[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 96 (Thursday, May 19, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 28909-28910]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-10022]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

[I.D. 050605B]


Marine Mammals; File Nos. 116-1786, 715-1792, 978-1791

AGENCY:  National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.

[[Page 28910]]


ACTION:  Receipt of applications for permits.

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SUMMARY:  Notice is hereby given that three applicants have applied in 
due form for a permit for scientific research on marine mammals.

DATES:  Written, telefaxed, or e-mail comments on the new applications 
must be received on or before June 20, 2005.

ADDRESSES: The applications and related documents are available for 
review upon written request or by appointment (See SUPPLEMENTARY 
INFORMATION).
    Written comments or requests for a public hearing on these 
applications should be mailed to the Chief, Permits, Conservation and 
Education Division, F/PR1, Office of Protected Resources, NMFS, 1315 
East-West Highway, Room 13705, Silver Spring, MD 20910. Those 
individuals requesting a hearing should set forth the specific reasons 
why a hearing on the particular request would be appropriate. Comments 
may also be submitted by facsimile at (301)427-2521, provided the 
facsimile is confirmed by hard copy submitted by mail and postmarked no 
later than the closing date of the comment period.
    Comments may also be submitted by e-mail. The mailbox address for 
providing email comments is [email protected]. Include in the 
subject line of the e-mail comment the following document identifier: 
File No. 116-1786, 715-1792, or 978-1791.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:  Amy Sloan or Tammy Adams, 301/713-
2289.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The subject permits are requested under the 
authority of the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, as amended 
(MMPA; 16 U.S.C. 1361 et seq.), the Regulations Governing the Taking 
and Importing of Marine Mammals (50 CFR part 216), the Endangered 
Species Act of 1973, as amended (ESA; 16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.), the 
regulations governing the taking, importing, and exporting of 
endangered and threatened species (50 CFR 222-227), and the Fur Seal 
Act of 1966, as amended (16 U.S.C. 1151 et seq.).

Applications for Permits

    File No. 116-1786: Sea World, Inc., 7007 Sea World Dr., Orlando, 
Florida 32821 (Principal Investigator: Dudley Wigdahl) proposes to 
continue the long-term maintenance of eight non-releasable female 
Hawaiian monk seals (Monachus schauinslandi) at Sea World San Antonio. 
Proposed enhancement activities include increased public awareness 
through an education program that includes public educational exhibit 
lectures, public display of the seals with graphic panels around the 
monk seal exhibit, and collection of husbandry samples, which would 
provide information on the biology of the species. Animals would have 
the following husbandry procedures performed for health monitoring 
purposes: weight measurements taken, blood sampling, fecal and urine 
sampling, and medical cultures taken. No research is proposed at this 
time. The applicant has requested a 5-year permit.
    File No. 715-1792: Andrew W. Trites, Ph.D., Marine Mammal Research 
Unit, Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia, Room 18, Hut B-
3, 6248 Biological Sciences Road, Vancouver, B.C. Canada V6T 1Z4 
requests a permit to conduct research on northern fur seals 
(Callorhinus ursinus) in Alaska. The proposed project involves the 
deployment of three types of electronic tags on up to 35 adult female 
northern fur seals from St. Paul Island, Alaska over a 3-year period to 
gather fine scale foraging data needed to identify critical habitat and 
assess the extent of spatial overlap with commercial fisheries. Data 
gathered from the simultaneous deployment of all three devices will 
also be used to develop analytical procedures to enhance the 
interpretation of existing foraging data. The applicant has requested a 
3-year permit.
    File No. 978-1791: Paul E. Nachtigall, Ph.D., Marine Mammal 
Research Program Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, P.O. Box 1106, 
Kailua, Hawaii 96734, seeks a permit to conduct hearing measurements on 
stranded whales and dolphins that are under veterinary care in a 
rehabilitation center. Results of this work would shed insight into the 
nature of strandings that may be caused by man-made sounds. These 
results could also be used as a medical diagnostic tool to determine 
how well an individual animal can hear and thus help with decisions 
made about the potential for a stranded animal to be released and its 
survival in the wild. The applicant would use auditory brainstem 
response recordings with non-invasive suction cup sensors on up to 15 
individuals of certain species of cetaceans in the U.S. These types of 
recordings are routinely used to measure the hearing of human infants 
within the first weeks of life, do not represent a risk to whales and 
dolphins, and would expand knowledge about cetacean hearing to assist 
in the conservation of these species. The applicant has requested a 5-
year permit.
    Concurrent with the publication of this notice in the Federal 
Register, NMFS is forwarding copies of these applications to the Marine 
Mammal Commission and its Committee of Scientific Advisors.
    The applications and related documents are available for review 
upon written request or by appointment in the following locations:
    All documents: Permits, Conservation and Education Division, Office 
of Protected Resources, NMFS, 1315 East-West Highway, Room 13705, 
Silver Spring, MD 20910; phone (301)713-2289; fax (301)427-2521;
    File No. 715-1792: Alaska Region, NMFS, P.O. Box 21668, Juneau, AK 
99802-1668; phone (907)586-7221; fax (907)586-7249;
    File No. 978-1791: Pacific Islands Region, NMFS, 1601 Kapiolani 
Blvd., Rm 1110, Honolulu, HI 96814-4700; phone (808)973-2935; fax 
(808)973-2941; and
    File No. 116-1786: Southeast Region, NMFS, 9721 Executive Center 
Drive North, St. Petersburg, FL 33702-2432; phone (727)570-5301; fax 
(727)570-5320.

    Dated: May 12, 2005.
Stephen L. Leathery,
Chief, Permits, Conservation and Education Division, Office of 
Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 05-10022 Filed 5-18-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-S