Take of Marine Mammals Incidental to Specified Activities; Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to Rocky Intertidal Monitoring Surveys Along the Oregon and California Coasts

NMFS Office of Protected Resources, upon request from the University of California Santa Cruz's Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans (UCSC/PISCO), hereby issues regulations and a Letter of Authorization to govern the unintentional taking of marine mammals incidental to rocky intertidal monitoring surveys along the Oregon and California coasts over the course of five years. These regulations, which allow for the issuance of Letters of Authorization (LOA) for the incidental take of marine mammals during the described activities and specified timeframes, prescribe the permissible methods of taking and other means of effecting the least practicable adverse impact on marine mammal species or stocks and their habitat, as well as requirements pertaining to the monitoring and reporting of such taking.