[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 180 (Tuesday, September 17, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 48951-48952]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-20089]


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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 17, 2019. 
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: 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 midazolam and butorphanol was

[[Page 48952]]

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; collection of rectal, vaginal, 
prepucial, nasal, lingual, buccal swab, as well as superficial lingual 
epithelial scrapes of all pups at all times points; 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, 2019-September 30, 2020.

Erika N. Davis,
Program Specialist, Office of Polar Programs.
[FR Doc. 2019-20089 Filed 9-16-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 7555-01-P