Marine Mammals; Incidental Take During Specified Activities

We, the Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), have developed regulations that would authorize the incidental, unintentional take of small numbers of polar bears and Pacific walrus during year-round oil and gas industry (Industry) exploration, development, and production operations in the Beaufort Sea and adjacent northern coast of Alaska. Industry operations for the covered period are similar to and include all activities covered by the 3-year Beaufort Sea incidental take regulations that were effective from March 30, 2000, through March 31, 2003 (65 FR 16828, March 30, 2000). We find that the total expected takings of polar bear and Pacific walrus during oil and gas industry exploration, development, and production activities will have a negligible impact on these species and no unmitigable adverse impacts on the availability of these species for subsistence use by Alaska Natives. We base this finding on the results of 9 years of monitoring and evaluating interactions between polar bears, Pacific walrus, and Industry, and also on oil spill trajectory models, polar bear density models, and an independent population distribution model that determine the likelihood of impacts to polar bears should an accidental oil release occur.