77106 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 183 / Friday, September 20, 2024 / Notices 

Review previously adopted 2025 

specifications and management 

measures, and recommend changes if 

necessary 

Scientific Coordination Subcommittee 

8th National Workshop Outcomes 

Review outcomes, recommendations, 

and action items 

LUNCH 

Private Recreational Tilefish Permitting, 

Reporting, and Program Evaluation 

Staff overview of recent tilefish 

permitting and reporting efforts 

Review update from GARFO on private 

recreational tilefish permitting and 

reporting 

Review Tilefish Angler Outreach and 

Program Evaluation—Willy 

Goldsmith (Pelagic Strategies) and Jill 

Stevenson (Stevenson Sustainability 

Consulting) 

Discuss next steps 

Proposed Rule: Electronic Reporting 

Requirements for Atlantic Highly 

Migratory Species (HMS)—Karyl 

Brewster-Geisz, Rulemaking Branch 

Chief, NOAA Fisheries 

Presentation on the NOAA HMS 

proposed rule to modify and/or 

expand reporting requirements for 

Atlantic HMS, including reporting by 

commercial, for-hire, and private 

recreational vessel owners and dealers 

Review of Monkfish Fishery 

Performance Report and Monkfish 

Research Set Aside Improvements 

Review Monkfish Fishery Performance 

Report 

Review Monkfish Research Set Aside 

Improvements 

Council Awards Discussion 

Review existing Council awards: Ricks E 

Savage Award, Award of Excellence, 

and James A. Ruhle Cooperative 

Research Award 

Recommend any necessary changes to 

award descriptions, selection criteria, 

or nomination/selection procedures 

Thursday, October 10, 2024 

Business Session 

Committee Reports (SSC, Northeast 

Trawl Advisory Panel (NTAP)); 

Executive Director’s Report; 

Organization Reports; and Liaison 

Reports 

Other Business and General Public 

Comment 

Although non-emergency issues not 

contained in this agenda may come 

before this group for discussion, in 

accordance with the Magnuson-Stevens 

Fishery Conservation and Management 

Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act), those 

issues may not be the subject of formal 

action during these meetings. Actions 

will be restricted to those issues 

specifically identified in this notice and 

any issues arising after publication of 

this notice that require emergency 

action under Section 305(c) 

Special Accommodations 

These meetings are physically 

accessible to people with disabilities. 

Requests for sign language 

interpretation or other auxiliary aid 

should be directed to Shelley Spedden, 

(302) 526–5251, at least 5 days prior to 

the meeting date. 

Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq. 

Dated: September 17, 2024. 

Rey Israel Marquez, 

Acting Deputy Director, Office of Sustainable 

Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2024–21578 Filed 9–19–24; 8:45 am] 

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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

[RTID 0648–XE062] 

Taking and Importing Marine 

Mammals; Taking Marine Mammals 

Incidental to Military Readiness 

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 for 

regulations and Letters of Authorization; 

request for comments and information. 

SUMMARY: NMFS has received a request 

from the U.S. Department of the Navy 

(including the U.S. Navy (Navy) and the 

U.S. Marine Corps) and on behalf of the 

U.S. Coast Guard (Coast Guard; 

hereafter, Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, and 

Coast Guard are collectively referred to 

as Action Proponents) for authorization 

to take marine mammals incidental to 

training and testing activities conducted 

in the Atlantic Fleet Training and 

Testing (AFTT) Study Area over the 

course of 7 years from November 2025 

through November 2032. Pursuant to 

regulations implementing the Marine 

Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), NMFS 

is announcing receipt of the Action 

Proponents’ request for the development 

and implementation of regulations 

governing the incidental taking of 

marine mammals and issuance of three, 

7-year Letters of Authorization (LOAs). 

NMFS invites the public to provide 

information, suggestions, and comments 

on the Action Proponents’ application 

and request. 

DATES: Comments and information must 

be received no later than October 21, 

2024. 

ADDRESSES: Comments should be 

addressed to Jolie Harrison, Chief, 

Permits and Conservation Division, 

Office of Protected Resources, National 

Marine Fisheries Service, and should be 

sent to ITP.clevenstine@noaa.gov. An 

electronic copy of the Action 

Proponents’ application may be 

obtained online at: https://

www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/ 

marine-mammal-protection/incidentaltake-authorizations-military-readinessactivities. In case of problems accessing 

the document, please call the contact 

listed below. 

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, 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: 

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

national/marine-mammal-protection/ 

incidental-take-authorizations-militaryreadiness-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: 

Alyssa Clevenstine, Office of Protected 

Resources, NMFS, (301) 427–8401. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

The MMPA prohibits the ‘‘take’’ of 

marine mammals, with certain 

exceptions. 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 

proposed or, if the taking is limited to 

harassment, a notice of a proposed 

authorization is provided to the public 

for review. 

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 


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Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 183 / Friday, September 20, 2024 / Notices 77107 

unmitigable adverse impact on the 

availability of the species or stock(s) for 

taking for subsistence uses (where 

relevant). Further, NMFS must prescribe 

the permissible methods of taking and 

other ‘‘means of effecting the least 

practicable adverse impact’’ on the 

affected species or stocks and their 

habitat, paying particular attention to 

rookeries, mating grounds, and areas of 

similar significance, and on the 

availability of the species or stocks for 

taking for certain subsistence uses 

(referred to in shorthand as 

‘‘mitigation’’); and requirements 

pertaining to the monitoring and 

reporting of the takings. 

