Takes of Marine Mammals Incidental to Specified Activities; Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to Marine Site Characterization Surveys in the Area of Commercial Lease of Submerged Lands for Renewable Energy Development on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Lease Areas OCS-A 0486, 0487, and 0500

摘要

In accordance with the regulations implementing the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) as amended, notification is hereby given that NMFS has issued an incidental harassment authorization (IHA) to Orsted Wind Power North America LLC (Orsted) to incidentally harass, by Level B harassment only, marine mammals during marine site characterization surveys offshore from Rhode Island to Massachusetts, including the areas of Commercial Lease of Submerged Lands for Renewable Energy Development on the Outer Continental Shelf Lease Areas OCS-A 0486, 0487, 0500, and along potential export cable routes (ECR)s to landfall locations between Raritan Bay and Falmouth, MA.