with the regulations implementing the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) as amended, notification is hereby given that NMFS has issued an incidental harassment authorization (IHA) to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) to incidentally harass marine mammals during survey activities associated with a marine geophysical survey in the Nauru Basin of greater Micronesia in the northwest (NW) Pacific Ocean. </SUM> <DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This authorization is effective from December 11, 2024 through December 10, 2025. </DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> Electronic copies of the application and supporting documents, as well as a list of the references cited in this document, may be obtained online at: <E T="03">https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-mammal-protection/incidental-take-authorizations-research-and-other-activities.</E> In case of problems accessing these documents, please call the contact listed below. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Rachel Wachtendonk, Office of Protected Resources, NMFS, (301) 427-8401. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Background</HD> The MMPA prohibits the “take” of marine mammals, with certain exceptions. Sections 101(a)(5)(A) and (D) of the MMPA (16 U.S.C. 1361 <E T="03">et seq.</E> ) direct the Secretary of Commerce (as delegated to NMFS) to allow, upon request, the incidental, but not intentional, taking of small numbers of marine mammals by U.S. citizens who engage in a specified activity (other than commercial fishing) within a specific geographic region if certain findings are made and either regulations are proposed or, if the taking is limited to harassment, a notice of a proposed IHA is provided to the public for review. Authorization for incidental takings shall be granted if NMFS finds that the taking will have a negligible impact on the species or stock(s) and will not have an unmitigable adverse impact on the availability of the species or stock(s) for taking for subsistence uses (where relevant). Further, NMFS must prescribe the permissible methods of taking and other “means of effecting the least practicable adverse impact” on the affected species or stocks and their habitat, paying particular attention to rookeries, mating grounds, and areas of similar significance, and on the availability of the species or stocks for taking for certain subsistence uses (referred to in shorthand as “mitigation”); and requirements pertaining to the monitoring and reporting of the takings. The definitions of all applicable MMPA statutory terms cited above are included in the relevant sections below. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Summary of Request</HD> On June 6, 2024, NMFS received a request from the SIO for an IHA to take marine mammals incidental to a marine geophysical survey in the Nauru Basin of greater Micronesia in the NW Pacific Ocean. The application was deemed adequate and complete on July 30, 2024. SIO's request is for take of 27 species of marine mammals, by Level B harassment only. Neither SIO nor NMFS expect serious injury or mortality to result from this activity and, therefore, an IHA is appropriate. There are no changes from the proposed IHA to the final IHA. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Description of Activity</HD> Researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and University of Houston, with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), and implementation by SIO, plan to conduct a low-energy marine seismic survey using airguns as the acoustic source from the research vessel (R/V) <E T="03">Sikuliaq</E> ( <E T="03">Sikuliaq</E> ), which is owned by NSF and operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). The planned survey will occur in the Nauru Basin of greater Micronesia in the NW Pacific Ocean from approximately December 2024 to January 2025. The planned survey will occur in International Waters and within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the Republic of Marshall Islands, in water depths ranging from approximately 4,000-6,000 meters (m). To complete this 2-dimensional (2-D) multi-channel seismic (MCS) reflection survey, the <E T="03">Sikuliaq</E> will tow a 4-airgun array with a total discharge volume of ~420 cubic inches (in <SU>3</SU> ) at a depth of 3 m, operated by marine technicians from SIO. The airgun array receiver will consist of a 1,200 m long solid-state hydrophone streamer. The airguns will fire at a shot interval of 30 m. Approximately 3,158 kilometers (km) of seismic acquisition is planned. Airgun arrays will introduce underwater sounds that may result in take, by Level B harassment, of marine mammals. A detailed description of the planned geophysical survey was provided in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> notice of the proposed IHA (89 FR 81429, October 8, 2024). Since that time, no changes have been made to the planned survey activities. Therefore, a detailed description is not provided here. Please refer to that <E T="04">Federal Register</E> notice for the description of the specified activity. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Comments and Responses</HD> A notice of NMFS' proposal to issue an IHA to SIO was published in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> on October 8, 2024 (89 FR 81429). That notice described, in detail, SIO's activity, the marine mammal species that may be affected by the activity, and the anticipated effects on marine mammals. In that notice, we requested public input on the request for authorization described therein, our analyses, the proposed authorization, and any other aspect of the notice of proposed IHA, and requested that interested persons submit relevant information, suggestions, and comments. The proposed notice was available for a 30-day public comment period. NMFS received no public comments. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Description of Marine Mammals in the Area of Specified Activities</HD> Sections 3 and 4 of the application summarize available information regarding status and trends, distribution and habitat preferences, and behavior and life history of the potentially affected species. NMFS fully considered all of this information, and we refer the reader to these descriptions, instead of reprinting the information. Additional information about these species ( <E T="03">e.g.,</E> physical and behavioral descriptions) may be found on NMFS' website ( <E T="03">https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/find-species</E> ). NMFS refers the reader to the aforementioned source for general information regarding the species listed in table 1. The populations of marine mammals found in the survey area do not occur within the U.S. EEZ and therefore, are not assessed in NMFS' Stock Assessment Reports (SAR). For most species, there are no stocks defined for management purposes in the survey area, and NMFS is evaluating impacts at the species level and ranges for most species evaluated here are considered to be the North Pacific. As such, information on potential biological removal level (PBR; defined by the MMPA as the maximum number of animals, not including natural mortalities, that may be removed from a marine mammal stock while allowing that stock to reach or maintain its optimum sustainable population) and annual levels of serious injury and mortality from anthropogenic sources are not available for these marine mammal populations. Abundance estimates for marine mammals in the survey location were calculated using density data for marine mammals from a U.S. Navy Technical Report for the region (DoN, 2018). The area covered in this report include the Mariana Islands Training and Testing (MITT) Study Area, within approximately 6-23° N, 122-150° E, and the transit corridor which spans from the MITT Study Area to the International Date Line. These abundance estimates are considered the best scientific information available on the abundance of marine mammal populations in the area. Table 1 lists all species that occur in the survey area that may be taken as a result of the planned survey and summarizes information related to the population, including regulatory status under the MMPA and Endangered Species Act (ESA). <GPOTABLE COLS="5" OPTS="L2,i1" CDEF="s50,r50,r50,xls30,12"> <TTITLE>Table 1—Species Likely Impacted by the Specified Activities</TTITLE> <CHED H="1">Common name</CHED> <CHED H="1">Scientific name</CHED> <CHED H="1">Stock/distinct population segment (DPS)</CHED> <CHED H="1"> ESA/MMPA status; strategic (Y/N)  <E T="02">Order Artiodactyla—Cetacea—Mysticeti (baleen whales)</E> </ENT> </ROW> <ROW EXPSTB="00"> <ENT I="22"> <E T="03">Family Balaenopteridae (rorquals):</E> </ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="03">Blue Whale</ENT> <ENT> <E T="03">Balaenoptera musculus</E> <E T="02">Odontoceti (toothed whales, dolphins, and porpoises)</E> </ENT> </ROW> <ROW EXPSTB="00"> <ENT I="22"> <E T="03">Family Physeteridae:</E> <E T="03">Family Ziphiidae (beaked whales):</E> </ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="03">Blainville's Beaked Whale</ENT> <ENT> <E T="03">Mesoplodon densirostris</E> </ENT> <ENT>NA</ENT> <ENT>-, -, N</ENT> <ENT>3,376</ENT> <ENT I="03">Ginko-Toothed Beaked Whale</ENT> <ENT> <E T="03">Mesoplodon ginkgodens</E> </ENT> <ENT>NA</ENT> <ENT>-, -, N</ENT> <ENT ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 91k characters. 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