[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 177 (Wednesday, September 12, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 46193-46194]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-19822]
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NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Notice of Permit Modification Received Under the Antarctic
Conservation Act of 1978
AGENCY: National Science Foundation.
ACTION: Notice of Permit Modification Request.
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SUMMARY: The National Science Foundation (NSF) is required to publish a
notice of requests to modify permits issued to conduct activities
regulated under the Antarctic Conservation Act of 1978. This is the
required notice of a requested permit modification.
DATES: Interested parties are invited to submit written data, comments,
or views with respect to this permit application by October 12, 2018.
Permit applications may be inspected by interested parties at the
Permit Office, address below.
ADDRESSES: Comments should be addressed to Permit Office, Office of
Polar Programs, National Science Foundation, 2415 Eisenhower Avenue,
Alexandria, Virginia 22314.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Nature McGinn, ACA Permit Officer, at
the above address, 703-292-8030, or [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The National Science Foundation, as directed
by the Antarctic Conservation Act of 1978 (Pub. L. 95-541), as amended
by the Antarctic Science, Tourism and Conservation Act of 1996, has
developed regulations for the establishment of a permit system for
various activities in Antarctica and designation of certain animals and
certain geographic areas a requiring special protection. The
regulations establish such a permit system to designate Antarctic
Specially Protected Areas.
1. Description of Permit Modification Requested: NSF issued a
permit (ACA 2018-012) to Jay J. Rotella on October 16, 2017. The issued
permit allows the permit holder to continue long-term studies of
Weddell seal populations in Erebus Bay and the McMurdo Sound region to
evaluate how temporal variation in the marine environment affects
individual life histories and population dynamics of a long-lived
mammal. These studies may require the permit holder and agents to enter
into six ASPAs in the area. Research involves capture and release of up
to 675 Weddell seal pups at one to four days after birth for flipper
tagging per year. A recent modification to this permit, dated November
22, 2017, permitted the permit holder to increase the total take of
Weddell seal pups for flipper tagging from 675 to 1000.
Now the permit holder proposes a modification to the permit to
increase the number of takes allocated to certain permitted activities
to reflect the same increases authorized earlier this year in NMFS
Permit No. 21158-02. The take increases from those allowed under the
ACA permit, as originally issued, would be as follows: Increase from
515 to 800 pups, flipper tagged once; increase from 10 to 20 pups,
flipper tagged twice; increase from 285 to 385 adults, flipper tagged
once; increase from 1325 to 1800 adults, harassment takes (4 per
animal); increase from 675 to 910 pups, harassment takes (4 per
animal); increase from 10 to 35 adults, salvage parts and vibrissae
samples (3 per animal). These proposed changes would set the total
number of takes of Weddell seal pups for flipper tagging to 970. The
permit holder has also requested that a documentary film crew be
allowed to accompany and film the permit holder and agents as they
conduct the permitted activities this season.
Location: Erebus Bay, McMurdo Sound; ASPA 137, North-West White
Island, McMurdo Sound; ASPA 155, Cape Evans; ASPA 121, Cape Royds; ASPA
157, Backdoor Bay, Cape Royds, Ross Island; ASPA 158, Hut Point, Ross
Island; ASPA 161, Terra Nova Bay, Ross Sea.
Dates of Permitted Activities: October 1, 2018--September 30, 2022.
2. Description of Permit Modification Requested: The Foundation
issued a permit (ACA 2018-013) to Linnea Pearson on October 16, 2017.
The issued permit allows the permit holder to handle Weddell seal pups
per year for the purposes of studying the thermoregulatory strategies
by which the pups maintain euthermia in air and in water and examine
the development of diving capability as the animals prepare for
independent foraging. Each of the ten seal pups, separated into two
cohorts of five each, were to be handled at four time points between
one and eight weeks of age. Flipper-mounted ime/depth recorder tags
were to be attached to 1-week-old seal pups and removed from the pups
at 7-8 weeks of age. At the 3-week time point, accelerometer tags were
to be attached to the dorsal pelage of the pups and then removed at 7-8
weeks of age. VHF radio transmitters were allowed to be attached to the
seal pups dorsal, caudal pelage after molting. The collection of a
single whisker by plucking from each seal pup was allowed at 7-8 weeks
of age. Protocols not requiring sedation (mass, morphometrics, core and
surface temperatures, metabolic rates) and protocols requiring
anesthesia (body composition, biopsies, blood volume analysis) were to
be conducted on the first cohort of five pups at all four time points.
