[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 237 (Friday, December 9, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 76949-76950]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-31564]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
[File No. 14534]
RIN 0648-XR52
Marine Mammals
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notice; receipt of application for permit amendment.
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SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that NOAA's Office of Science and
Technology, Silver Spring, MD, (Brandon Southall, Ph.D.--Principal
Investigator) has applied for an amendment to Scientific Research
Permit No. 14534-01.
DATES: Written, telefaxed, or email comments must be received on or
before January 9, 2012.
ADDRESSES: The application and related documents are available for
review by selecting ``Records Open for Public Comment'' from the
Features box on the Applications and Permits for Protected Species home
page, https://apps.nmfs.noaa.gov, and then selecting File No. 14534
from the list of available applications.
These documents are also available upon written request or by
appointment in the following offices:
Permits and Conservation Division, Office of Protected Resources,
NMFS, 1315 East-West Highway, Room 13705, Silver Spring, MD 20910;
phone (301) 427-8401; fax (301) 713-0376; and
Southwest Region, NMFS, 501 West Ocean Blvd., Suite 4200, Long
Beach, CA 90802-4213; phone (562) 980-4001; fax (562) 980-4018.
Written comments on this application should be submitted to the
Chief, Permits, Conservation and Education Division, at the address
listed above. Comments may also be submitted by facsimile to (301) 713-
0376, or by email to [email protected]. Please include File No.
14534 in the subject line of the email comment.
Those individuals requesting a public hearing should submit a
written request to the Chief, Permits, Conservation and Education
Division at the address listed above. The request should set forth the
specific reasons why a hearing on this application would be
appropriate.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tammy Adams or Carrie Hubard, (301)
427-8401.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The subject amendment to Permit No. 14534 is
requested under the authority of the Marine Mammal Protection Act of
1972, as amended (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 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.),
and the regulations governing the taking, importing, and exporting of
endangered and threatened species (50 CFR 222-226).
Permit No. 14534, issued on July 2, 2010 (75 FR 39665), authorizes
the permit holder to harass marine mammals during studies of sound
production, diving, responses to sound, and other behavior. The
research is focused in the waters within the U.S. Navy's Southern
California Range Complex, and primarily near the vicinity of San
Clemente Island. The experimental design involves temporarily attaching
individual recording tags to measure vocalization, behavior, and
physiological parameters as well as sound exposure. Behavior is
measured before, during, and after carefully controlled exposures of
sound in conventional playback experiments. Target species include
beaked whales and other odontocetes, key baleen whales, and pinniped
species for which such data have not been previously obtained; other
marine species may be incidentally impacted. Please refer to the tables
in the issued permit for the numbers of marine mammals covered, by
species and stock. The permit is valid through July 31, 2015.
A minor amendment, Permit No. 14534-01, was issued August 30, 2010,
to combine the permitted takes of 60 long-beaked common dolphins
(Delphinus capensis) and 3,540 short-beaked common dolphins (D.
delphis) into a single ``unidentified common dolphin'' category for
harassment
[[Page 76950]]
incidental to the playbacks because these species can co-occur and are
difficult to distinguish from each other in the field and at the
distances at which they are counted. The minor amendment did not change
the expiration date.
The permit holder is requesting the permit be amended to include
harassment takes of an additional 172 humpback whales (Megaptera
novaengliae), 172 minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata), and 902
killer whales (Orcinus orca). These three species are currently only
taken incidental to activities directed at target species. The
amendment would convert them to additional focal species subject to
tagging and intentional exposure to sound playbacks with associated
observations.
A draft environmental assessment (EA) has been prepared in
compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42
U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), to examine whether significant environmental
impacts could result from issuance of the proposed scientific research
permit. The draft EA is available for review and comment simultaneous
with the scientific research permit application.
Concurrent with the publication of this notice in the Federal
Register, NMFS is forwarding copies of this application to the Marine
Mammal Commission and its Committee of Scientific Advisors.
Dated: December 2, 2011.
Tammy C. Adams,
Acting Chief, Permits and Conservation Division, Office of Protected
Resources, National Marine Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2011-31564 Filed 12-8-11; 8:45 am]
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