Guidelines for Assessing Marine Mammal Stocks, 3450-3453 [2012-1344]
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Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 15 / Tuesday, January 24, 2012 / Notices
calendar day of publication of this
notice. Comments should be filed
electronically using IA ACCESS. An
electronically filed document must be
received successfully in its entirety by
the Department’s electronic records
system, IA ACCESS, by the time and
date noted above. Documents excepted
from the electronic submissions
requirements must be filed manually
(i.e., paper form) with the Import
Administration’s APO/Dockets Unit,
Room 1870, U.S. Department of
Commerce, 14th Street and Constitution
Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20230,
and stamped with the date and time of
receipt by the deadline noted above.
We intend to make our decision
regarding respondent selection within
20 days of publication of this Federal
Register notice.
Interested parties must submit
applications for disclosure under APO
in accordance with 19 CFR 351.305(b).
Instructions for filing such applications
may be found on the Department’s Web
site at: https://ia.ita.doc.gov/apo.
Distribution of Copies of the Petition
In accordance with section
702(b)(4)(A)(i) of the Act and 19 CFR
351.202(f), a copy of the public version
of the Petition and amendments thereto
have been provided to representatives of
the GOC. Because of the particularly
large number of producers/exporters
identified in the Petition, the
Department considers the service of the
public version of the Petition to the
foreign producers/exporters satisfied by
the delivery of the public version to the
GOC, consistent with 19 CFR
351.203(c)(2).
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ITC Notification
We have notified the ITC of our
initiation, as required by section 702(d)
of the Act.
Preliminary Determination by the ITC
The ITC will preliminarily determine,
within 45 days after the date on which
the Petition was filed, whether there is
a reasonable indication that imports of
subsidized utility scale wind towers
from the PRC are causing material
injury, or threatening to cause material
injury, to a U.S. industry. See section
703(a)(2) of the Act. A negative ITC
determination will result in the
investigation being terminated;
otherwise, the investigation will
proceed according to statutory and
regulatory time limits.
Notification to Interested Parties
Interested parties must submit
applications for disclosure under
administrative protective orders in
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accordance with 19 CFR 351.305. On
January 22, 2008, the Department
published Antidumping and
Countervailing Duty Proceedings:
Documents Submission Procedures;
APO Procedures, 73 FR 3634. Parties
wishing to participate in this
investigation should ensure that they
meet the requirements of these
procedures (e.g., the filing of letters of
appearance as discussed at 19 CFR
351.103(d)).
Any party submitting factual
information in an AD or CVD
proceeding must certify to the accuracy
and completeness of that information.
See section 782(b) of the Act. Parties are
hereby reminded that revised
certification requirements are in effect
for company/government officials as
well as their representatives in all
segments of any AD or CVD proceedings
initiated on or after March 14, 2011. See
Certification of Factual Information to
Import Administration during
Antidumping and Countervailing Duty
Proceedings: Interim Final Rule, 76 FR
7491 (February 10, 2011) (Interim Final
Rule) amending 19 CFR 351.303(g)(1)
and (2). The formats for the revised
certifications are provided at the end of
the Interim Final Rule. Foreign
governments and their officials may
continue to submit certifications in
either the format that was in use prior
to the effective date of the Interim Final
Rule, or in the format provided in the
Interim Final Rule. See Certification of
Factual Information to Import
Administration During Antidumping
and Countervailing Duty Proceedings:
Supplemental Interim Final Rule, 76 FR
54697 (September 2, 2011). The
Department intends to reject factual
submissions in any proceeding
segments initiated on or after March 14,
2011, if the submitting party does not
comply with the revised certification
requirements.
This notice is issued and published
pursuant to section 777(i) of the Act.
the tower and nacelle are joined) when fully
assembled.
