Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 206 / Thursday, October 24, 2024 / Notices 84871 

Endangered Species Act 

Section 7(a)(2) of the Endangered 

Species Act (ESA; 16 U.S.C. 1531 et 

seq.) requires that each Federal agency 

ensure that any action it authorizes, 

funds, or carries out is not likely to 

jeopardize the continued existence of 

any endangered or threatened species or 

result in the destruction or adverse 

modification of designated critical 

habitat. To ensure ESA compliance for 

the issuance of IHAs, NMFS consults 

internally whenever we propose to 

authorize take for endangered or 

threatened species. 

No incidental take of ESA-listed 

species is expected to result from this 

activity. Therefore, NMFS has 

determined that formal consultation 

under section 7 of the ESA is not 

required for this action. 

National Environmental Policy Act 

To comply with the National 

Environmental Policy Act of 1969 

(NEPA; 42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) and 

NOAA Administrative Order (NAO) 

216–6A, NMFS must evaluate our 

proposed action (the issuance of an 

IHA) and alternatives with respect to 

potential impacts on the human 

environment. 

This action is consistent with 

categories of activities identified in 

Categorical Exclusion B4 (IHAs with no 

anticipated serious injury or mortality) 

of the Companion Manual for NAO 216– 

6A, which do not individually or 

cumulatively have the potential for 

significant impacts on the quality of the 

human environment and for which we 

have not identified any extraordinary 

circumstances that would preclude this 

categorical exclusion. Accordingly, 

NMFS determined that the issuance of 

the initial IHA qualified to be 

categorically excluded from further 

NEPA review. NMFS has determined 

that the application of this categorical 

exclusion remains appropriate for this 

renewal IHA. 

Authorization 

NMFS has issued a renewal IHA to 

the U.S Navy for the potential 

harassment of small numbers of six 

marine mammal species incidental to 

the Replacement of Pier 302 at Naval 

Base Point Loma, San Diego, California, 

that includes the previously explained 

mitigation, monitoring and reporting 

requirements. 

Dated: October 21, 2024. 

Kimberly Damon-Randall, 

Director, Office of Protected Resources, 

National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2024–24763 Filed 10–23–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

Agency Information Collection 

Activities; Submission to the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) for 

Review and Approval; Comment 

Request; National Marine Sanctuary 

Permits 

The Department of Commerce will 

submit the following information 

collection request to the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) for 

review and clearance in accordance 

with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 

1995, on or after the date of publication 

of this notice. We invite the general 

public and other Federal agencies to 

comment on proposed, and continuing 

information collections, which helps us 

assess the impact of our information 

collection requirements and minimize 

the public’s reporting burden. Public 

comments were previously requested 

via the Federal Register on May 14, 

2024 during a 60-day comment period 

and no comments were received. This 

notice allows for an additional 30 days 

for public comments. 

Agency: National Oceanic & 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

Title: National Marine Sanctuary 

Permits. 

OMB Control Number: 0648–0141. 

Form Number(s): None. 

Type of Request: Regular submission, 

revision and extension of a current 

information collection. 

Number of Respondents: 567. 

Average Hours per Response: General 

permits and authorizations, 1 hour and 

30 minutes; special use permits, 8 

hours; archaeological research permits, 

13 hours; baitfish permits, 25 minutes; 

permit amendments and certifications, 

30 minutes; voluntary registrations, 15 

minutes; appeals, 24 hours; Tortugas 

access permits, 5 minutes. 

Total Annual Burden Hours: 2,307.75. 

Needs and Uses: This request is for 

revision and extension of a currently 

approved information collection by the 

Office of National Marine Sanctuaries 

(ONMS). ONMS manages national 

marine sanctuaries pursuant to the 

purposes and policies of the National 

Marine Sanctuaries Act (NMSA, 16 

U.S.C. 1431 et seq.). National marine 

sanctuary regulations at 15 CFR part 922 

list specific activities that are prohibited 

in national marine sanctuaries. These 

regulations also state that otherwise 

prohibited activities may be conducted 

if a permit is issued by ONMS. For most 

types of permits, persons desiring a 

permit must submit an application (note 

that requests for baitfish permits and 

Tortugas Ecological Reserve North 

Access permits require contacting 

Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary 

and do not require a completed ONMS 

permit application), and anyone 

obtaining a permit is generally required 

to submit one or more reports on the 

activity allowed under the permit. The 

recordkeeping and reporting 

requirements at 15 CFR part 922 form 

the basis for this collection of 

information. 

