[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 51 (Wednesday, March 16, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 14095-14096]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-05886]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

RIN 0648-XC969


Draft Guidance for Assessing the Effects of Anthropogenic Sound 
on Marine Mammal Hearing--Acoustic Threshold Levels for Onset of 
Permanent and Temporary Threshold Shifts

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

ACTION: Notice; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), on behalf of 
NMFS and the National Ocean Service (referred collectively here as the 
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)), announces the 
availability of a document containing proposed changes to its Draft 
Guidance for Assessing the Effects of Anthropogenic Sound on Marine 
Mammal Hearing. The Guidance provides updated received levels, or 
thresholds, at which individual marine mammals under NOAA's management 
authority are predicted to experience changes in their hearing 
sensitivity (either temporary or permanent) for all underwater 
anthropogenic sound sources. NOAA has re-evaluated and modified several 
parts of the Draft Guidance and is soliciting public comment on the 
proposed changes.

DATES: Comments must be received by March 30, 2016.

ADDRESSES: The proposed changes to the Draft Guidance are available in 
electronic form via the Internet at http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/acoustics/.
    You may submit comments, which should be identified with NOAA-NMFS-
2013-0177, by either of the following methods:
    Electronic Submissions: Submit all electronic public comments via 
the Federal eRulemaking Portal http://www.regulations.gov.
    Mail: Send comments to: Chief, Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle 
Conservation Division, Office of Protected Resources, National Marine 
Fisheries Service, 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910-
3226, Attn: Acoustic Guidance.
    Instructions: All comments received are a part of the public record 
and will generally be posted to http://www.regulations.gov without 
change. All Personal Identifying Information (e.g., name, address, 
etc.) voluntarily submitted by the commenter may be publicly 
accessible. Do not submit Confidential Business Information or 
otherwise sensitive or protected information.
    NMFS will accept anonymous comments (enter N/A in the required 
fields if you wish to remain anonymous). You may submit attachments to 
electronic comments in Microsoft Word, Excel, WordPerfect, or Adobe PDF 
file formats only.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Amy Scholik-Schlomer, Office of 
Protected Resources, 301-427-8449, [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NOAA has developed Draft Guidance for 
assessing the effects of anthropogenic sound on the hearing of marine 
mammal species under NOAA's jurisdiction (i.e., whales, dolphins, 
porpoises, seals and sea lions). Specifically, the Guidance, which is 
technical in nature, identifies the received levels, or thresholds, at 
which individual marine mammals are

[[Page 14096]]

predicted to experience changes in their hearing sensitivity (either 
temporary or permanent) for all underwater anthropogenic sound sources. 
This Guidance is intended to be used by NOAA analysts and managers and 
other relevant user groups and stakeholders, including other federal 
agencies, when seeking to determine whether and how their activities 
are expected to result in particular types of impacts to marine mammals 
via acoustic exposure. The document outlines NOAA's updated acoustic 
threshold levels, describes in detail how the thresholds were 
developed, and explains how we intend to update them in the future.
    NOAA first published a Federal Register Notice on December 27, 
2013, announcing the availability of the Draft Guidance and a 30-day 
public comment period (78 FR 78822), which was extended another 45 days 
based upon public request (79 FR 4672; January 29, 2014). While NOAA 
was in the process of evaluating and addressing public comments, the 
U.S. Navy updated its methodology for the development of marine mammal 
auditory weighting functions and acoustic threshold levels. NOAA 
evaluated the proposed methodology and determined that it reflected the 
best available science. As a result, NOAA incorporated the Navy's 
methodology into our Draft Guidance and conducted another 45-day public 
comment period (80 FR 45642; July 31, 2015). Please refer to these 
Federal Register Notices for additional background about the 2013 and 
2015 Draft Guidance.
    While NOAA was working to address public comments from the second 
public comment period and finalize the Guidance, NOAA and the Navy 
(SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific) further evaluated certain aspects of 
the U.S. Navy's methodology. As a result, several recommendations/
modifications were suggested.
    The recommendations include: An updated methodology for predicting 
a composite audiogram for LF cetaceans; modification of the methodology 
used to establish auditory threshold levels for LF cetaceans; movement 
of the white-beaked dolphin (Lagenorhynchus albirostris) from mid-
frequency (MF) to high-frequency (HF) cetaceans; the inclusion of a 
newly published harbor porpoise (HF cetacean) audiogram (Kastelein et 
al. 2015); the exclusion of multiple data sets from the phocid pinniped 
weighting function; removal of peak sound pressure level (PK) acoustic 
threshold levels for non-impulsive sounds; and updated methodology for 
deriving PK acoustic threshold levels for functional hearing groups 
where no data are available.
    After consideration of these recommendations, NOAA has updated the 
Draft Guidance to reflect the suggested changes and is soliciting 
public comment on those revisions, which have been placed in a stand-
alone document, via a focused 14-day public comment period. As the 
Guidance is finalized, NOAA will address all substantive public 
comments on the Guidance (i.e., from the first and second public 
comment periods, as well as those from this focused third public 
comment period). Accordingly, there is no need to reiterate or resubmit 
comments made during the first and second public comment period on 
other sections of the Draft Guidance. NOAA encourages the public to 
focus comment on the document containing the proposed changes to the 
Guidance.
    The Guidance is classified as a Highly Influential Scientific 
Assessment by the Office of Management and Budget. As such, independent 
peer review is required prior to broad public dissemination by the 
Federal Government. As part of this process, NOAA has conducted three 
independent peer reviews in association with the Guidance. Details of 
all peer reviews can be found within the Guidance and at the following 
Web site: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/acoustics/ acoustics/. Concurrent with this 
third public comment period, NOAA requested that the peer reviewers of 
the Navy's methodology review the document containing the proposed 
changes to the Draft Guidance and indicate whether the revisions would 
significantly alter any of the comments made during their original 
review.

    Dated: March 10, 2016.
Donna S. Wieting,
Director, Office of Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries 
Service.
[FR Doc. 2016-05886 Filed 3-15-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-22-P