Federal Register / Vol. 90, No. 29 / Thursday, February 13, 2025 / Notices 9537 

2Best abundance estimate. For most taxa, the best abundance estimate for purposes of comparison with take estimates is considered here to 

be the model-predicted abundance (Garrison et al., 2023). For Rice’s whale, Atlantic spotted dolphin, and Risso’s dolphin, the larger estimated 

SAR abundance estimate is used. 3 Modeled take of one increased to account for potential encounter with a group of average size (Maze-Foley and Mullin, 2006). 

4 Includes 7 takes by Level A harassment and 130 takes by Level B harassment. Scalar ratio is applied to takes by Level B harassment only; 

small numbers determination made on basis of scaled Level B harassment take plus authorized Level A harassment take. 5The ‘‘blackfish’’ guild includes melon-headed whales, false killer whales, pygmy killer whales, and killer whales. 

Based on the analysis contained 

herein of TGS’s proposed survey 

activity described in its LOA 

application and the anticipated take of 

marine mammals, NMFS finds that 

small numbers of marine mammals will 

be taken relative to the affected species 

or stock sizes (i.e., less than one-third of 

the best available abundance estimate) 

and therefore the taking is of no more 

than small numbers. 

Authorization 

NMFS has determined that the level 

of taking for this LOA request is 

consistent with the findings made for 

the total taking allowable under the 

incidental take regulations and that the 

amount of take authorized under the 

LOA is of no more than small numbers. 

Accordingly, we have issued an LOA to 

TGS authorizing the take of marine 

mammals incidental to its geophysical 

survey activity, as described above. 

Dated: February 10, 2025. 

Kimberly Damon-Randall, 

Director, Office of Protected Resources, 

National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2025–02607 Filed 2–12–25; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

[RTID 0648–XE620] 

Taking and Importing Marine 

Mammals; Taking Marine Mammals 

Incidental to Geophysical Surveys 

Related to Oil and Gas Activities in the 

Gulf of Mexico 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice of modification to 

expiration date of letter of authorization. 

SUMMARY: In accordance with the 

Marine Mammal Protection Act 

(MMPA), as amended, its implementing 

regulations, and NMFS’ MMPA 

Regulations for Taking Marine 

Mammals Incidental to Geophysical 

Surveys Related to Oil and Gas 

Activities in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), 

notification is hereby given that NMFS 

has modified the expiration date of a 

Letter of Authorization (LOA) issued to 

bp Exploration and Production, Inc., 

(bp) for the taking of marine mammals 

incidental to geophysical survey activity 

in the GOM. 

DATES: This LOA is effective through 

March 31, 2025. 

ADDRESSES: The LOA, LOA request, and 

supporting documentation are available 

online at: https://

www.fisheries.noaa.gov/marinemammal-protection/issued-lettersauthorization-oil-and-gas-industrygeophysical-survey. In case of problems 

accessing these documents, please call 

the contact listed below (FOR FURTHER

INFORMATION CONTACT). 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Rachel Wachtendonk, Office of 

Protected Resources, NMFS, (301) 427– 

8401. 

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 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 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 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. 

Except with respect to certain 

activities not pertinent here, the MMPA 

defines ‘‘harassment’’ as: any act of 

pursuit, torment, or annoyance which: 

(i) has the potential to injure a marine 

mammal or marine mammal stock in the 

wild (Level A harassment); or (ii) has 

the potential to disturb a marine 

mammal or marine mammal stock in the 

wild by causing disruption of behavioral 

patterns, including, but not limited to, 

migration, breathing, nursing, breeding, 

feeding, or sheltering (Level B 

harassment). 

On January 19, 2021, we issued a final 

rule with regulations to govern the 

unintentional taking of marine 

mammals incidental to geophysical 

survey activities conducted by oil and 

gas industry operators, and those 

persons authorized to conduct activities 

on their behalf (collectively ‘‘industry 

operators’’), in U.S. waters of the GOM 

over the course of 5 years (86 FR 5322, 

January 19, 2021). The rule was based 

on our findings that the total taking 

from the specified activities over the 5- 

year period will have a negligible 

impact on the affected species or 

stock(s) of marine mammals and will 

not have an unmitigable adverse impact 

on the availability of those species or 

stocks for subsistence uses. The rule 

became effective on April 19, 2021. 

Our regulations at 50 CFR 217.180 et 

seq. allow for the issuance of LOAs to 

industry operators for the incidental 

take of marine mammals during 

geophysical survey activities and 

prescribe the permissible methods of 

taking and other means of effecting the 

least practicable adverse impact on 

marine mammal species or stocks and 

their habitat (often referred to as 

mitigation), as well as requirements 

pertaining to the monitoring and 

reporting of such taking. Under 50 CFR 

217.186(e), issuance of an LOA shall be 

based on a determination that the level 

of taking will be consistent with the 

findings made for the total taking 

allowable under these regulations and a 

determination that the amount of take 

authorized under the LOA is of no more 

than small numbers. 

