Ketchikan ferry berth work gets a third marine mammal permit without starting construction

Federal regulators have authorized a third year of marine mammal disturbance for ferry berth construction in Tongass Narrows near Ketchikan, work the state has not started across three authorizations since 2023.

The National Marine Fisheries Service reissued an incidental harassment authorization, a permit to disturb marine mammals without killing them, to the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities on Friday. It takes effect Sept. 1 and runs through Aug. 31, 2027, setting when disturbance is allowed during construction, not when construction happens.

The original authorization ran from Sept. 11, 2023, to Sept. 10, 2024. DOT&PF sought a reissuance in 2024, saying the project was delayed and that none of the permitted pile driving or down-the-hole drilling had occurred. On June 9 it reported the work had slipped again with nothing completed.

The department, working with the Ketchikan Gateway Borough, plans two new ferry berths and rework of two existing ones at the Revilla and Gravina airport shuttle ferry facilities.

The authorization covers take by harassment of 11 species, among them humpback whales, killer whales, Steller sea lions and harbor seals. All 11 may be disturbed by construction noise, and for five the permit also allows harassment that could injure them, though NMFS says it expects no serious injuries or deaths. Observers independent of the crew must halt pile driving when an animal enters a shutdown zone.

No one commented during the original permit's 30-day public comment period, and the account here is the two agencies' own.