Takes of Marine Mammals Incidental to Specified Activities; Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to the Bravo Wharf Recapitalization Project

NMFS has received a request from the U.S. Navy (Navy) for an incidental harassment authorization (IHA) that would cover a subset of the take authorized in an IHA previously issued to the Navy to incidentally take bottlenose dolphins, by Level B harassment only, during construction activities associated with a wharf recapitalization project at Bravo Wharf, Naval Station Mayport, Florida. The project has been delayed, such that only a subset of the work covered in the 2017 IHA has been completed and, therefore, the Navy requested that an IHA be issued to cover the remainder of their work. NMFS is proposing to issue a second IHA to cover the remainder of the incidental take analyzed and authorized in the first IHA. The authorized take numbers would be adjusted (i.e., reduced) to account for the reduction in work (because a subset was already completed) and a revision of the source level based on a recent measurement, and the required mitigation, monitoring, and reporting would remain the same as authorized in the 2017 IHA referenced above. NMFS is requesting comments on its proposal to issue this IHA to incidentally take marine mammals during the Navy's specified activities. NMFS will consider public comments prior to making any final decision on the issuance of the requested MMPA authorization and agency responses will be summarized in the final notice of our decision.