Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 181 / Wednesday, September 22, 2021 / Notices 52649 

respect to potential impacts on the 

human environment. 

The current action is consistent with 

categories of activities identified in 

Categorical Exclusion B4 (incidental 

harassment authorizations with no 

anticipated serious injury or mortality) 

of the Companion Manual for NOAA 

Administrative Order 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 has 

determined that the issuance of the IHA 

qualifies to be categorically excluded 

from further NEPA review just as 

previous phases of the project did. 

We have reviewed all comments 

submitted in response to the proposed 

IHA notice to conclude our NEPA 

process and make a final decision on the 

IHA request. 

Endangered Species Act (ESA) 

Section 7(a)(2) of the Endangered 

Species Act of 1973 (ESA: 16. U.S.C. 

1531 et seq.) requires that each Federal 

agency insure 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 for authorization or expected 

to result from this activity in the 

Elkhorn Slough Reserve. Therefore, 

NMFS has determined that formal 

consultation under section 7 of the ESA 

is not required for this action. 

Authorization 

As a result of these determinations, 

NMFS has issued an IHA to CDFW for 

the potential harassment of small 

numbers of harbor seals incidental to 

conducting restoration activities at the 

Seal Bend Restoration Area in Elkhorn 

Slough (Monterey County, CA), 

provided the previously mentioned 

mitigation, monitoring, and reporting 

requirements are incorporated. 

Dated: September 16, 2021. 

Kimberly Damon-Randall, 

Director, Office of Protected Resources, 

National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2021–20466 Filed 9–21–21; 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; Weather and Society Survey, 

and Using Quick Response Surveys To 

Build a Public Perception and 

Response Database 

AGENCY: National Oceanic & 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice of information collection, 

revised request for comment. 

SUMMARY: The Department of 

Commerce, in accordance with the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 

(PRA), invites 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. The purpose of this 

notice is to allow for 60 days of public 

comment preceding submission of the 

collection to OMB. 

DATES: To ensure consideration, 

comments regarding this proposed 

information collection must be received 

on or before November 22, 2021. 

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are 

invited to submit written comments to 

Adrienne Thomas, NOAA PRA Officer, 

at Adrienne.thomas@noaa.gov. Please 

reference OMB Control Number 0648- 

xxxx in the subject line of your 

comments. Do not submit Confidential 

Business Information or otherwise 

sensitive or protected information. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Requests for additional information or 

specific questions related to collection 

activities should be directed to Nicole 

Kurkowski, R2O Team Lead, DOC/ 

NOAA/NWS/OSTI, 1325 East-West 

Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910, 

301.427.9104, nicole.kurkowski@

noaa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Abstract 

A notice of request for a new 

information collection was previously 

published in the Federal Register on 

August 19, 2021 (86 FR 46681) 

regarding this collection. This revised 

notice incorporates an additional 

collection of information and this notice 

will allow for an additional 60 days for 

public comment. 

In alignment with the Weather 

Forecasting and Innovation Act of 2017 

(Pub. L. 115–25), two data collections 

are proposed under this request. There 

are no other collections for which these 

can be merged. 

The first proposed information 

collection request is sponsored by DOC/ 

NOAA/National Weather Service 

(NWS)/Office of Science and 

Technology Integration (OSTI). 

Currently, NOAA lacks data and data 

collection instruments that articulate 

and explicate how individuals receive, 

interpret, and respond to NOAA 

information, forecasts, and warnings for 

severe, winter, and tropical weather 

hazards. Furthermore, NOAA lacks this 

type of data longitudinally (i.e., 

collected over time). Without this type 

of longitudinal data, NOAA, and the 

NWS specifically, cannot determine if it 

has met its mission of saving lives and 

property, propose societal impact 

performance metrics, nor demonstrate if 

progress or improvements have been 

made, as outlined in the Weather 

Research and Forecasting Innovation 

Act of 2017. This effort aims to advance 

the Tornado Warning Improvement and 

Extension Program (TWIEP)’s goal to 

‘‘reduce the loss of life and economic 

losses from tornadoes through the 

development and extension of accurate, 

effective, and timely tornado forecasts, 

predictions, and warnings, including 

the prediction of tornadoes beyond one 

hour in advance (Pub. L. 115–25)’’. This 

work addresses NOAA’s 5-year Research 

and Development Vision Areas (2020– 

2026) Section 1.4 (FACETs). The 

Weather and Society Survey also 

advances the findings of the National 

Academy of Science 2012 report, 

‘‘Assessment of the NWS Modernization 

Program’’, in reference to NWS’ ‘‘chain 

of events associated with a tornado 

warning’’ (p52). This effort also 

advances the NWS Strategic Plan (2019– 

2022) ‘‘Transformative Impact-Based 

Decision Support Services (IDSS) and 

Research to Operations and Operations 

to Research (R2O/O2R). Furthermore, 

the Survey furthers the NWS Weather 

Ready Nation (WRN) Roadmap (2013) 

Sections 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3, 1.1.8, and 

3.1.4. 

This information would be collected 

at the Cooperative Institute for 

Mesoscale Meteorological Studies 

(CIMMS) and the University of 

Oklahoma’s Center for Risk and Crisis 

Management (CRCM), who has 

developed data collection instruments 

that would allow for more routine and 

longitudinal data collection, as the data 

will be collected on an annual basis. 

Furthermore, this team has developed 

interactive ‘‘dashboards’’, or tools, to 

visualize the aggregated data. 