NMFS subsequently discovered that 

the 2021 rule was based on erroneous 

take estimates. We conducted another 

rulemaking using correct take estimates 

and other newly available and pertinent 

information relevant to the analyses 

supporting some of the findings in the 

2021 final rule and the taking allowable 

under the regulations. We issued a final 

rule in April 2024, effective May 24, 

2024 (89 FR 31488, April 24, 2024). 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with NOTICES1
9538 Federal Register / Vol. 90, No. 29 / Thursday, February 13, 2025 / Notices 

The 2024 final rule made no changes 

to the specified activities or the 

specified geographical region in which 

those activities would be conducted, nor 

to the original 5-year period of 

effectiveness. In consideration of the 

new information, the 2024 rule 

presented new analyses supporting 

affirmance of the negligible impact 

determinations for all species, and 

affirmed that the existing regulations, 

which contain mitigation, monitoring, 

and reporting requirements, are 

consistent with the ‘‘least practicable 

adverse impact’’ standard of the MMPA. 

NMFS issued a LOA to bp on 

September 9, 2024, for the take of 

marine mammals incidental to a threedimensional (3D) ocean bottom node 

(OBN) survey over 325 lease blocks in 

the Alaminos Canyon, Garden Banks, 

Keathley Canyon, and East Breaks areas, 

effective September 9, 2024, through 

February 14, 2025. Please see the 

Federal Register notice of issuance (89 

FR 74921, September 13, 2024) for 

additional detail regarding the LOA and 

the survey activity. 

Bp has requested that the February 14, 

2025, expiration date be extended to 

March 31, 2025, as they are using only 

one source vessel instead of the planned 

two. There are no other changes to the 

planned survey or our earlier analyses, 

as described in the previous notice of 

LOA issuance for this survey (89 FR 

74921, September 13, 2024). 

Based on the results of our earlier 

analysis, NMFS has determined that the 

level of taking expected for this survey 

and authorized through the LOA is 

consistent with the findings made for 

the total taking allowable under the 

regulations. See table 1 in this notice 

and table 6 of the rule (89 FR 31488, 

April 24, 2024). 

Small Numbers Determination 

Under the GOM rule, NMFS may not 

authorize incidental take of marine 

mammals in an LOA if it will exceed 

‘‘small numbers.’’ In short, when an 

acceptable estimate of the individual 

marine mammals taken is available, if 

the estimated number of individual 

animals taken is up to, but not greater 

than, one-third of the best available 

abundance estimate, NMFS will 

determine that the numbers of marine 

mammals taken of a species or stock are 

small (89 FR 31535, May 24, 2024). For 

more information please see NMFS’ 

discussion of small numbers in the 2021 

final rule (86 FR 5438, January 19, 

2021). 

NMFS made its small numbers 

determinations in the original notice of 

LOA issuance for the survey (89 FR 

74921, September 13, 2024) based on 

the information provided in table 1, 

which has not changed. 

TABLE 1—TAKE ANALYSIS

Species Authorized 

take Scaled take 1 Abundance 2 Percent 

abundance 

Rice’s whale ..................................................................................................... 0 n/a 51 n/a 

Sperm whale .................................................................................................... 408 172.5 3,007 5.7 

Kogia spp ......................................................................................................... 3 287 85.3 980 10.8 

Beaked whales ................................................................................................ 547 55.2 803 6.9 

Rough-toothed dolphin .................................................................................... 1,017 292.0 4,853 6.0 

Bottlenose dolphin ........................................................................................... 363 103.4 165,125 0.1 

Clymene dolphin .............................................................................................. 1,713 491.7 4,619 10.6 

Atlantic spotted dolphin ................................................................................... 108 30.9 21,506 0.1 

Pantropical spotted dolphin ............................................................................. 13,612 3,906.5 67,225 5.8 

Spinner dolphin ................................................................................................ 185 52.8 5,548 1.0 

Striped dolphin ................................................................................................. 4,849 1,391.6 5,634 24.7 

Fraser’s dolphin ............................................................................................... 444 127.3 1,665 7.6 

Risso’s dolphin ................................................................................................. 210 62.0 1,974 3.1 

Blackfish 4 ......................................................................................................... 3,384 998.4 6,113 16.3

Short-finned pilot whale ................................................................................... 142 42.0 2,741 1.5 

1Scalar ratios were applied to ‘‘Authorized Take’’ values as described at 86 FR 5322 and 86 FR 5404 (January 19, 2021) to derive scaled take 

numbers shown here. 2Best abundance estimate. For most taxa, the best abundance estimate for purposes of comparison with take estimates is considered here to 

be the model-predicted abundance (Garrison et al., 2023). For Rice’s whale, Atlantic spotted dolphin, and Risso’s dolphin, the larger SAR abundance estimate is used. 3 Includes 19 takes by Level A harassment and 268 takes by Level B harassment. Scalar ratio is applied to takes by Level B harassment only; 

small numbers determination made on basis of scaled Level B harassment take plus authorized Level A harassment take. 4The ‘‘blackfish’’ guild includes melon-headed whales, false killer whales, pygmy killer whales, and killer whales. 

Authorization 

NMFS has changed the expiration 

date of the LOA from February 14, 2025, 

to March 31, 2025. There are no other 

changes to the LOA as described in the 

September 13, 2024, Federal Register 

notice of issuance (89 FR 74921); the 

specified survey activity, take estimates, 

and small numbers analysis and 

determination remain unchanged and 

are incorporated here by reference. 

Dated: February 10, 2025. 

Kimberly Damon-Randall, 

Director, Office of Protected Resources, 

National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2025–02581 Filed 2–12–25; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

[RTID 0648–XE666] 

North Pacific Albacore United States 

Stakeholder Meeting; Meeting 

Cancelled 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with NOTICES1