Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 246 / Wednesday, December 26, 2018 / Notices 66245 

1See Antidumping or Countervailing Duty Order, 

Finding, or Suspended Investigation; Advance 

Notification of Sunset Review, 83 FR 62292 

(December 3, 2018) (January 2019 Advance Sunset 

Review Notice). 

Background 

On December 3, 2018, Commerce 

published the January 2019 Advance 

Sunset Review Notice,1 in which 

Commerce inadvertently omitted 

Sodium Nitrite from China (C–570–926) 

from the list of sunset reviews that will 

initiate on January 2019; we are 

advancing the initiation of this sunset 

review to promote administrative 

efficiency. Additionally, the January 

2019 Advance Sunset Review Notice 

listed the incorrect case numbers for 

two sunset reviews involving Certain 

Hot-Rolled Carbon Steel Flat Products 

from Indonesia. The correct case 

numbers for the Certain Hot-Rolled 

Carbon Steel Flat Products from 

Indonesia sunset reviews are (A–560– 

812) and (C–560–813). This notice 

serves to correct the January 2019 

Advance Sunset Review Notice for the 

aforementioned items. 

This correction notice for the advance 

notification of sunset reviews is being 

published in accordance with section 

751(c) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.218 

(c). 

Dated: December 18, 2018. 

James Maeder, 

Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary for 

Antidumping and Countervailing Duty 

Operations performing the duties of Deputy 

Assistant Secretary for Antidumping and 

Countervailing Duty Operations. 

[FR Doc. 2018–27864 Filed 12–21–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–DS–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

RIN 0648–XG694 

Taking and Importing Marine 

Mammals; Taking Marine Mammals 

Incidental to the U.S. Navy Training 

and Testing Activities in the Atlantic 

Fleet Training and Testing Study Area 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice; receipt of application 

and request for Letters of Authorization 

extension; request for comments and 

information. 

SUMMARY: NMFS has received a request 

from the U.S. Navy (Navy) to amend 

NMFS’ Marine Mammal Protection Act 

(MMPA) regulations authorizing the 

take of marine mammals incidental to 

Navy training and testing activities 

conducted in the Atlantic Fleet Training 

and Testing (AFTT) Study Area from 

November 2018 to November 2023 to 

cover seven years of the Navy’s 

activities, instead of five. Section 316 of 

the John S. McCain National Defense 

Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 

(2019 NDAA), signed into law on 

August 13, 2018, amended the MMPA to 

extend the maximum period for MMPA 

incidental take regulations under 

section 101(a)(5)(A) from five to seven 

years for military readiness activities. 

The Navy’s activities qualify as military 

readiness activities pursuant to the 

MMPA, as amended by the NDAA for 

Fiscal Year 2004. The Navy proposes no 

changes to their specified activities, 

mitigation measures, monitoring, or 

reporting and requests that NMFS 

amend the final rule issued on 

November 14, 2018, to authorize 

incidental take of marine mammals for 

the two additional years now allowed 

under the statute. NMFS invites the 

public to provide information, 

suggestions, and comments on the 

Navy’s application. 

DATES: Comments and information must 

be received no later than January 25, 

2019. 

ADDRESSES: Comments on the 

application should be addressed to Jolie 

Harrison, Chief, Permits and 

Conservation Division, Office of 

Protected Resources, National Marine 

Fisheries Service. Physical comments 

should be sent to 1315 East-West 

Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910 and 

electronic comments should be sent to 

ITP.Piniak@noaa.gov. 

Instructions: NMFS is not responsible 

for information or comments sent by 

any other method, to any other address 

or individual, or received after the end 

of the comment period. Information and 

comments received electronically, 

including all attachments, must not 

exceed a 25-megabyte file size. 

Attachments to electronic comments 

will be accepted in Microsoft Word or 

Excel or Adobe PDF file formats only. 

All information and comments received 

are a part of the public record and will 

generally be posted online at https://

www.fisheries.noaa.gov/permit/ 

incidental-take-authorizations-undermarine-mammal-protection-act 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: 

Wendy Piniak, Office of Protected 

Resources, NMFS, (301) 427–8401. An 

electronic copy of the Navy’s 

application may be obtained online at: 

https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/ 

national/marine-mammal-protection/ 

incidental-take-authorizations-militaryreadiness-activities. In case of problems 

accessing these documents, please call 

the contact listed above. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

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 incidental take authorization 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. The 2004 NDAA 

(Public Law 108–136) amended the 

MMPA to remove the ‘‘small numbers’’ 

and ‘‘specified geographical region’’ 

limitations for military readiness 

activities. It also amended the definition 

of ‘‘harassment’’ as it applies to military 

readiness activities to read as follows 

(Section 3(18)(B) of the MMPA): (i) Any 

act that injures or has the significant 

potential to injure a marine mammal or 

marine mammal stock in the wild (Level 

A harassment); or (ii) Any act that 

disturbs or is likely to disturb a marine 

mammal or marine mammal stock in the 

wild by causing disruption of natural 

behavioral patterns, including, but not 

limited to, migration, surfacing, nursing, 

breeding, feeding, or sheltering, to a 

point where such behavioral patterns 


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66246 Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 246 / Wednesday, December 26, 2018 / Notices 

are abandoned or significantly altered 

(Level B harassment). 

On August 13, 2018, the 2019 NDAA 

(Public Law 115–232) amended the 

MMPA to allow incidental take 

regulations for military readiness 

activities to be issued for up to seven 

years. 

