2024-22987. Takes of Marine Mammals Incidental to Specified Activities; Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to the Maintenance and Rehabilitation of the Bellingham Shipping Terminal

Table 1—Estimated Take by Level A and Level B Harassment, by Species and Stock

Common name	Stock	Stock abundance a	Level A	Level B	Total take	Take as percentage of stock
Harbor porpoise	Washington Inland Waters	11,233	0	261	261	2.3
Steller sea lion	Eastern U.S	36,308	0	87	87	0.2
California sea lion	U.S	257,606	0	87	87	<0.1
Harbor seal	Washington Northern Inland Waters	16,451	264	2,029	3,050	18.5
a  Stock or DPS size is Nbest according to NMFS 2023 Draft Stock Assessment Reports.

Description of Proposed Mitigation, Monitoring and Reporting Measures

The proposed mitigation, monitoring, and reporting measures included as requirements in this authorization are nearly identical to those included in the Federal Register notice announcing the issuance of the initial IHA, and the discussion of the least practicable adverse impact included in that document and the notice of the proposed IHA remains accurate.

As noted above, the increase vibratory pile installation time from 90 minutes per day to 360 minutes per day has increased the size of the shutdown zones as noted in table 2 of this section. The applicant and NMFS analyzed the Level A harassment and associated shutdown zones using vibratory pile installation duration of 90 minutes a day, for inputs in the optional User Spreadsheet tool as reported in table 5 of the final IHA Federal Register notice (88 FR 77972, November 14, 2023). In the request for renewal of the initial IHA the applicant has requested that NMFS analyze and revise the shutdown zones associated with an increase in vibratory pile driving time to 360 minutes per day. Using the optional User Spreadsheet tool the applicants and NMFS analyzed and revised the shutdown zones based on this expected increase in vibratory pile installation duration. The following standard mitigation measures are proposed for this renewal:

• Shutdown zones for Level A harassment as specified in the initial IHA with the exception of vibratory pile installation where the Port of Bellingham expects to drive piles for 360 minutes a day. The updated shutdown zones are shown in table 2.

Table 2—Updated Shutdown Zones During Vibratory Pile Installation

Activity	Shutdown zones (m) 1
	HF cetaceans	Phocids	Otariids
Vibratory installation (360 minutes)	75 (30)	30 (20)	10 (10)
1  Shutdown zones shown in parentheticals are what was included in the initial IHA.