A wind tower section consists of, at a
minimum, multiple steel plates rolled into
cylindrical or conical shapes and welded
together (or otherwise attached) to form a
steel shell, regardless of coating, end-finish,
painting, treatment, or method of
manufacture, and with or without flanges,
doors, or internal or external components
(e.g., flooring/decking, ladders, lifts,
electrical buss boxes, electrical cabling,
conduit, cable harness for nacelle generator,
interior lighting, tool and storage lockers)
attached to the wind tower section. Several
wind tower sections are normally required to
form a completed wind tower.
Wind towers and sections thereof are
included within the scope whether or not
they are joined with nonsubject merchandise,
such as nacelles or rotor blades, and whether
or not they have internal or external
components attached to the subject
merchandise.
Specifically excluded from the scope are
nacelles and rotor blades, regardless of
whether they are attached to the wind tower.
Also excluded are any internal or external
components which are not attached to the
wind towers or sections thereof.
Merchandise covered by the investigation
are currently classified in the Harmonized
Tariff System of the United States (HTSUS)
under subheadings 7308.20.0020 5 or
8502.31.0000.6 Prior to 2011, merchandise
covered by this investigation was classified
in the HTSUS under subheading
7308.20.0000 and may continue to be to some
degree. While the HTSUS subheadings are
provided for convenience and customs
purposes, the written description of the
scope of the investigation is dispositive.
[FR Doc. 2012–1342 Filed 1–23–12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510–DS–P
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration
RIN 0648–XA937
Guidelines for Assessing Marine
Mammal Stocks
Dated: January 18, 2012.
Paul Piquado,
Assistant Secretary for Import
Administration.
National Marine Fisheries
Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of availability; request
for comments.
Appendix I
SUMMARY:
Scope of the Investigation
The merchandise covered by the
investigation are certain wind towers,
whether or not tapered, and sections thereof.
Certain wind towers are designed to support
the nacelle and rotor blades in a wind turbine
with a minimum rated electrical power
generation capacity in excess of 100 kilowatts
and with a minimum height of 50 meters
measured from the base of the tower to the
bottom of the nacelle (i.e., where the top of
5 Wind towers are classified under HTSUS
7308.20.0020 when imported as a tower or tower
section(s) alone.
6 Wind towers may also be classified under
HTSUS 8502.31.0000 when imported as part of a
wind turbine (i.e., accompanying nacelles and/or
rotor blades).
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AGENCY:
NMFS solicits public
comments on draft revisions to the
guidelines for preparing marine
mammal stock assessment reports
(SARs).
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Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 15 / Tuesday, January 24, 2012 / Notices
Comments must be received by
March 26, 2012.
ADDRESSES: The following draft
revisions to the guidelines for preparing
marine mammal stock assessment
reports are contained in full in
Appendix IV of the Guidelines for
Assessing Marine Mammal Stocks:
Report of the GAMMS III Workshop; the
workshop report is available in
electronic form via the Internet at
https://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/sars/.
Copies of the workshop report may be
requested from Shannon Bettridge,
Office of Protected Resources, (301)
427–8402,
Shannon.Bettridge@noaa.gov.
You may submit comments, identified
by [NOAA–NMFS–2012–0007], by any
of the following methods:
Electronic Submissions: Submit all
electronic public comments via the
Federal eRulemaking Portal https://
www.regulations.gov.
Mail: Send comments to: Chief,
Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle
Conservation Division, Office of
Protected Resources, National Marine
Fisheries Service, 1315 East-West
Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910,
Attn: GAMMS.
Instructions: All comments received
are a part of the public record and will
generally be posted to https://
www.regulations.gov without change.
All Personal Identifying Information (for
example, name, address, etc.)
voluntarily submitted by the commenter
may be publicly accessible. Do not
submit Confidential Business
Information or otherwise sensitive or
protected information.
NMFS will accept anonymous
comments (enter N/A in the required
fields, if you wish to remain
anonymous). You may submit
attachments to electronic comments in
Microsoft Word, Excel, WordPerfect, or
Adobe PDF file formats only.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Shannon Bettridge, Office of Protected
Resources, (301) 427–8402,
Shannon.Bettridge@noaa.gov; Jeffrey
Moore, (858) 546–7000,
jeff.e.moore@noaa.gov.
