Takes of Marine Mammals Incidental to Specified Activities; Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to Rocky Intertidal Monitoring Surveys Along the Oregon and California Coasts

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE <SUBAGY>National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>50 CFR Part 217</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. 250623-0106]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 0648-BN36</RIN> <SUBJECT>Takes of Marine Mammals Incidental to Specified Activities; Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to Rocky Intertidal Monitoring Surveys Along the Oregon and California Coasts</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule; notification of issuance of Letter of Authorization. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> NMFS, upon request from the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC), hereby issues regulations to govern the unintentional taking of marine mammals incidental to rocky intertidal monitoring surveys along the Oregon and California coasts over the course of 5 years (2025-2030). These regulations, which allow for the issuance of a Letter of Authorization (LOA) for the incidental take of marine mammals during the described activities and specified timeframes, prescribe the permissible methods of taking and other means of effecting the least practicable adverse impact on marine mammal species or stocks and their habitat, as well as requirements pertaining to the monitoring and reporting of such taking. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This rule is effective from June 26, 2025, through June 26, 2030. </EFFDATE> <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/action/incidental-take-authorization-university-california-santa-cruzs-rocky-intertidal-monitoring.</E> In case of problems accessing these documents, please call the contact listed below. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Jennifer Gatzke, Office of Protected Resources, NMFS, (301) 427-8401. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Purpose and Need for Regulatory Action</HD> This rule establishes a framework under the authority of the MMPA (16 U.S.C. 1361 <E T="03">et seq.</E> ) and authorizes, for a 5-year period (2025-2030), take of marine mammals incidental to the UCSC/MARINe's rocky intertidal research activities in Oregon and California. NMFS received an incidental take authorization (ITA) application from the UCSC/MARINe requesting 5-year regulations and an LOA to take four species of marine mammals by Level B harassment (Application). Take of harbor seal ( <E T="03">Phoca vitulina richardii</E> ), Steller sea lion ( <E T="03">Eumetopias jubatus</E> ), northern elephant seal ( <E T="03">Mirounga angustirostris</E> ), and California sea lion ( <E T="03">Zalophus californianus</E> ) would occur by Level B harassment only, incidental to visual and auditory disturbance of pinnipeds occurring near research sites. No mortality or serious injury is anticipated or authorized. Please see the Estimated Take of Marine Mammals section below for definitions of harassment. A previous incidental take authorization was issued in association with this ongoing, long-term project. That authorization was issued to the UCSC Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans (referred to as UCSC/PISCO). Additional information about that action can be found at: <E T="03">https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/action/incidental-take-authorization-university-california-santa-cruz-rocky-intertidal-monitoring-0.</E> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Legal Authority for the Proposed Action</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 specified geographical region if certain findings are made, regulations are promulgated, and public notice and an opportunity for public comment are provided. 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. NMFS will pay particular attention to (1) rookeries, mating grounds, and areas of similar significance, (2) the availability of the species or stocks for taking for certain subsistence uses (referred to as “mitigation”), and (3) the requirements pertaining to the mitigation, monitoring and reporting of the takings are set forth. The definitions of all applicable MMPA statutory terms cited above are included below. Section 101(a)(5)(A) of the MMPA and the implementing regulations at 50 CFR part 216, subpart I, provide the legal basis for issuing 5-year regulations and an associated LOA. This rule establishes required mitigation, monitoring, and reporting requirements for the UCSC/MARINe's activities. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Summary of Major Provisions Within the Proposed Rule</HD> The following is a summary of the major provisions of this rule regarding UCSC/MARINe's research activities. These provisions include measures requiring: • Mitigation to minimize impact to pinnipeds and avoid disruption to dependent pups including several measures to approach haulouts cautiously to minimize disturbance, especially when pups are present; and • Monitoring of the research areas to detect the presence of marine mammals before initiating surveys. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Summary of Request</HD> On September 6, 2024, NMFS received a request from the UCSC/MARINe for an authorization to take marine mammals incidental to rocky intertidal monitoring surveys along the Oregon and California coasts. Following NMFS' review of the application, UCSC/MARINe submitted a revised version that was deemed adequate and complete on November 26, 2024. UCSC/MARINe's request is for incidental take of four pinniped species by Level B harassment only; harbor seal, Steller sea lion, northern elephant seal, and California sea lion. Neither UCSC/MARINe nor NMFS expect serious injury or mortality to result from this activity. NMFS previously issued seven IHAs (77 FR 72327, December 5, 2012; 78 FR 79403, December 30, 2013; 79 FR 73048, December 9, 2014; 81 FR 7319, February 11, 2016; 82 FR 12568, March 6, 2017; 83 FR 11696, March 16, 2018; 84 FR 17784, April 26, 2019) to the UCSC Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans (UCSC/PISCO) for this work before issuing a final rule and associated LOA in 2020 (85 FR 18459, April 2, 2020). UCSC/PISCO complied with all the requirements ( <E T="03">e.g.,</E> mitigation, monitoring, and reporting) of the previous IHAs and LOA. UCSC/PISCO monitoring results from 2013 to 2024 may be found in the Application, which is available online at: <E T="03">https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/action/incidental-take-authorization-university-california-santa-cruzs-rocky-intertidal-monitoring.</E> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Description of Activity</HD> UCSC/MARINe has been authorized to conduct rocky intertidal monitoring work for over 20 years. This work focuses on understanding the nearshore ecosystems of the U.S. West Coast through a number of interdisciplinary collaborations. The program integrates long-term monitoring of ecological and oceanographic processes at dozens of sites with experimental work in the lab and field. Research is conducted throughout the year along the California and Oregon coasts and is expected to continue indefinitely. Researchers accessing and conducting research activities on the sites occasionally result in the incidental take of four pinniped species by incidental, Level B harassment. UCSC/MARINe expects, and NMFS concurs, that the disturbance to pinnipeds from the research activities will be limited to Level B harassment. Take by Level A harassment, serious injury, or mortality is not anticipated and will not be authorized through this action. Some sampling may occur in all months of the calendar year. Over the course of this 5-year effective period for the rule, UCSC/MARINe expects approximately 300 days of survey effort. Exact locations of sampling sites can be found in table 1 of the Application, along with maps at: <E T="03">https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/action/incidental-take-authorization-university-california-santa-cruzs-rocky-intertidal-monitoring.</E> A detailed description of the monitoring project, along with mitigation, monitoring, and reporting measures, are described in detail in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> notice for the proposed ITA (90 FR 13322, March 21, 2025). Since that time, the only change that has been added is a mitigation measure that was omitted in the proposed rule (see Summary of Request section above). Therefore, a detailed description is not provided here. Please refer to that <E T="04">Federal Register</E> notice for the description of the specific activity. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Comments and Responses</HD> A notice of NMFS' proposal to issue an ITA to the UCSC/MARINe was published in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> notice for the proposed ITA (90 FR 13322, March 21, 2025). That notice described, in detail, UCSC/MARINe'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 authoriz ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 65k characters. 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