49914 Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 164 / Thursday, August 25, 2005 / Notices 

Dated: August 19, 2005.

William T. Hogarth,

Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, 

National Marine Fisheries Service.

[FR Doc. 05–16940 Filed 8–24–05; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3510–22–S

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

[I.D. 080405A]

Taking and Importing Marine 

Mammals; Taking Marine Mammals 

Incidental to Navy Operations of 

Surveillance Towed Array Sensor 

System Low Frequency Active Sonar

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce.

ACTION: Notice; issuance of two Letters 

of Authorization.

SUMMARY: In accordance with the 

Marine Mammal Protection Act 

(MMPA), as amended, and 

implementing regulations, notification 

is hereby given that NMFS has issued 

two 1–year Letters of Authorization 

(LOAs) to take marine mammals by 

harassment incidental to the U.S. Navy’s 

operation of Surveillance Towed Array 

Sensor System Low Frequency Active 

(SURTASS LFA) sonar operations to the 

Chief of Naval Operations, Department 

of the Navy, 2000 Navy Pentagon, 

Washington, D.C., and persons 

operating under his authority.

DATES: Effective from August 16, 2005, 

through August 15, 2006.

ADDRESSES: Copies of the LOAs and the 

Navy’s March 31, 2005 application, 

which contains a list of references used 

in this document, are available by 

writing to Steve Leathery, Chief, 

Permits, Conservation, and Education 

Division, Office of Protected Resources, 

National Marine Fisheries Service, 1315 

East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 

20910–3225, by telephoning the contact 

listed here (see FOR FURTHER

INFORMATION CONTACT), or online at: 

http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/protlres/

PR2/SmalllTake/

smalltakelinfo.htm#applications. 

Documents cited in this notice may be 

viewed, by appointment, during regular 

business hours, at the aforementioned 

address.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jolie 

Harrison (ext 166) or Kenneth 

Hollingshead (ext 128), Office of 

Protected Resources, NMFS, (301) 713–

2289.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

Section 101(a)(5)(A) of the MMPA (16 

U.S.C. 1361 et seq.) directs 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 

regulations are issued.

Authorization may be granted for 

periods of 5 years or less if NMFS finds 

that the taking will have no more than 

a negligible impact on the species or 

stock(s), and will not have an 

unmitigable adverse impact on the 

availability of the species or stock(s) for 

subsistence uses. In addition, NMFS 

must prescribe regulations that include 

permissible methods of taking and other 

means effecting the least practicable 

adverse impact on the species and its 

habitat, and on the availability of the 

species for subsistence uses, paying 

particular attention to rookeries, mating 

grounds, and areas of similar 

significance. The regulations must 

include requirements pertaining to the 

monitoring and reporting of such taking.

Regulations governing the taking of 

marine mammals incidental to the U.S. 

Navy’s operation of SURTASS LFA 

sonar were published on July 16, 2002 

(67 FR 46712), and remain in effect until 

August 15, 2007. For detailed 

information on this action, please refer 

to that document. These regulations 

include mitigation, monitoring, and 

reporting requirements for the 

incidental taking of marine mammals by 

the SURTASS LFA sonar system.

On November 24, 2003, the President 

signed into law the National Defense 

Authorization Act of 2004 (NDAA) 

(Public Law 108–136). Included in this 

law were amendments to the MMPA 

that apply where a ‘‘military readiness 

activity’’ is concerned. Of specific 

importance for the SURTASS LFA sonar 

take authorization, the NDAA amended 

section 101(a)(5) of the MMPA to 

exempt military readiness activities 

from the ‘‘specified geographical 

region’’ and ‘‘small numbers’’ 

requirements. The term ‘‘military 

readiness activity’’ is defined in Public 

Law 107–314 (16 U.S.C. 703 note) to 

include all training and operations of 

the Armed Forces that relate to combat; 

and the adequate and realistic testing of 

military equipment, vehicles, weapons 

and sensors for proper operation and 

suitability for combat use. The term 

expressly does not include the routine 

operation of installation operating 

support functions, such as military 

offices, military exchanges, 

commissaries, water treatment facilities, 

storage facilities, schools, housing, 

motor pools, laundries, morale, welfare 

and recreation activities, shops, and 

mess halls; the operation of industrial 

activities; or the construction or 

demolition of facilities used for a 

military readiness activity.

NMFS published a proposed rule to 

amend its SURTASS LFA sonar final 

rule and regulations, to implement 

provisions of the NDAA (69 FR 38873; 

June 29, 2004). The public comment 

period ended on July 29, 2004. NMFS 

has not issued a final rule as of the date 

of this notice.