DATES:
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SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
Section 117 of the Marine Mammal
Protection Act (MMPA) (16 U.S.C. 1361
et seq.) requires NMFS and the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service (FWS) to prepare
stock assessments for each stock of
marine mammals occurring in waters
under the jurisdiction of the United
States. These reports must contain
information regarding the distribution
and abundance of the stock, population
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growth rates and trends, estimates of
annual human-caused mortality and
serious injury from all sources,
descriptions of the fisheries with which
the stock interacts, and the status of the
stock. Initial stock assessment reports
(SARs, or Reports) were completed in
1995.
NMFS convened a workshop in June
1994, including representatives from
NMFS, FWS, and the Marine Mammal
Commission (Commission), to prepare
draft guidelines for preparing SARs. The
report of this workshop (Barlow et
al.,1995) included the guidelines for
preparing SARs and a summary of the
discussions upon which the guidelines
were based. The draft guidelines were
made available, along with the initial
draft SARs, for public review and
comment (59 FR 40527, August 9, 1994)
and were finalized August 25, 1995 (60
FR 44308).
In 1996, NMFS convened a second
workshop (referred to as the Guidelines
for Assessing Marine Mammal Stocks,
or ‘‘GAMMS,’’ workshop) to review the
guidelines and to recommend changes
to them, if appropriate. Workshop
participants included representatives
from NMFS, FWS, the Commission, and
the three regional scientific review
groups (SRGs). The report of that
workshop (Wade and Angliss, 1997)
summarized the discussion at the
workshop and contained revised
guidelines. The revised guidelines
represented minor changes from the
initial version. The revised guidelines
were made available for public review
and comment along with revised stock
assessment reports on January 21, 1997
(62 FR 3005) and later finalized.
In September 2003, NMFS again
convened a workshop (referred to as
GAMMS II) to review guidelines for
SARs and again recommend minor
changes to the guidelines. Participants
at the workshop included
representatives of NMFS, FWS, the
Commission, and the regional SRGs.
Changes to the guidelines resulting from
the 2003 workshop were directed
primarily toward identifying population
stocks and estimating PBR for declining
stocks of marine mammals. The revised
guidelines were made available for
public review and comment on
November 18, 2004 (69 FR 67541), and
the revisions were completed and
finalized on June 20, 2005 (70 FR
35397).
In February 2011, NMFS convened
another workshop (referred to as
GAMMS III) to review guidelines for
preparing SARs and again recommends
changes to the guidelines. Participants
at the workshop included
representatives from NMFS, FWS, the
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Commission, and the three regional
SRGs. NMFS solicits public comments
on the draft revisions to the guidelines
for preparing SARs, contained in
Appendix IV of the GAMMS III
workshop report. The GAMMS III
workshop report is available at https://
www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/sars/. Below are
brief summaries of the recommended
revisions to the guidelines based on the
most recent workshop.
Revisions to Guidelines
The objectives of the GAMMS III
workshop were to (1) consider methods
for assessing stock status (i.e., how to
apply the Potential Biological Removal
framework, or PBR) when abundance
data are outdated, nonexistent, or only
partially available; (2) develop policies
on stock identification and application
of PBR to small stocks, transboundary
stocks, and situations where stocks mix;
and (3) develop consistent national
approaches to a variety of other issues,
including reporting mortality and
serious injury (M&SI) information in
assessments. Nine specific topics were
discussed at the workshop. The
deliberations of these nine topics
resulted in a series of suggested
modifications to the current Report
guidelines (NMFS, 2005). The report of
the GAMMS III workshop includes
summaries of the presentations and
discussions for each of the agenda
topics, as well as suggested revisions to
the guidance document for preparing
Reports. Appendices of the workshop
report provide a variety of supporting
documents, including the full suggested
text revision of the Guidelines for
Preparing the Stock Assessment Reports
(Appendix IV).