The sedative midazolam was to be used alone on 1-week-old pups in the
first cohort, while a combination of
[[Page 46194]]
midazolam and butorphanol was allowed for use in the first cohort at 3,
5, and 7-8 weeks of age time points. A combination of midazolam and
ketamine could have been used on 7-8-week-old pups, if deemed
necessary. Metabolic and morphometric measurements were to be conducted
on a second, separate cohort of five pups at each of the four time
points. Sedation of seal pups in the second cohort, with a combination
of midazolam and butorphanol, was only allowed for study animals at 3
weeks of age for the purposes of attaching an accelerometer tag. The
permit holder was also allowed to conduct behavioral observations,
imaging, and may disturb up to 350 Weddell seals. An additional seven
Weddell seal pups, 15 Weddell seal adult females, and 20 crabeater
seals were allowed to be disturbed during procedures on study animals.
Up to two pup mortalities were requested per year, not to exceed three
over the course of two field seasons. The permit holder was also
allowed to collect tissues from Weddell seals (any age or gender) found
dead from natural causes.
Now the applicant proposes a modification to the permit to allow
the following: Sedation of all seal pups at all time points using
midazolam with or without butorphanol (and continue to have the option
of using midazolam in combination with ketamine at 7-8 weeks of age);
collection of blood samples from seal pups in the second cohort, at all
four time points, while the pups are under sedation; use of a
cannulated biopsy needle for muscle tissue sampling of seal pups in the
first cohort (rather than a dermal biopsy punch), at all four time
points; attachment of a flipper-mounted VHF transmitter tag to seal
pups in both cohorts at 3 weeks of age, on the flipper opposite the one
with the time/depth tag attached, with removal at the final time point;
attachment of accelerometer tags to the dorsal pelage of 1-week-old
pups in both cohorts with removal of the tags at 3 weeks of age;
administration of antibiotics to treat local or systemic infections in
seal pups involved in the study; and increased takes of seal pups and
adult females such that a total of 12 pups would be handled for study
purposes compared with 10 in the original permit (six pups in each
cohort compared with five in the original permit) and a total of 12
adult females, the mothers of the pups, would be disturbed during the
handling of the pups (10 in the original permit). The permit holder has
also requested a modification of NMFS Permit No. 21006.
Location: Erebus Bay, McMurdo Sound; ASPA 121, Cape Royds.
Dates of Permitted Activities: October 1, 2018--September 30, 2020.
3. Description of Permit Modification Requested: The Foundation
issued a permit (ACA 2017-005) to David Ainley on July 27, 2016. The
issued permit allows the permit holder and agents to enter three
Antarctic Specially Protected Areas (ASPAs); observe Adelie penguins;
mark and measure penguin nests; attach tags, flipper bands, and special
instruments to penguins; take small feather samples; and weigh and
measure penguin chicks and adults. The permitted activities also
include maintaining a webcam just inside the boundary of the Cape Royds
ASPA.
Now the permit holder proposes a modification to the permit to
attach a miniature video camera to adult Adelie penguins (n=40) to
document activities during diving. The permit holder also proposes to
engage the services of experienced pilots to operate remotely piloted
aircraft systems (RPAS) to capture video imagery of penguin colonies
for the purposes of census and quantifying habitat characteristics. The
RPAS operations would occur within the boundaries of ASPA 121, Cape
Royds, and ASPA 124, Cape Crozier.
Location: ASPA 121, Cape Royds; ASPA 124, Cape Crozier; ASPA 105,
Beaufort Island; Cape Bird (outside ASPA boundary).
Dates of Permitted Activities: October 1, 2018--February 5, 2020.
Suzanne H. Plimpton,
Reports Clearance Officer, National Science Foundation.
[FR Doc. 2018-19822 Filed 9-11-18; 8:45 am]
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