Summary of LOA Request

NMFS received an application from 

the U.S. Navy for two LOAs, one 

covering the R/V Cory Chouest and one 

the USNS IMPECCABLE, under the 

regulations issued on July 16, 2002 (67 

FR 46712). The Navy requested that the 

LOAs become effective on August 16, 

2005. The application requested 

authorization, for a period not to exceed 

1 year, to take, by harassment, marine 

mammals incidental to employment of 

the SURTASS LFA sonar system for 

training, testing and routine military 

operations on the aforementioned ships. 

The application’s take estimates are 

based on 16 nominal 9–day active sonar 

missions (or equivalent shorter 

missions) between both vessels, 

regardless of which vessel is performing 

a specific mission, not to exceed a total 

of 432 hours of LFA sonar transmission 

time combined for both vessels.

The specified geographic regions 

identified in the application in which 

the Navy proposes to operate SURTASS 

LFA sonar are the following 

oceanographic provinces described in 

Longhurst (1998) and identified in 50 

CFR 216.180(a): the Archipelagic Deep 

Basins Province, the Western Pacific 

Warm Pool Province, and the North 

Pacific Tropical Gyre West Province, all 

within the Pacific Trade Wind Biome; 

the Kuroshio Current Province and the 

Northern Pacific Transition Zone 

Province within the Pacific Westerly 

Winds Biome; the North Pacific 

Epicontinental Sea Province within the 

Pacific Polar Biome; and the China Sea 

Coastal Province within the North 

Pacific Coastal Biome. The operational 

areas proposed in the Navy’s 

application are portions of the provinces 

but do not encompass the entire area of 

the provinces. Due to critical naval 

warfare requirements, the U.S. Navy has 

identified the necessity for both 

SURTASS LFA sonar vessels to be 

stationed in the North Pacific Ocean 

during fiscal year 2006.

Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 164 / Thursday, August 25, 2005 / Notices 49915

Summary of Activity Under the Current 

LOAs

In compliance with the 2004–2005 

LOAs, on May 28, 2005, the Navy 

submitted the annual report on 

SURTASS LFA sonar operations. A 

summary of that report (Navy, 2005) 

follows.

During the period between February 

16, 2004 and February 15, 2005 (the 

reporting period required under the 

2004 LOAs), the R/V Cory Chouest

operated in the Philippine Sea in the 

winter and spring of 2004. The RV Cory 

Chouest conducted four training 

missions covering a period of 38.8 days 

with 93.3 hours of transmissions by the 

LFA sonar array. The purposes of the 

training missions are to provide fully 

functional hardware and software, 

extensive personnel training, job 

experience, and operational/system 

monitoring in a variety of LFA sonar 

mission scenarios and acoustic 

environments. All LFA sonar operations 

included the operation of the HighFrequency Marine Mammal Monitoring 

(HF/M3) sonar and compliance with all 

mitigation requirements.

The second SURTASS LFA sonar 

system, onboard the USNS 

IMPECCABLE (T-AGOS 23), 

commenced sea trials in late February 

2004. During the spring and summer of 

2004, the USNS IMPECCABLE 

conducted five training missions in the 

Philippine Sea and the northwest 

Pacific Ocean covering a period of 26.2 

days with 63.0 hours of transmissions 

by the LFA array. All LFA sonar 

operations included the operation of the 

HF/M3 sonar and compliance with all 

mitigation requirements.

In summary, SURTASS LFA sonar 

operations from February 16, 2004 to 

February 15, 2005 consisted of nine 

training missions totaling 65.1 days of 

operations with 156.3 hours of active 

transmissions by the LFA sonar array. 

Operations were conducted at three 

different sites in the Philippine sea 

located in the Kuroshio Current and 

North Pacific Tropical Gyre West 

Provinces.

Summary of Monitoring Under the 

2004–2005 LOAs

In the annual report, the Navy 

provides a post-operational assessment 

of whether incidental harassment 

occurred within the LFA sonar 

mitigation and buffer zones and 

estimates of the percentages of marine 

mammal stocks possibly harassed using 

predictive modeling based on dates/

times/location of actual operations, 

system characteristics, oceanographic 

conditions, and animal demographics. 

Post-operational incidental harassment 

estimates indicate that there were no 

marine mammal exposures to received 

levels at or above 180 dB (Navy, 2005).

