Notice2025-18450
Taking and Importing Marine Mammals; Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to Geophysical Surveys in the Gulf of America
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
September 24, 2025
Issuing agencies
Commerce DepartmentNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Abstract
NMFS has received a request from the EnerGeo Alliance (EnerGeo) for the development of regulations governing the taking of marine mammals incidental to geophysical survey activity conducted in the Gulf of America (GOA) over a period of 5 years. Pursuant to regulations implementing the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), NMFS is announcing receipt of EnerGeo's request. NMFS invites the public to provide information, suggestions, and comments on EnerGeo's application.
Full Text
<html>
<head>
<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 183 (Wednesday, September 24, 2025)</title>
</head>
<body><pre>
[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 183 (Wednesday, September 24, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 45936-45937]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-18450]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
[RTID 0648-XF156]
Taking and Importing Marine Mammals; Taking Marine Mammals
Incidental to Geophysical Surveys in the Gulf of America
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notice; receipt of application for Letter of Authorization;
request for comments and information.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: NMFS has received a request from the EnerGeo Alliance
(EnerGeo) for the development of regulations governing the taking of
marine mammals incidental to geophysical survey activity conducted in
the Gulf of America (GOA) over a period of 5 years. Pursuant to
regulations implementing the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), NMFS
is announcing receipt of EnerGeo's request. NMFS invites the public to
provide information, suggestions, and comments on EnerGeo's
application.
DATES: Comments and information must be received no later than October
24, 2025.
ADDRESSES: Comments on the application should be addressed to the
Permits and Conservation Division, Office of Protected Resources,
National Marine Fisheries Service. Physical comments should be sent to
1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910 and electronic comments
should be sent to <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#410815116f0920332d2022292433012f2e20206f262e37"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="337a67631d7b52415f52505b5641735d5c52521d545c45">[email protected]</span></a>.
Instructions: Comments sent by any other method, to any other
address or individual, or received after the end of the comment period,
may not be considered by NMFS. All comments received are a part of the
public record and will generally be posted online at: <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/action/incidental-take-authorization-oil-and-gas-industry-geophysical-survey-activity-gulf-america">https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/action/incidental-take-authorization-oil-and-gas-industry-geophysical-survey-activity-gulf-america</a> without change.
All personal identifying information (e.g., name, address, etc.),
confidential business information, or otherwise sensitive information
submitted voluntarily by the sender will be publicly accessible. Do not
submit confidential business information or otherwise sensitive or
protected information.
A copy of the EnerGeo request may be obtained online at: <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/action/incidental-take-authorization-oil-and-gas-industry-geophysical-survey-activity-gulf-america">https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/action/incidental-take-authorization-oil-and-gas-industry-geophysical-survey-activity-gulf-america</a>. In case of
problems accessing these documents, please call the contact listed
below.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jenna Harlacher, Office of Protected
Resources, NMFS, (301) 427-8401.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
Section 101(a)(5)(A) and (D) of the MMPA (16 U.S.C. 1361 et seq.)
direct the Secretary of Commerce (as delegated to NMFS) to allow, upon
request, the incidental, but not intentional, taking of small numbers
of marine mammals by U.S. citizens who engage in a specified activity
(other than commercial fishing) within a specified geographical region
if certain findings are made and either regulations are issued or, if
the taking is limited to harassment, a notice of a proposed
authorization is provided to the public for review.
An incidental take authorization shall be granted if NMFS finds
that the taking will have a negligible impact on the species or
stock(s), will not have an unmitigable adverse impact on the
availability of the species or stock(s) for subsistence uses (where
relevant), and if the permissible methods of taking and requirements
pertaining to the mitigation, monitoring and reporting of such takings
are set forth.
NMFS has defined ``negligible impact'' in 50 CFR 216.103 as an
impact resulting from the specified activity that cannot be reasonably
expected to, and is not reasonably likely to, adversely affect the
species or stock through effects on annual rates of recruitment or
survival. The MMPA states that the term ``take'' means to harass, hunt,
capture, kill or attempt to harass, hunt, capture, or kill any marine
mammal.
Except with respect to certain activities not pertinent here, the
MMPA defines ``harassment'' as: any act of pursuit, torment, or
annoyance, which (i) has the potential to injure a marine mammal or
marine mammal stock in the wild (Level A harassment); or (ii) has the
potential to disturb a marine mammal or marine mammal stock in the wild
by causing disruption of behavioral patterns, including, but not
limited to, migration, breathing, nursing, breeding, feeding, or
sheltering (Level B harassment).