52650 Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 181 / Wednesday, September 22, 2021 / Notices 

Respondents include adults (age 18+) 

who reside in the United States, 

recruited by survey companies that 

maintain large panels of people who 

sign up to complete internet surveys, 

such as Qualtrics and Survey Sampling 

International. Respondents will be 

asked questions about the ways they 

have received, interpreted, and 

responded to NWS information, 

forecasts, and warnings for severe, 

tropical, and winter weather hazards. 

Questions about preparedness for 

specific hazards such as heat waves, 

tornadoes, and drought may also be 

included. This data collection serves 

many purposes, including gaining a 

better understanding of how key factors 

within a given population, or 

organization, vary over time, location, 

and across different groups; the ability 

to detect gradual trends or abrupt 

changes in those factors over time or in 

response to particular events; and the 

potential to explore possible 

correlations and causal relationships 

with other observed variables of 

interest. These data will be used by the 

OSTI in NWS to develop a baseline and 

performance metrics to improve the 

information and services it provides and 

to help members of the weather 

enterprise answer basic questions about 

the people in the communities they 

serve, which is a necessary step towards 

customizing and improving risk 

communication, education, and 

decision support to meet the 

characteristics of the community, 

including those in vulnerable 

populations. The information collected 

will help identify differences and best 

practices between communities and 

assist NWS in developing new 

education and risk communication 

strategies. The survey data and its 

associated dashboard will serve as 

interactive tools to allow NWS 

forecasters, partners, and policymakers 

to access and explore data for training 

and performance evaluation purposes. 

The second proposed collection is 

sponsored through NOAA’s FY2021 

Weather Program Office’s Social Science 

Program, and addresses the Social, 

Behavioral, and Economic Sciences 

(SBES) component of meeting NOAA’s 

Research and Development (R&D) 

Vision Areas (2020–2026) to integrate 

SBES into products, tools, and services 

that improve weather and air quality 

forecasting and societal outcomes. 

This proposal aims to create an online 

survey system for collecting data on the 

publics’ perception and response to four 

different hazards: Tornados, 

thunderstorm winds over 70 miles per 

hour (mph), flash floods, and winter 

weather. The online surveys will be the 

building blocks for a multi-year, crosssectional database on human perception 

and response. The survey system will 

enable individual National Weather 

Service Weather Forecast Offices 

(WFOs) to disseminate Quick Response 

Surveys (QRS) soon after a hazardous 

event occurs to collect perishable data 

on the publics’ perceptions and 

response. Select WFOs will distribute 

the QRSs using web links on NWS 

social media and core partners’ social 

media or email lists. Surveys will ask 

the public questions on timing, location, 

weather information sources, 

motivations and influences for taking 

protective action to gain insights into 

how NWS warning communications 

interact with these factors to result in 

protective action behaviors. 

II. Method of Collection 

For the first collection, the primary 

method of data collection will be a webbased survey interface. Specific 

questions in the surveys determine how 

members of the U.S. public receive, 

comprehend, and respond to severe, 

tropical, and winter weather related 

information. Furthermore, these survey 

items will be translated to Spanish. 

The second collection will include 

online surveys to be implemented and 

aggregated using Qualtrics survey 

software. The surveys will be displayed 

on a desktop, tablet or mobile device 

allowing the public to take the survey 

whenever they have internet access. 

Select WFOs will distribute the QRSs 

using web links on NWS social media 

and core partners’ social media or email 

lists. 

III. Data 

OMB Control Number: 0648–XXXX. 

Form Number(s): None. 

Type of Review: Regular (New 

information collection). 

Affected Public: Individuals or 

households. 

Estimated Number of Respondents: 

101,000. 

Estimated Time per Response: 

Response time varies depending on the 

survey instrument, but the typical 

response time is between 10 and 20 

minutes. 

Estimated Total Annual Burden 

Hours: 7,667. 

Estimated Total Annual Cost to 

Public: None. 

Respondent’s Obligation: Voluntary. 

Legal Authority: 15 U.S.C. Ch. 111, 

Weather Research and Forecasting 

Information. 

IV. Request for Comments 

We are soliciting public comments to 

permit the Department/Bureau to: (a) 

Evaluate whether the proposed 

information collection is necessary for 

the proper functions of the Department, 

including whether the information will 

have practical utility; (b) Evaluate the 

accuracy of our estimate of the time and 

cost burden for this proposed collection, 

including the validity of the 

methodology and assumptions used; (c) 

Evaluate ways to enhance the quality, 

utility, and clarity of the information to 

be collected; and (d) Minimize the 

reporting burden on those who are to 

respond, including the use of automated 

collection techniques or other forms of 

information technology. 

Comments that you submit in 

response to this notice are a matter of 

public record. We will include or 

summarize each comment in our request 

to OMB to approve this ICR. Before 

including your address, phone number, 

email address, or other personal 

identifying information in your 

comment, you should be aware that 

your entire comment—including your 

personal identifying information—may 

be made publicly available at any time. 

While you may ask us in your comment 

to withhold your personal identifying 

information from public review, we 

cannot guarantee that we will be able to 

do so. 

Sheleen Dumas, 

Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of 

the Chief Information Officer, Commerce 

Department. 

[FR Doc. 2021–20513 Filed 9–21–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–KE–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

[RTID 0648–XB344] 

2022 Annual Determination To 

Implement the Sea Turtle Observer 

Requirement 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notification of Annual 

Determination of fisheries. 

SUMMARY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS) is providing 

notification that the agency will not 

identify additional fisheries to observe 

on the 2022 Annual Determination 

(AD), pursuant to its authority under the 

Endangered Species Act (ESA). Through 

the AD, NMFS identifies U.S. fisheries 

operating in the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of 

Mexico, and Pacific Ocean that will be 

required to take observers upon NMFS’