The percentage of marine mammal 

stocks estimated to be exposed to noise 

between 120 and 180 dB (re 1 microPa) 

from the LFA sonar array, both pre- and 

post-operational risk assessment 

estimates, were all below the 12–percent 

maximum percentage authorized under 

the LOAs. The majority of the estimates 

were below 1 percent; however, there 

were marine mammal stocks at all three 

sites with more than 1 percent estimated 

exposed to between 120 and 180 dB: (1) 

east of Japan, the short-finned pilot 

whale (1.67 percent) and the false killer 

whale (1.58 percent); (2) in the North 

Philippine Sea, the short-finned pilot 

whale (1.50 percent); and (3) in the West 

Philippine Sea, the Pacific white-sided 

dolphin (9.72 percent), the melonheaded whale (9.46 percent), the false 

killer whale (4.22 percent), Risso’s 

dolphin (3.6 percent), the short-finned 

pilot whale (3.46 percent), the 

humpback whale (3.27 percent), the 

bottlenose dolphin (2.45 percent), the 

Minke whale (1.75 percent), the pygmy 

killer whale (1.69 percent), Blainville’s 

beaked whale (1.27 percent), and the 

rough-toothed dolphin (1.10 percent).

During the nine missions, no sightings 

of marine mammals were noted by the 

trained personnel responsible for 

marine animal monitoring, and no 

marine mammal vocalizations were 

identified on the SURTASS passive 

sonar displays.

The HF/M3 sonar operated 

continuously during the course of the 

missions in accordance with the LOAs. 

As required by the LOAs, the HF/M3 

sonar was ‘‘ramped up’’ prior to 

operations. During seven of the nine 

missions, there were 12 HF/M3 alerts 

that were identified as possible marine 

mammal detections. No additional 

correlating data were available to further 

verify, identify, or clarify these 

detections. Because these detections met 

the minimum shutdown criteria (i.e., 

multiple detections (two or more) 

within the same area), the Navy’s 

requisite protocols were followed, and 

LFA sonar transmissions were 

suspended a total of 12 times. In 

addition, during one mission there were 

two suspensions of LFA sonar 

operations due to HF/M3 sonar software 

failures.

Authorization

Accordingly, NMFS has issued two 

LOAs to the U.S. Navy, authorizing the 

incidental harassment of marine 

mammals incidental to operating the 

two SURTASS LFA sonar systems for 

training, testing and routine military 

operations. Issuance of these two LOAs 

is based on findings, described in the 

preamble to the final rule (67 FR 46712, 

July 16, 2002) and supported by 

information contained in the Navy’s 

required annual report on SURTASS 

LFA sonar, that the activities described 

under these two LOAs will have no 

more than a negligible impact on marine 

mammal stocks and will not have an 

unmitigable adverse impact on the 

availability of the affected marine 

mammal stocks for subsistence uses. 

These LOAs also comply with the 

NDAA amendments to the MMPA.

These LOAs remain valid through 

August 15, 2006, provided the Navy 

remains in conformance with the 

conditions of the regulations and the 

LOAs, and the mitigation, monitoring, 

and reporting requirements described in 

50 CFR 216.184–216.186 (67 FR 46712, 

July 16, 2002) and in the LOAs are 

undertaken.

Dated: August 22, 2005.

Michael Payne,

Acting Director, Office of Protected Resources, 

National Marine Fisheries Service.

[FR Doc. 05–16938 Filed 8–24–05; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3510–22–S

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Office of the Secretary; Defense 

Science Board

AGENCY: Department of Defense (DoD).

ACTION: Notice of Advisory Committee 

meeting; improvised explosive devices 

(IEDs). 

SUMMARY: The Defense Science Board 

Task Force on Improvised Explosive 

Devices (IEDs) will meet in closed 

session on September 13, 2005, at 

Strategic Analysis, Inc., 3601 Wilson 

Boulevard, Arlington, VA. The Task 

Force will explore methods and 

techniques to significantly reduce the 

effects of IEDs on U.S. and coalition 

forces in operations such as are 

currently being conducted in Operation 

Iraqi Freedom (OIF). The Task Force 

should examine ways to counter the use 

as well as mitigate the consequences of 

IEDs. The Task Force should examine 

ways to counter the use as well as 

mitigate the consequences of IEDs.

DATES: September 13, 2005.

ADDRESSES: Strategic Analysis, Inc., 

3601 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: LTC 

Scott Dolgoff, USA, Defense Science 

Board, 3140 Defense Pentagon, Room 

3C553, Washington, DC 20301–3140, via