Commerce Department, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NMFS has received an application from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (Lamont-Doherty) in collaboration with the National Science Foundation (NSF), for an Incidental Harassment Authorization (Authorization) to take marine mammals, by harassment only, incidental to conducting three marine geophysical (seismic) surveys in the southeast Pacific Ocean, in the latter half of 2016 and/or the beginning half of 2017. The proposed dates are between June 2016 and June 2017, to account for logistical and scheduling needs of the applicant. Per the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), we are requesting comments on our proposal to issue an Authorization to Lamont-Doherty to incidentally take, by level B harassment, 44 species of marine mammal during the specified activity and to incidentally take, by Level A harassment, 26 species of marine mammals. Although considered unlikely, any Level A harassment potentially incurred would be expected to be in the form of some smaller degree of permanent hearing loss due in part to the required monitoring measures for detecting marine mammals and required mitigation measures for power downs or shut downs of the airgun array if any animal is likely to enter the Level A exclusion zone. NMFS does not expect any serious injury, mortality, or deafness to occur in marine mammals as a result of this proposed survey.
Document Headings Document headings vary by document type but may contain the following: the agency or agencies that issued and signed a document the number of the CFR title and the number of each part the document amends, proposes to amend, or is directly related to the agency docket number / agency internal file number the RIN which identifies each regulatory action listed in the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions See the Document Drafting Handbook for more details. Department of Commerce National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration RIN 0648-XE451 AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Department of Commerce. ACTION: Notice; proposed Incidental Harassment Authorization; request for comments. SUMMARY: NMFS has received an application from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (Lamont-Doherty) in collaboration with the National Science Foundation (NSF), for an Incidental Harassment Authorization (Authorization) to take marine mammals, by harassment only, incidental to conducting three marine geophysical (seismic) surveys in the southeast Pacific Ocean, in the latter half of 2016 and/or the beginning half of 2017. The proposed dates are between June 2016 and June 2017, to account for logistical and scheduling needs of the applicant. Per the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), we are requesting comments on our proposal to issue an Authorization to Lamont-Doherty to incidentally take, by level B harassment, 44 species of marine mammal during the specified activity and to incidentally take, by Level A harassment, 26 species of marine mammals. Although considered unlikely, any Level A harassment potentially incurred would be expected to be in the form of some smaller degree of permanent hearing loss due in part to the required monitoring measures for detecting marine mammals and required mitigation measures for power downs or shut downs of the airgun array if any animal is li…
Citation: 81 FR 23118