This information is required by 

ONMS to protect and manage sanctuary 

resources. The permit application 

collects information about the proposed 

activities, the methods proposed to be 

used, the potential effects to sanctuary 

resources, and information on the 

regulatory review criteria at 15 CFR part 

922. ONMS uses this information to 

evaluate whether the proposed activities 

are consistent with the goals and 

objectives of the sanctuary and the 

purposes and policies of the NMSA. 

Changes to this information collection 

include revisions to the permit 

application and instructions to collect 

information about small businesses to 

better assess the types of entities 

engaged in permitting activities. The 

estimated number of permits issued per 

year also changed from 424 to 567 to 

reflect the additional estimated permit 

numbers if the various proposed 

national marine sanctuary designations 

are finalized. In particular, this is based 

on adding an estimated fifteen 

additional permits and about 59 

certifications for the recently designated 

Chumash Heritage National Marine 

Sanctuary (89 FR 83554, Oct. 16, 2024), 

an estimated five additional permits for 

the proposed designation of the 

National Marine Sanctuary for the 

Pacific Remote Islands (88 FR 23624; 

April 18, 2023), an estimated five 

additional permits for the recently 

designated Lake Ontario National 

Marine Sanctuary (89 FR 48272, June 6, 

2024), an estimated five additional 

permits for proposed Lake Erie 

Quadrangle National Marine Sanctuary 

(88 FR 32198, May 19, 2023), an 

estimated nine permits for the proposed 

sanctuary in the Hudson Canyon area 

(87 FR 38387, June 8, 2022), and 

increasing the numbers of amendments 

and Tortugas access permits to reflect 

more recent average permit numbers. 

The number of baitfish permits was 

diminished by 35 permits and Florida 

Keys National Marine Sanctuary has 

proposed phasing out the bait fishing 

permits over the next three years (87 FR 

42800, July 18, 2022). Other revisions 

made to the application and applicant 


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84872 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 206 / Thursday, October 24, 2024 / Notices 

instructions were to improve the quality 

of information initially collected and to 

make the permit process more efficient. 

Affected Public: Individuals; Business 

or other for-profit organizations; Not-forprofit institutions; State, Local, or Tribal 

government; Federal Government. 

Frequency: On occasion. 

Respondent’s Obligation: Required to 

Obtain or Retain Benefits. 

Legal Authority: National Marine 

Sanctuaries Act, 16 U.S.C. 1431 et seq. 

This information collection request 

may be viewed at https://

www.reginfo.gov. Follow the 

instructions to view the Department of 

Commerce collections currently under 

review by OMB. 

Written comments and 

recommendations for the proposed 

information collection should be 

submitted within 30 days of the 

publication of this notice on the 

following website https://

www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. 

Find this particular information 

collection by selecting ‘‘Currently under 

30-day Review—Open for Public 

Comments’’ or by using the search 

function and entering either the title of 

the collection or the OMB Control 

Number 0648–0141. 

Sheleen Dumas, 

Departmental PRA Clearance Officer, Office 

of the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs, 

Commerce Department. 

[FR Doc. 2024–24702 Filed 10–23–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–NK–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

[RTID 0648–XD212] 

2024 Updated Guidance for Assessing 

the Effects of Anthropogenic Sound on 

Marine Mammal Hearing—Underwater 

and In-Air Criteria for Onset of 

Auditory Injury and Temporary 

Threshold Shifts (Version 3.0) 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The National Marine 

Fisheries Service (NMFS) announces the 

availability of our final 2024 Update to: 

Technical Guidance for Assessing the 

Effects of Anthropogenic Sound on 

Marine Mammal Hearing (Version 3.0): 

Underwater and In-Air Criteria for 

Onset of Auditory Injury and Temporary 

Threshold Shifts (2024 Updated 

Technical Guidance). The 2024 Updated 

Technical Guidance provides updated 

information, or acoustic criteria, to 

predict when individual marine 

mammals, both in-air and underwater, 

will experience changes in their hearing 

sensitivity (auditory injury or temporary 

threshold shift) from exposure to 

anthropogenic sound sources. The 2024 

Updated Technical Guidance replaces 

NMFS’s current 2018 Revisions to: 

Technical Guidance for Assessing the 

Effects of Anthropogenic Sound on 

Marine Mammal Hearing (Version 2.0): 

Underwater Thresholds for Onset of 

Permanent and Temporary Threshold 

Shifts (2018 Revised Technical 

Guidance). 

