Composite Training Unit Exercises and Joint Task ... - Govsupport.us

COMPTUEX/JTFEX EA/OEA Final Chapter 4sensitive than other cetaceans to low frequency sounds; however, as noted earlier, there is no directevidence to support this idea (MacLeod 1999).The exposures depicted in Table 4.3-12 would not necessarily occur to 4 different individuals. The sameindividual could experience behavioral disruption more than once over the course of a year, particularly ifthe animal is resident in the area of the range. Thus, the estimated number of individual Baird’s whalesexperiencing harassment may be fewer than four. Mitigation measures detailed in Chapter 5 wouldfurther reduce the potential for any effect on Baird’s whales. The Navy therefore concludes that theproposed action would not affect annual rates of recruitment or survival for Baird’s whales, and wouldnot have a significant impact on this species and stock.Bottlenose Dolphin California Coastal and Offshore Stock (Tursiops truncatus)The bottlenose dolphin is not listed as endangered under the ESA. In southern California, twopopulations occur: a coastal population within 0.5 nm (0.9 km) of shore and a larger offshore population(Hansen, 1990). There is a minimum population estimate of 186 (CV=0.12) for the California CoastalStock of the bottlenose dolphin, and 3,053 (CV=0.66) for the California/Oregon/Washington OffshoreStock (Carretta et al., 2005). Neither stock is considered depleted or strategic under the MMPA. Themodeling efforts and harassment analysis for mid-frequency active sonar estimate that no Level Aharassment of bottlenose dolphins would occur. The analysis estimates that up to 516 incidents of noninjuriousbehavioral harassment (Level B harassment) may be experienced by bottlenose dolphins onannual basis (Table 4.3-13). Based on the distance of mid-frequency sonar activities from shore, allexposures are estimated to occur to the Offshore Stock, with no predicted exposure of the CaliforniaCoastal Stock of Bottlenose Dolphins. No bottlenose dolphins would be exposed to impulsive noises orpressures from underwater detonations that would cause TTS or physical injury.Table 4.3-13. Raw Annual Acoustic Model Output of Bottlenose DolphinBehavioral173-