PBR calculations with outdated
abundance estimates: For an increasing
number of marine mammal stocks, the
most recent abundance estimates are
more than 8 years old. Under existing
guidelines (NMFS, 2005), these are
considered to be outdated and thus not
used to calculate PBR. The current
practice is to consider the PBR for a
stock ‘‘undetermined’’ after supporting
survey information is more than eight
years old, unless there is compelling
evidence that the stock has not
declined. However, ‘‘undetermined’’
PBR is confusing, does not support
management decisions, and may be
interpreted in such a way that there is
no limit to the level of allowable
mortality. The following revisions to
calculate PBRs for stocks with old
abundance information are: (1) During
years 1–8 after the most recent
abundance survey, ‘‘uncertainty
projections’’ will be used, based on
uniform distribution assumptions, to
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serially reduce the Nmin estimate by a
small increment each year; (2) After 8
years, and assuming no new estimate of
abundance has become available, then a
worst-case scenario is assumed (i.e., a
plausible 10 percent decline per year
since the most recent survey), and so a
retroactive 10 percent decline per year
is applied; and (3) If data to estimate a
population trend model are available,
such a model can be used to influence
the uncertainty projections during the
first 8 years.
Improving stock identification: For
most marine mammal species, few stock
definition changes have been made
since the initial SARs were written.
Most stocks were defined at scales that
were larger than major eco-regions,
suggesting that the scale is likely too
large. A recommended addition to the
guidelines is the direction that each
Report will state in the ‘‘Stock
Definition and Geographic Range’’
section whether it is plausible the stock
contains multiple demographically
independent populations that should be
separate stocks, along with a brief
rationale. If additional structure is
plausible and human-caused mortality
or serious injury is concentrated within
a portion of the range of the stock, the
Reports should identify the portion of
the range in which the mortality or
serious injury occurs.
Assessment of very small stocks: The
PBR estimate for some stocks may be
very small (just a few animals or even
less than one). In such cases, low levels
of observer coverage may introduce
substantial small-sample bias in bycatch
estimates. A draft revision to the
guidelines is the inclusion of a table that
provides recommendations for the
amount of sampling effort (observer
coverage and/or number of years of data
pooling) required to limit small-sample
bias, given a certain PBR level, in the
Technical Details section of the SARs
guidelines. Further, if suggested
sampling goals (per the table) cannot be
met, then mortality should be estimated
and reported, but the estimates should
be qualified in the SARs by stating they
very well could be biased.
Assessment of small endangered
stocks: Some endangered species, like
Hawaiian monk seals, are declining
with little to no direct human-caused
mortality and the stock’s dynamics
therefore do not conform to the
underlying model for calculating PBR.
Thus, PBR estimates for some
endangered species stocks have not
been included, or have been considered
‘‘undetermined’’ in SARs. In such cases,
if feasible, PBR should still be
calculated and included in the SARs to
comply with the MMPA, but a draft
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revision to the guidelines is that Report
authors may depart from these
guidelines if sound reasons are given in
the SAR.
Apportioning PBR across feeding
aggregations, allocating mortality for
mixed stocks, and estimating PBR for
transboundary stocks: In some cases,
mortality and serious injury occur in
areas where more than one stock of
marine mammals occur. The draft
revised guidelines specify that when
biological information is sufficient to
identify the stock from which a dead or
seriously injured animal came, the
mortality or serious injury should be
associated only with that stock. When
one or more deaths or serious injuries
cannot be assigned directly to a stock,
then those deaths or serious injuries
may be partitioned among stocks within
the appropriate geographic area,
provided there is sufficient information
to support such partitioning (e.g., based
on the relative abundances of stocks
within the area). The Reports will
contain a discussion of the potential for
over or under-estimating stock-specific
mortality and serious injury. In cases
where mortalities and serious injuries
cannot be assigned directly to a stock
and available information is not
sufficient to support partitioning those
deaths and serious injuries among
stocks, the draft revised guidelines state
that the total unassigned mortality and
serious injuries should be assigned to
each stock within the appropriate
geographic area. When deaths and
serious injuries are assigned to each
overlapping stock in this manner, the
Reports will contain a discussion of the
potential for over-estimating stockspecific mortality and serious injury.
