Takes of Marine Mammals Incidental to Specified Activities; Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to Alaska LNG Project in Cook Inlet

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE <SUBAGY>National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>50 CFR Part 217</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. 250722-0128]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 0648-BN50</RIN> <SUBJECT>Takes of Marine Mammals Incidental to Specified Activities; Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to Alaska LNG Project in Cook Inlet</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Proposed rule; request for comments. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> NMFS has received a request from 8 Star Alaska, LLC (8 Star Alaska), a subsidiary of Alaska Gasline Development Corporation (AGDC), for authorization to take marine mammals incidental to the Alaska Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Project in Cook Inlet, Alaska, over the course of 5 years (2026-2030). Pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), NMFS proposes regulations setting forth permissible methods of taking, other means of effecting the least practicable adverse impact on such marine mammal stocks ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> mitigation measures), and requirements pertaining to monitoring and reporting such takes, and requests comments on the proposed regulations. NMFS will consider public comments prior to making any final decision on the promulgation of the requested MMPA regulations, and NMFS' responses to public comments will be summarized in the final notification of our decision. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Comments and information must be received no later than August 28, 2025. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> A plain language summary of this proposed rule is available at <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov/docket/NOAA-NMFS-2025-0141.</E> You may submit comments on this document, identified by NOAA-NMFS-2025-0141, by any of the following methods: • <E T="03">Electronic Submission:</E> Submit all electronic public comments via the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal. Visit <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> and type NOAA-NMFS-2025-0141 in the Search box. Click on the “Comment” icon, complete the required fields, and enter or attach your comments. • <E T="03">Mail:</E> Submit written comments to the Permits and Conservation Division, Office of Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries Service, 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910-3225. • <E T="03">Fax:</E> (301) 713-0376. <E T="03">Instructions:</E> Comments sent by any other method, to any other address or individual, or received after the end of the comment period, may not be considered by NMFS. All comments received are a part of the public record and will generally be posted for public viewing on <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> without change. All personal identifying information ( <E T="03">e.g.,</E> name, address, <E T="03">etc.</E> ), confidential business information, or otherwise sensitive information submitted voluntarily by the sender will be publicly accessible. NMFS will accept anonymous comments (enter “N/A” in the required fields if you wish to remain anonymous). A copy of 8 Star Alaska's Incidental Take Authorization (ITA) 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-oil-and-gas.</E> In case of problems accessing these documents, please call the contact listed below. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Kristy Jacobus, 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> NMFS received a request from 8 Star Alaska requesting 5-year regulations and a Letter of Authorization (LOA) that would authorize take of marine mammals by Level A and Level B harassment incidental to 8 Star Alaska's activities. No serious injury or mortality is anticipated or proposed to be authorized. Please see below for definitions of relevant terms and the Estimated Take of Marine Mammals section for definitions of harassment. The proposed rule, promulgated under the authority of the MMPA (16 U.S.C. 1361 <E T="03">et seq.</E> ), would provide a framework for authorizing the take of marine mammals incidental to construction activities associated with 8 Star Alaska's LNG project, including impact and vibratory pile driving and anchor handling. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Legal Authority for the Proposed Action</HD> The MMPA prohibits the “take” of marine mammals, with certain exceptions. Section 101(a)(5)(A) and (D) of the MMPA (16 U.S.C. 1361 <E T="03">et seq.</E> ) directs 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 (when applicable), 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, paying particular attention to rookeries, mating grounds, and areas of similar significance, the availability of the species or stocks for taking for certain subsistence uses (referred to as “mitigation”), and requirements pertaining to the mitigation, monitoring and reporting of the takings are set forth. As noted above, no serious injury or mortality is proposed to be authorized in this proposed rule. Relevant definitions of MMPA statutory and regulatory terms are included below: • <E T="03">Citizen</E> —individual U.S. citizens or any corporation or similar entity if it is organized under the laws of the United States or any governmental unit defined in 16 U.S.C. 1362(13) (50 CFR 216.103); • <E T="03">Take</E> —to harass, hunt, capture, or kill, or attempt to harass, hunt, capture, or kill any marine mammal (16 U.S.C. 1362; 50 CFR 216.3); • <E T="03">Incidental taking</E> —an accidental taking. This does not mean that the taking is unexpected, but rather it includes those takings that are infrequent, unavoidable, or accidental (50 CFR 216.103); • <E T="03">Serious injury</E> —any injury that will likely result in mortality (50 CFR 216.3); • <E T="03">Level A harassment</E> —any act of pursuit, torment, or annoyance which has the potential to injure a marine mammal or marine mammal stock in the wild (16 U.S.C. 1362); and • <E T="03">Level B harassment</E> —any act of pursuit, torment, or annoyance which 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 (16 U.S.C. 1362). Section 101(a)(5)(A) of the MMPA and the implementing regulations at 50 CFR part 216, subpart I, provide the legal basis for proposing and, if appropriate, issuing 5-year regulations and associated LOA(s). This proposed rule also proposes required mitigation, monitoring, and reporting requirements for 8 Star Alaska's activities. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Summary of Major Provisions Within the Proposed Rule</HD> The major provisions of this proposed rule include: • Allowing NMFS to authorize, through an LOA, the take of small numbers of marine mammals by Level A harassment and/or Level B harassment; • No mortality or serious injury of any marine mammal is proposed to be authorized; • Requiring NMFS-approved protected species observers (PSOs) and delaying commencement of or shutting down select activities should a marine mammal be detected within identified clearance or shutdown zones to minimize the amount and severity of take; • Requiring time/area closure for beluga whale during summer months in the western portion of Cook Inlet; and • Requiring soft start for impact pile driving to allow marine mammals the opportunity to leave the area prior to beginning impact pile driving at full power. <HD SOURCE="HD1">National Environmental Policy Act</HD> To comply with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA; 42 U.S.C. 4321 <E T="03">et seq.</E> ) and NOAA Administrative Order 216-6A, NMFS must review our proposed action ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> promulgation of regulations and subsequent issuance of a 5-year LOA) with respect to potential impacts on the human environment. NMFS participated as a cooperating agency on the 2020 Alaska LNG Project Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), which was finalized on March 6, 2020, and is available at <E T="03">https://www.ferc.gov/industries-data/natural-gas/environment/final-environmental-impact-statement-feis.</E> When acting as a cooperating agency, as is the case with this project, NMFS may satisfy its independent NEPA obligations by either preparing a separate NEPA analysis for its issuance of an incidental take authorization or, if appropriate, by adopting the NEPA analysis prepared by the lead agency. NMFS independently reviewed and evaluated the 2020 Alaska LNG Project EIS and determined it was adequate and sufficient to meet our responsibilities under NEPA for the issuance of the 2020 Alaska LNG Cook Inlet LOA (85 FR 59291, September 21, 2020). NMFS therefore adopted the 2020 Alaska LNG Projec ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 287k characters. 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