[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 48 (Friday, March 11, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 13983-13984]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-05225]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

[RTID 0648-XB879]


Taking and Importing Marine Mammals; Taking Marine Mammals 
Incidental to Fisheries and Ecosystem Monitoring and Research 
Activities

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

ACTION: Notice; receipt of application for letter of authorization; 
request for comments and information.

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SUMMARY: NMFS has received a request from the California Department of 
Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), on behalf of the Interagency Ecological 
Program (IEP), for authorization to take marine mammals incidental to 
conducting fisheries and ecosystem monitoring and research activities 
within the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary, CA, over the course of five 
years. Pursuant to regulations implementing the Marine Mammal 
Protection Act (MMPA), NMFS is announcing receipt of CDFW's request for 
the development and implementation of regulations governing the 
incidental taking of marine mammals. NMFS invites the public to provide 
information, suggestions, and comments on CDFW's application and 
request.

DATES: Comments and information must be received no later than April 
11, 2022.

ADDRESSES: Comments on the application should be addressed to Jolie 
Harrison, Chief, Permits and Conservation Division, Office of Protected 
Resources, National Marine Fisheries Service and should be sent to 
[email protected].
    Instructions: NMFS is not responsible for comments sent by any 
other method, to any other address or individual, or received after the 
end of the comment period. Comments received electronically, including 
all attachments, must not exceed a 25-megabyte file size. All comments 
received are a part of the public record and will generally be posted 
online at www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-mammal-protection/incidental-take-authorizations-construction-activities without change. 
All personal identifying information (e.g., name, address) voluntarily 
submitted by the commenter may be publicly accessible. Do not submit 
confidential business information or otherwise sensitive or protected 
information.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ben Laws, Office of Protected 
Resources, NMFS, (301) 427-8401.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Availability

    Electronic copies of CDFW's application and separate monitoring 
plan may be obtained online at: www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-mammal-protection/incidental-take-authorizations-research-and-other-activities. In case of problems accessing these documents, please call 
the contact listed above.

[[Page 13984]]

Background

    Sections 101(a)(5)(A) and (D) of the MMPA (16 U.S.C. 1361 et seq.) 
direct the Secretary of Commerce (as delegated to NMFS) to allow, upon 
request, the incidental, but not intentional, taking of small numbers 
of marine mammals by U.S. citizens who engage in a specified activity 
(other than commercial fishing) within a specified geographical region 
if certain findings are made and either regulations are issued or, if 
the taking is limited to harassment, a notice of a proposed 
authorization is provided to the public for review.
    An authorization for incidental takings shall be granted if NMFS 
finds that the taking will have a negligible impact on the species or 
stock(s), will not have an unmitigable adverse impact on the 
availability of the species or stock(s) for subsistence uses (where 
relevant), and if the permissible methods of taking and requirements 
pertaining to the mitigation, monitoring and reporting of such takings 
are set forth.
    NMFS has defined ``negligible impact'' in 50 CFR 216.103 as an 
impact resulting from the specified activity that cannot be reasonably 
expected to, and is not reasonably likely to, adversely affect the 
species or stock through effects on annual rates of recruitment or 
survival.
    The MMPA states that the term ``take'' means to harass, hunt, 
capture, kill or attempt to harass, hunt, capture, or kill any marine 
mammal.
    Except with respect to certain activities not pertinent here, the 
MMPA defines ``harassment'' as: Any act of pursuit, torment, or 
annoyance which (i) has the potential to injure a marine mammal or 
marine mammal stock in the wild (Level A harassment); or (ii) has the 
potential to disturb a marine mammal or marine mammal stock in the wild 
by causing disruption of behavioral patterns, including, but not 
limited to, migration, breathing, nursing, breeding, feeding, or 
sheltering (Level B harassment).

Summary of Request

    On February 11, 2022, NMFS received an adequate and complete 
application from CDFW requesting authorization for take of marine 
mammals incidental to IEP monitoring and research activities in the San 
Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary, California. The requested regulations 
would be valid for 5 years. The proposed action includes the use of 
fishing research gear (e.g., nets, trawls, setlines, and fykes) that 
may result in marine mammal interactions resulting in Level A 
harassment, serious injury or mortality. Therefore, CDFW requests 
authorization to incidentally take marine mammals.

Specified Activities

    The IEP consists of multiple State and Federal agencies operating 
in the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The IEP has 
been conducting cooperative ecological investigations since the 1970s. 
IEP agencies partner with non-governmental organizations that work 
together to develop a better understanding of the Bay-Delta estuary's 
fish and wildlife, water quality, hydrodynamics and impacts of human 
activities on ecology. IEP's key studies specifically address the 
effects of the State Water Project and Federal Central Valley Project 
water project operations on the Delta and San Francisco Estuary. Many 
of the surveys monitor abundance and distribution of fish so to reduce 
entrainment risk at the water project export facilities in the south 
Delta.
    IEP fish monitoring studies include use of various gears including 
midwater, otter, and Kodiak trawls (trawls), gill and trammel nets, 
purse seines and Lampara nets (nets), setlines and longlines 
(setlines), and hoop and fyke traps (fykes) that could result in 
incidental take via entanglement by net mesh, entrapment by fyke, or 
hooking by setlines. IEP studies also use a variety of other gears, 
such as backpack or boat mounted electrofishers, larval fish trawl 
nets, zooplankton nets, water samplers and instrumentation (acoustic 
receivers, water quality sondes, etc.) that are not expected to result 
in take of marine mammals.

Information Solicited

    Interested persons may submit information, suggestions, and 
comments concerning CDFW's request (see ADDRESSES). NMFS will consider 
all information, suggestions, and comments related to the request 
during the development of proposed regulations governing the incidental 
taking of marine mammals by CDFW, if appropriate.

    Dated: March 8, 2022.
Kimberly Damon-Randall,
Director, Office of Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries 
Service.
[FR Doc. 2022-05225 Filed 3-10-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P