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 National Defense Authorization 

Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2004 (Pub. 

L. 108–136) amended section 101(a)(5) 

of the MMPA to remove the ‘‘small 

numbers’’ and ‘‘specified geographical 

region’’ provisions and amended the 

definition of ‘‘harassment’’ as applied to 

a ‘‘military readiness activity’’ 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 are abandoned or 

significantly altered (Level B 

Harassment). On August 13, 2018, the 

NDAA for Fiscal Year 2019 (Pub. L. 

115–232) amended the MMPA to allow 

incidental take regulations for military 

readiness activities to be issued for up 

to 7 years. 

Summary of Request 

On May 28, 2024, NMFS received an 

application from the Action Proponents 

requesting authorization to take marine 

mammals, by Level A and Level B 

harassment, incidental to training and 

testing (characterized as military 

readiness activities) including the use of 

sonar and other transducers, in-water 

detonations, air guns, and impact and 

vibratory pile driving and extraction in 

the AFTT Study Area. In addition, the 

Action Proponents are requesting 

authorization of 5 takes by mortality of 

2 marine mammal species from 

explosives during Navy training 

exercises, 44 takes by mortality of 9 

marine mammal species from ship 

shock trials during Navy testing 

activities, and of 6 takes of large whales 

by serious injury or mortality from 

vessel strikes over the 7-year period of 

the LOAs: 3 takes incidental to the 

Navy’s training and testing activities, 

and 3 takes incidental to the Coast 

Guard’s training activities. In response 

to our comments and following 

information exchange, Action 

Proponents submitted a final revised 

application on August 16, 2024, that we 

determined was adequate and complete 

on August 19, 2024. The Action 

Proponents requested the regulations 

and subsequent LOAs be valid for 7 

years beginning in November 2025. 

This will be the fourth time NMFS 

has promulgated incidental take 

regulations pursuant to the MMPA 

relating to similar military readiness 

activities in AFTT, following those 

effective from January 22, 2009, through 

January 22, 2014 (74 FR 4844), from 

November 14, 2013, through November 

13, 2018 (78 FR 73009, December 4, 

2013), and from November 14, 2018, 

through November 13, 2023 (83 FR 

57076, November 14, 2018), which was 

subsequently extended until November 

13, 2025 (84 FR 70712, December 23, 

2019) due to amendments to the NDAA 

(Pub. L. 115–232). 

Description of the Specified Activity 

The AFTT Study Area includes areas 

of the western Atlantic Ocean along the 

east coast of North America, the Gulf of 

Mexico, and portions of the Caribbean 

Sea, covering approximately 2.6 million 

square nautical miles (nmi2) of ocean 

area, oriented from the mean high tide 

line along the U.S. coast and extending 

east to 45-degree W longitude line, 

north to 65-degree N latitude line, and 

south to approximately the 20-degree N 

latitude line. Please refer to figure 1.1– 

1 of the application for a map of the 

AFTT Study Area and figure 2.1–1 

through figure 2.1–5 for additional maps 

of the range complexes and testing 

ranges. 

The following types of training and 

testing, which are classified as military 

readiness activities pursuant to the 

section 315(f) of Public Law 101–314 

(16 U.S.C. 703), are included in the 

specified activity described in the 

Action Proponents’ application: 

• Amphibious warfare (in-water 

detonations), 

• Anti-submarine warfare (sonar and 

other transducers, in-water detonations), 

• Expeditionary warfare (in-water 

detonations, pile driving/extraction), 

• Mine warfare (sonar and other 

transducers, in-water detonations), 

• Surface warfare (in-water 

detonations), and 

• Other (sonar and other transducers, 

air guns, vessel movement). 

The application includes proposed 

mitigation measures for marine 

mammals that would be implemented 

during training and testing activities in 

the AFTT Study Area (see section 11 of 

the application). Proposed procedural 

mitigation generally involves: (1) the 

use of one or more trained Lookouts to 

diligently observe for specific biological 

resources within a mitigation zone, (2) 

requirements for Lookouts to 

immediately communicate sightings of 

specific biological resources to the 

appropriate watch station for 

information dissemination, and (3) 

requirements for the watch station to 

implement mitigation (e.g., halt an 

activity) until certain recommencement 

conditions have been met. Mitigation 

measures are also proposed for specific 

mitigation areas and consist of a variety 

of measures in those areas including, 

but not limited to: conducting a certain 

number of major training exercises per 

year, not planning or avoiding planning 

major training exercises, minimizing or 

not conducting active sonar, conducting 

a limited amount of hull-mounted midfrequency active sonar per year, not 

expending explosive or non-explosive 

ordnance, and implementing vessel 

speed reductions in certain 

circumstances. 

The Action Proponents also propose 

to undertake monitoring and reporting 

efforts to better understand the impacts 

of their activities on marine mammals 

and their habitat, track compliance with 

take authorizations, and to help 

investigate the effectiveness of 

implemented mitigation measures in the 

AFTT Study Area. 

Information Solicited 

Interested persons may submit 

information, suggestions, and comments 

concerning the Action Proponents’ 

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 

Action Proponents, if appropriate. 

Dated: September 9, 2024. 

Kimberly Damon-Randall, 

Director, Office of Protected Resources, 

National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2024–20715 Filed 9–19–24; 8:45 am] 

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