NMFS strengthened the language in
the draft guidelines regarding transboundary stocks, cautioning against
extrapolating abundance estimates from
one surveyed area to another
unsurveyed area to estimate range-wide
PBR. However, informed interpolation
(e.g.,. based on habitat associations) may
be used, as appropriate and supported
by existing data, to fill gaps in survey
coverage and estimate abundance and
PBR over broader areas. If estimates of
mortality or abundance from outside the
U.S. EEZ cannot be determined, PBR
calculations should be based on
abundance in the EEZ and compared to
mortality within the EEZ.
Clarifying reporting of mortality and
serious injury incidental to commercial
fishing: Currently, SARs do not
consistently summarize mortality and
serious injury incidental to commercial
fishing. The draft revised guidelines
specify that SARs include a summary of
all human-caused mortality and serious
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injury including information on all
sources of mortality and serious injury.
Additionally, a summary of mortality
and serious injury incidental to U.S.
commercial fisheries should be
presented in a table, while mortality and
serious injury from other sources (e.g.,
recreational fisheries, other sources of
M&SI within the U.S. EEZ, foreign
fisheries on the high seas) should be
clearly distinguished from U.S.
commercial fishery-related mortality.
Finally, the draft revised guidelines
contain the addition of a subsection
entitled ‘‘Summary of the most
important potential Human-caused
Mortality and Serious Injury threats that
are unquantified’’ in the SARs, and the
SARs should also indicate if there are
no known major sources of
unquantifiable human-caused mortality
and serious injury.
When stock declines are sufficient for
a strategic designation: There is no
formal process to periodically evaluate
the depleted status of non-ESA listed
marine mammal stocks, and the current
Report guidelines (NMFS, 2005) do not
provide any guidance for recommending
that a stock be designated as depleted.
Therefore, the draft revised guidelines
include the following: ‘‘Stocks that have
evidence suggesting at least a 50 percent
decline, either based on previous
abundance estimates or historical
abundance estimated by backcalculation, should be noted in the
Status of Stocks section as likely to be
below OSP. The choice of 50 percent
does not mean that OSP is at 50 percent
of historical numbers, but rather that a
population below this level would be
below OSP with high probability.
Similarly, a stock that has increased
back to levels pre-dating the known
decline may be within OSP; however,
additional analyses may determine a
population is within OSP prior to
reaching historical levels.’’
Additionally, the draft revised
guidelines include the following
clarification: ‘‘A stock shall be
designated as strategic if it is declining
and has a greater than 50 percent
probability of a continuing decline of at
least 5 percent per year. Such a decline,
if not stopped, would result in a 50
percent decline in 15 years and would
likely lead to the stock being listed as
threatened. The estimate of trend should
be based on data spanning at least 8
years. Alternative thresholds for decline
rates and duration, as well as alternative
data criteria, may also be used if
sufficient rationale is provided to
indicate that the decline is likely to
result in the stock being listed as
threatened within the foreseeable future.
Stocks that have been designated as
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strategic due to a population decline
may be designated as non-strategic if the
decline is stopped and the stock is not
otherwise strategic.’’
And finally, to the draft revised
guidelines include the following
direction regarding recovery factors for
declining stocks: ‘‘A stock that is
strategic because, based on the best
available scientific information, it is
declining and is likely to be listed as a
threatened species under the ESA
within the foreseeable future (sec.
3(19)(B) of the MMPA) should use a
recovery factor between 0.1 and 0.5.’’
Assessing stocks without abundance
estimates or PBR: For many stocks, data
are so sparse that it is not possible to
produce an Nmin or therefore not
possible to estimate PBR. When
mortality and/or population abundance
estimates are unavailable, the PBR
approach cannot be used to assess
populations, in spite of a statutory
mandate to do so. The draft revised
guidelines include the addition to the
Status of Stocks section the following
sentence: ‘‘Likewise, trend monitoring
can help inform the process of
determining strategic status.’’