ADDRESSES: The final 2024 Updated 

Technical Guidance is available in 

electronic form via the internet https:// 

www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/ 

marine-mammal-protection/marinemammal-acoustic-technical-guidance. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Amy R. Scholik-Schlomer, Office of 

Protected Resources, 301–427–8449, 

Amy.Scholik@noaa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NMFS has 

updated its guidance for assessing the 

effects of anthropogenic sound on the 

hearing of marine mammal species 

under NMFS’s jurisdiction. Specifically, 

the 2024 Updated Technical Guidance 

identifies the received levels and 

auditory weighting functions, or 

‘‘acoustic criteria,’’ that describe the 

received levels (decibels (dB)) and 

frequencies (kilohertz (kHz)) where 

individual marine mammals are 

predicted to experience changes in their 

hearing sensitivity (auditory injury 

(AUD INJ) or temporary threshold shift 

(TTS)) from exposure to anthropogenic 

sound sources both in-air and 

underwater. This document is intended 

for use by NMFS analysts and managers 

and other relevant user groups and 

interested parties, including other 

Federal agencies, when seeking to 

determine whether and how their 

activities are expected to result in 

auditory impacts to marine mammals 

via acoustic exposure in-air and 

underwater. The 2024 Updated 

Technical Guidance outlines NMFS’s 

updated acoustic criteria and describes 

in detail how they were developed and 

how they will be updated in the future. 

For information on NMFS’ 2018 Revised 

and the original 2016 Technical 

Guidance, refer to our 2016 Federal 

Register notification (81 FR 51694, 

August 4, 2016). 

For the 2024 Updated Technical 

Guidance, NMFS again worked with the 

U.S. Navy (Navy), which recently 

updated its marine mammal AUD INJ 

and TTS criteria (Finneran 2024), to 

incorporate the best available science. 

NMFS conducted an independent peer 

review in October/November 2022. 

Details of the peer review, peer reviewer 

comments, and our response to these 

comments are available at the following 

website: https://www.noaa.gov/ 

information-technology/update-to20162018-technical-guidance-forassessing-effects-of-anthropogenicsound-on-marine-mammal. In May/June 

of 2023, NMFS solicited input from 

other relevant Federal agencies on the 

2024 Updated Technical Guidance. 

Federal agency comments and NMFS 

responses to those comments are 

available at the following website: 

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

national/marine-mammal-protection/ 

marine-mammal-acoustic-technicalguidance. To complete the review 

process, NMFS solicited additional 

feedback from user groups and 

interested parties via a 45-day public 

comment period in May/June 2024. 

Comments received via the public 

comment period can be found at the 

following website: https://

www.regulations.gov/document/NOAANMFS-2024-0026-0001. 

It is important to note that the use of 

the acoustic criteria within the 2024 

Updated Technical Guidance should not 

be considered to represent the entirety 

of an impact assessment, but rather 

serve as one tool to help evaluate the 

effects of a proposed action. 

Furthermore, the 2024 Updated 

Technical Guidance does not create or 

confer any rights for or on any person, 

or operate to bind the public. For the 

purposes of assessing auditory impacts 

to marine mammals in support of 

regulatory processes under NMFS’ 

authority, an alternative approach that 

has undergone independent peer review 

may be proposed (by Federal agencies or 

prospective action proponents or 

applicants) and used if case-specific 

information/data indicate that the 

alternative approach is likely to produce 

a more accurate portrayal of auditory 

impacts (AUD INJ or TTS) for the 

project being evaluated, if NMFS 

determines the approach satisfies the 

requirements of the applicable statutes 

and regulations. 

The 2024 Updated Technical 

Guidance reflects the current state of 

scientific knowledge regarding the 

characteristics of sound that have the 

potential to impact marine mammal 

hearing sensitivity. NMFS recognizes 

that the implementation of marine 

mammal weighting functions and the 

weighted SEL24h criteria may extend 

beyond the capabilities of some action 

proponents. Thus, NMFS has developed 

an optional, alternative tool for those 


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