Incidental Taking of Marine Mammals: Taking of Marine Mammals Incidental to Explosive Removal of Offshore Structures in the Gulf of Mexico

Federal Register: June 15, 2009 (Volume 74, Number 113)

Notices

Page 28219-28220

From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

DOCID:fr15jn09-29

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

RIN 0648-XP74

Incidental Taking of Marine Mammals; Taking of Marine Mammals

Incidental to the Explosive Removal of Offshore Structures in the Gulf of Mexico

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.

ACTION: Notice; issuance of a letter of authorization.

Page 28220

SUMMARY: In accordance with the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) and implementing regulations, notification is hereby given that NMFS has issued a one-year Letter of Authorization (LOA) to take marine mammals incidental to the explosive removal of offshore oil and gas structures (EROS) in the Gulf of Mexico.

DATES: This authorization is effective from June 17, 2009 through June 16, 2010.

ADDRESSES: The application and LOA are available for review by writing to P. Michael Payne, Chief, Permits, Conservation, and Education

Division, Office of Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries

Service, 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910-3235 or by telephoning the contact listed here (see FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

CONTACT), or online at: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/permits/ incidental.htm. Documents cited in this notice may be viewed, by appointment, during regular business hours, at the aforementioned address.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Howard Goldstein or Ken Hollingshead,

Office of Protected Resources, NMFS, 301-713-2289.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 101(a)(5)(A) of the MMPA (16 U.S.C. 1361 et seq.) directs the NMFS to allow, upon request, the incidental, but not intentional, taking of small numbers of marine mammals by

United States citizens who engage in a specified activity (other than commercial fishing) within a specified geographical region, if certain findings are made by NMFS and regulations are issued. Under the MMPA, the term ``taking'' means to harass, hunt, capture, or kill or to attempt to harass, hunt capture, or kill marine mammals.

Authorization for incidental taking, in the form of annual LOAs, may be granted by NMFS for periods up to five years if NMFS finds, after notification and opportunity for public comment, that the taking will have a negligible impact on the species or stock(s) of marine mammals, and will not have an unmitigable adverse impact on the availability of the species or stock(s) for subsistence uses (where relevant). In addition, NMFS must prescribe regulations that include permissible methods of taking and other means effecting the least practicable adverse impact on the species and its habitat (i.e., mitigation), and on the availability of the species for subsistence uses, paying particular attention to rookeries, mating rounds, and areas of similar significance. The regulations also must include requirements pertaining to the monitoring and reporting of such taking.

Regulations governing the taking incidental to EROS were published on

June 19, 2008 (73 FR 34889), and remain in effect through July 19, 2013. For detailed information on this action, please refer to that

Federal Register notice. The species that applicants may take in small numbers during EROS activities are bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis), pantropical spotted dolphins (Stenella attenuata), Clymene dolphins (Stenella clymene), striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba), spinner dolphins

(Stenella longirostris), rough-toothed dolphins (Steno bredanensis),

Risso's dolphins (Grampus griseus), melon-headed whales (Peponocephala electra), short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus), and sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus).

Pursuant to these regulations, NMFS has issued an LOA to SPN

Resources, LLC. Issuance of the LOAs is based on a finding made in the preamble to the final rule that the total taking by these activities

(with monitoring, mitigation, and reporting measures) will result in no more than a negligible impact on the affected species or stock(s) of marine mammals and will not have an unmitigable adverse impact on subsistence uses. NMFS also finds that the applicant will meet the requirements contained in the implementing regulations and LOA, including monitoring, mitigation, and reporting requirements.

Dated: June 9, 2009.

James H. Lecky,

Director, Office of Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries

Service.

FR Doc. E9-14024 Filed 6-12-09; 8:45 am

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