§ 217.178 - Renewal of Letters of Authorization and adaptive management.

(a) A Letter of Authorization issued under §216.106 and §217.177 of this chapter for the activity identified in §217.170(a) shall be renewed upon request by the applicant or determination by NMFS and the applicant that modifications are appropriate pursuant to the adaptive management component of these regulations, provided that:

(1) NMFS is notified that the activity described in the application submitted under §217.176 will be undertaken and that there will not be a substantial modification to the described work, mitigation or monitoring undertaken during the upcoming 12 months;

(2) NMFS recieves the monitoring reports required under §217.175(c)(1)–(4); and

(3) NMFS determines that the mitigation, monitoring and reporting measures required under §§217.174 and 217.175 and the Letter of Authorization issued under §§216.106 and 217.177 of this chapter were undertaken and will be undertaken during the upcoming annual period of validity of a renewed Letter of Authorization.

(b) If either a request for a renewal of a Letter of Authorization issued under §§216.106 and 217.178 or a determination by NMFS and the applicant that modifications are appropriate pursuant to the adaptive management component of these regulations indicates that a substantial modification, as determined by NMFS, to the described work, mitigation or monitoring undertaken during the upcoming season will occur, NMFS will provide the public a period of 30 days for review and comment on the request. Review and comment on renewals of Letters of Authorization are restricted to:

(1) New cited information and data indicating that the determinations made in this document are in need of reconsideration, and

(2) Proposed substantive changes to the mitigation and monitoring requirements contained in these regulations or in the current Letter of Authorization.

(c) A notice of issuance or denial of a renewal of a Letter of Authorization will be published in the  Federal Register .

(d) Adaptive Management—NMFS may modify or augment the existing mitigation or monitoring measures (after consulting with Neptune regarding the practicability of the modifications) if doing so creates a reasonable likelihood of more effectively accomplishing the goals of mitigation and monitoring set forth in the preamble of these regulations. Below are some of the possible sources of new data that could contribute to the decision to modify the mitigation or monitoring measures:

(1) Results from Neptune's monitoring from the previous year;

(2) Results from general marine mammal and sound research; or

(3) Any information which reveals that marine mammals may have been taken in a manner, extent or number not authorized by these regulations or subsequent LOAs.