Title 50
SECTION 218.64
218.64 Mitigation requirements.
§ 218.64 Mitigation requirements.When conducting activities identified in § 218.60, the mitigation measures contained in the LOA issued under § 216.106 of this chapter and § 218.66 must be implemented. These mitigation measures shall include but are not limited to the following general conditions:
(a) If daytime weather and/or sea conditions preclude adequate monitoring for detecting marine mammals and other marine life, EGTTR operations must be delayed until adequate sea conditions exist for monitoring to be undertaken.
(b) Restrictions on time of activities.
(1) Missions involving the use of live bombs, missiles and rockets shall only occur during daylight hours.
(2) Missions during daylight hours shall occur no earlier than two hours after sunrise and no later than two hours prior to sunset.
(c) Required delay of live ordnance mission activities shall occur if a protected species, large schools of fish or large flocks of birds feeding at the surface are observed within the ZOI. Mission activities cannot resume until one of the following conditions is met:
(1) Protected species marine mammal(s) is confirmed to be outside of the ZOI on a heading away from the target area; or
(2) Protected species marine mammal(s) is not seen again for 30 minutes and presumed to be outside the Level A harassment ZOI.
(3) Large groupings of fish or birds leading to required delay are confirmed outside of the ZOI.
(d) Gunnery operations shall require employment of the following mitigation measures.
(1) Use of 105-millimeter (mm) training rounds (TR) during nighttime missions.
(2) Ramp-up procedures requiring the use of the lowest caliber munition and proceeding to the highest, which means the munitions would be fired in the order of 25 mm, 40 mm, and 105 mm.
(3) Any pause in live fire activities greater than 10 minutes shall require reinitiation of protected species surveys.
(4) Missions shall be conducted within the 200-meter (m) isobaths to provide greater protection to several species.
(e) If one or more sperm or baleen whales are detected during pre-mission monitoring activities, mission activities shall be aborted/suspended for the remainder of the day.
(f) Additional mitigation measures as contained in an LOA.