On January 19, 2021, we issued a final rule with incidental take
regulations (ITRs) to govern the unintentional taking of marine mammals
incidental to geophysical survey activities conducted in U.S. waters of
the GOA over the course of the statutory maximum of 5 years (86 FR
5322, January 19, 2021). NMFS subsequently discovered that the 2021
rule was based on erroneous take estimates. We conducted another
rulemaking to reassess the statutorily required findings for issuance
of the 2021 ITRs using correct take estimates and other newly available
and pertinent information relevant to the analyses supporting some of
the findings in the 2021 final rule and the taking allowable under the
regulations. We issued a final rule affirming those findings in April
2024, effective through April 19, 2026 (89 FR 31488, April 24, 2024).
The 2024 rule did not result in any changes to the existing ITRs, which
provide a framework for authorization of incidental take through
Letters of Authorization (LOAs) upon request from individual applicants
planning specific geophysical survey activities. The existing ITRs are
in effect through April 19, 2026.
Summary of Request
On March 25, 2025, NMFS received an application from EnerGeo
requesting development of ITRs governing the
[[Page 45937]]
taking of marine mammals incidental to geophysical survey activity
conducted in the GOA over the course of five years following the date
of issuance. EnerGeo submitted revised versions of the application on
July 14, August 8, and August 12, 2025, and NMFS determined the last of
these to be adequate and complete. As with the existing ITRs for
geophysical survey activity in the GOA, which will expire in April
2026, the requested ITRs would establish a framework for authorization
of incidental take, by harassment only, through LOAs. Under the
requested ITRs, if issued, individual applicants planning specific
geophysical survey activities would be able to request and receive
LOAs.
Readers are advised that on September 3, 2025 (90 FR 42569), NMFS
published a Notice of Receipt of a request from the NMFS' Office of
Policy for reimplementation of the current ITRs governing the
incidental taking of marine mammals during geophysical survey activity
conducted in the GOA. The request notes that the pending April 2026
expiration of the current ITR would affect regulatory certainty with
loss of an efficient permitting framework, and that reimplementation of
the existing ITRs on the basis of the same specified activity defined
in the 2021 final rule and associated estimates of incidental take
evaluated for the 2024 corrective rulemaking is consistent with the
MMPA and appropriate pursuant to Executive Orders 14156, ``Declaring a
National Energy Emergency,'' and 14154, ``Unleashing American Energy.''
If issued, the requested regulations would continue the established
current framework from the previous rulemaking for authorization of
incidental take through LOAs unless and until superseded by a
rulemaking and issuance of the ITRs requested by EnerGeo.
Specified Activities
EnerGeo's application describes geophysical survey activity,
conducted by industry operators in the western and central GOA. The
geographic scope of the request excludes the eastern GOA area placed
under a Congressional leasing moratorium through 2022 under the Gulf of
Mexico Energy Security Act (GOMESA) (Pub. L. 109-432, 104). On
September 8, 2020, President Trump effectively extended this moratorium
through withdrawal under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA)
of the same area covered by the GOMESA moratorium from disposition by
leasing for 10 years, beginning on July 1, 2022, and ending on June 30,
2032. Geophysical activities are essential to oil and gas exploration,
development, and production, and are used to characterize the shallow
and deep structure of the shelf, slope, and deepwater environments.
Geophysical surveys are conducted to obtain information on hydrocarbon
production; identify and delineate new areas for hydrocarbon and
mineral exploration; aid in siting offshore structures (facilities and
pipelines); locate seafloor geologic hazards, archeological resources,
and benthic habitats of interest. Geophysical surveys may occur before
(pre) or after (post) leasing. Data collected through geophysical
surveys may also inform leasing sale prices and business decisions by
lessees.
Information Solicited
Interested persons may submit information, suggestions, and
comments concerning EnerGeo's request (see ADDRESSES). NMFS will
consider all information, suggestions, and comments related to the
request during the development of proposed regulations governing the
incidental taking of marine mammals, if appropriate.
Dated: September 19, 2025.
Kimberly Damon-Randall,
Director, Office of Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries
Service.
[FR Doc. 2025-18450 Filed 9-23-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P
</pre><script data-cfasync="false" src="/cdn-cgi/scripts/5c5dd728/cloudflare-static/email-decode.min.js"></script></body>
</html>Indexed from Federal Register on September 24, 2025.
This is legal information, not legal advice. Laws vary by jurisdiction and change frequently. Always verify current law with official sources and consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for advice on your specific situation.