Summary of Request 

On November 16, 2018, NMFS 

received an adequate and complete 

application from the Navy requesting an 

amendment of the regulations published 

on November 14, 2018, that authorize 

the take of marine mammals incidental 

to the Navy’s training and testing 

activities in the AFTT Study Area (83 

FR 57076). Specifically, the activities 

include training and testing (all 

categorized as military readiness 

activities) including the use of active 

acoustic sonar systems and other 

transducers, in-water detonations, air 

guns, construction activities involving 

pile removal and installation, and the 

operation of a fleet of vessels throughout 

the AFTT Study Area. These activities 

may result in the incidental take of 

marine mammals in the form of Level B 

harassment (behavioral disruption or 

temporary hearing impairment), Level A 

harassment (permanent hearing 

impairment or tissue damage), or 

serious injury or mortality in a very 

small number of cases. The requested 

amendment would change the 

expiration date of the regulations from 

November 13, 2023 to November 13, 

2025, allowing for seven total years of 

validity, as allowed under the MMPA as 

recently amended by the 2019 NDAA. 

Description of Amendment 

The Navy proposes that NMFS amend 

the existing AFTT regulations and 

associated Letters of Authorization 

(LOAs) such that they would cover 

incidental take caused by seven years of 

training and testing activities instead of 

five, extending the expiration date from 

November 13, 2023 to November 13, 

2025. The amendment would be 

conducted through a proposed and final 

rulemaking, consistent with the 

requirements of section 101(a)(5)(A). 

The Navy has not proposed any changes 

to the nature of the specified activities 

and, therefore, the boundaries of the 

AFTT Study Area, the training and 

testing activities (e.g., equipment and 

sources used, exercises conducted), and 

the mitigation, monitoring, and 

reporting measures are identical to those 

described and analyzed in the existing 

AFTT regulations published on 

November 14, 2018 (83 FR 57076). 

The only changes contemplated in the 

extension of the regulations are those 

necessary to identify the appropriate 

type and amount of incidental take to 

authorize in the two additional years 

that the amended regulations would 

cover, and determine whether the 

incidental take would have a negligible 

impact on the affected species and 

stocks. 

The current AFTT rule authorizes 

three serious injuries or mortalities from 

vessel strike. The Navy’s request for an 

amendment includes a revised vessel 

strike analysis encompassing seven 

years of activities versus the five years 

addressed in the analysis supporting the 

mortality estimate in the current LOAs. 

Based on the revised analysis, the Navy 

requests one additional large whale 

mortality bringing the total from three 

vessel strikes over five years to four 

vessel strikes over seven years. The 

large whale stocks that are proposed to 

be lethally taken by vessel strike are the 

same as those included in the current 

AFTT rule. Please see Chapter 6, 

Section 6.2 of the Navy’s application for 

a full description of the incidental take 

by vessel strike. 

Regarding the quantification of 

expected takes from acoustic and 

explosive sources (by Level A and Level 

B harassment, as well as mortality 

resulting from exposure to explosives), 

the number of takes are based directly 

on the level of activities (days, hours, 

counts, etc., of different activities and 

events) in a given year. In the existing 

AFTT rule, the Navy bases their take 

estimates across the five-year rule on 

conducting three years of a nominal 

(average) level of activity and two years 

of a maximum level of activity. For the 

amended seven year rule, the Navy 

proposes to add one additional nominal 

year and one additional maximum year 

to determine the predicted take 

numbers. Specifically, as in the current 

rule, the Navy proposes to use the 

maximum annual level to calculate 

annual takes (which will remain 

identical to the current rule), and the 

sum of all years (four nominal and three 

maximum, in the case of the new 

amended rule) to calculate the sevenyear totals. Please see Chapter 6, Section 

6.1 of the Navy’s application for a 

description of the proposed take from 

acoustic and explosive sources. 

As noted above, the proposed 

amendment of the rule would include 

mitigation, monitoring, and reporting 

measures that are identical to those 

included in the current final rule (83 FR 

57076, November 14, 2018). In 

summary, mitigation would include: (1) 

the use of Lookouts to observe for 

biological resources and communicate 

the need for mitigation implementation; 

(2) powerdowns, shutdowns, and delay 

of starts to avoid exposure of marine 

mammals to high levels of sound or 

explosive blasts more likely to result in 

injury or more serious behavioral 

disruption; (3) limiting the use of active 

sonar or explosives in certain 

biologically important areas to reduce 

the probability or severity of impacts 

when they are more likely to contribute 

to fitness impacts, and (4) broadcasting 

awareness notification messages to all of 

the vessels in an area to reduce the 

likelihood of vessel strike. Please see 

Chapter 11 of the Navy’s application for 

a full description of the proposed 

mitigation, which is identical to that 

required under the existing rule. 

The Navy proposes to continue 

forward the implementation of the 

robust Integrated Comprehensive 

Monitoring Program and Strategic 

Planning Process outlined in the current 

regulations. The Navy’s monitoring 

strategy, currently required by the AFTT 

regulations, is well-designed to work 

across Navy ranges to help better 

understand the impacts of the Navy’s 

activities on marine mammals and their 

habitat by focusing on learning more 

about marine mammal occurrence in 

different areas and exposure to Navy 

stressors, marine mammal responses to 

different sound sources, and the 

consequences of those exposures and 

responses on marine mammal 

populations. Similarly, the proposed 

amended regulations would include 

identical adaptive management 

provisions and reporting requirements 

as the existing regulations. Please refer 

to Chapter 13 of the Navy’s application 

for full details on the monitoring and 

reporting proposed by the Navy. 

Information Solicited 

Interested persons may submit 

information, suggestions, and comments 

concerning the Navy’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 the Navy, if 

appropriate. 

Dated: December 18, 2018. 

Donna S. Wieting, 

Director, Office of Protected Resources, 

National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2018–27788 Filed 12–21–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 


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