Biological Opinion Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities Construction of the Tongass Narrows Project, Ketchikan, Alaska

This opinion considers the effects of the construction of the remainder
of the Tongass Narrows Project in the City of Ketchikan in Southeast Alaska. The full Tongass
Narrows Project includes six project components, two of which have been completed under a
previous biological opinion (ECO# AKRO-2019-03432) and four considered in this biological
opinion. This opinion replaces the original opinion prepared for this project.

The action may affect the threatened Mexico Distinct Population Segment (DPS) of
humpback whale and endangered fin whale. Critical habitat was designated for the Mexico
DPS of humpback whale (86 FR 21082, April 21, 2021), but there is no critical habitat in
Southeast Alaska. Critical habitat has not been designated for fin whale.

This biological opinion is based on information provided during the original consultation (see
Section 1 of NMFS 2019), information provided by HDR in the January 2023 IHA application
(HDR 2023), monitoring reports provided by ADOT&PF, a site-specific sound source
verification report conducted during earlier phases of the project (Reyff and Ambaskar 2023),
the proposed rule for the IHA (88 FR 46746, July 20, 2023), updated project proposals; email
and telephone conversations among NMFS AKR, NMFS OPR; and ADOT&PF, and other sources
of information. A complete record of this consultation is on file at NMFS’s Juneau, Alaska
office.