Takes of Marine Mammals Incidental to Specified Activities; Marine Geophysical Survey in the South Atlantic Ocean, January to March 2016

NMFS has received an application from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (Lamont-Doherty) in collaboration with the National Science Foundation (NSF), for an Incidental Harassment Authorization (Authorization) to take marine mammals, by harassment only, incidental to conducting a marine geophysical (seismic) survey in the South Atlantic Ocean, January through March 2016. The proposed dates for this action would be early January 2016 through March 31, 2016, to account for minor deviations due to logistics and weather. Per the Marine Mammal Protection Act, we are requesting comments on our proposal to issue an Authorization to Lamont-Doherty to incidentally take, by Level B harassment, 38 species of marine mammals during the specified activity and to incidentally take, by Level A harassment, 16 species of marine mammals. Although considered unlikely, any Level A harassment potentially incurred would be expected to be in the form of some smaller degree of permanent hearing loss due in part to the required monitoring measures for detecting marine mammals and required mitigation measures for power downs or shut downs of the airgun array if any animal is likely to enter the Level A exclusion zone. NMFS does not expect mortality or complete deafness of marine mammals to result from this survey.