Characterizing uncertainty in key SAR
elements: It is difficult to infer the
overall uncertainty for key parameters
as they are currently reported in the
SARs. The draft revised guidelines
direct that in the Stock Definition and
Geographic Range, Elements of the PBR
Formula, Population Trend, Annual
Human-Caused Mortality and Serious
Injury and Status of the Stock sections,
SAR authors are to provide a
description of key uncertainties
associated with parameters in these
sections and evaluate the effects of these
uncertainties in sufficient detail to
support a synthesis of how accurately
stock status could be assessed.
Including non-serious injuries and
disturbance in SARs: A final draft
revision to the guidelines is the addition
that if there are no known habitat issues
or other factors causing a decline or
impeding recovery, this should be stated
in the Status of Stocks section.
Dated: January 18, 2012.
James H. Lecky,
Director, Office of Protected Resources,
National Marine Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2012–1344 Filed 1–23–12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510–22–P
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COORDINATING COUNCIL ON
JUVENILE JUSTICE AND
DELINQUENCY PREVENTION
[OJP (OJJDP) Docket No. 1581]
Meeting of the Coordinating Council
on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention
Coordinating Council on
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention.
ACTION: Notice of meeting.
AGENCY:
The Coordinating Council on
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention (Council) announces its
winter meeting.
DATES: Friday, February 10, 2012 from
10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
ADDRESSES: The meeting will take place
in the third floor main conference room
at the U.S. Department of Justice, Office
of Justice Programs, 810 7th St. NW.,
Washington, DC 20531.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Visit
the Web site for the Coordinating
Council at www.juvenilecouncil.gov or
contact Robin Delany-Shabazz,
Designated Federal Official, by
telephone at (202) 307–9963 [Note: this
is not a toll-free telephone number], or
by email at Robin.DelanyShabazz@usdoj.gov or
Geroma.Void@usdoj.gov. The meeting is
open to the public.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The
Coordinating Council on Juvenile
Justice and Delinquency Prevention,
established pursuant to Section 3(2)A of
the Federal Advisory Committee Act (5
U.S.C. app. 2) will meet to carry out its
advisory functions under Section 206 of
the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention Act of 2002, 42 U.S.C. 5601,
et seq. Documents such as meeting
announcements, agendas, minutes, and
reports will be available on the
Council’s Web page,
www.juvenilecouncil.gov, where you
may also obtain information on the
meeting.
Although designated agency
representatives may attend, the Council
membership is composed of the
Attorney General (Chair), the
Administrator of the Office of Juvenile
Justice and Delinquency Prevention
(Vice Chair), the Secretary of Health and
Human Services (HHS), the Secretary of
Labor, the Secretary of Education, the
Secretary of Housing and Urban
Development, the Director of the Office
of National Drug Control Policy, the
Chief Executive Officer of the
Corporation for National and
Community Service, and the Assistant
Secretary of Homeland Security for U.S.
SUMMARY:
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Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The nine additional members are
appointed by the Speaker of the House
of Representatives, the Senate Majority
Leader, and the President of the United
States. Other federal agencies take part
in Council activities including the
Departments of Agriculture, Defense,
the Interior, and the Substance and
Mental Health Services Administration
of HHS.
Meeting Agenda
The preliminary agenda for this
meeting includes: (a) A presentation on
and discussion of the import of the
Pathways to Desistance study, research
conducted by Dr. Edward Mulvey on
serious youth offending; (b) a
demonstration by the U. S. Department
of Housing and Urban Development and
GreatSchools of their initiative to
provide evidence-based data to help
inform families’ decisions about
housing and schools; and (c) other
agency announcements.
Registration
For security purposes, members of the
public who wish to attend the meeting
must pre-register online at
www.juvenilecouncil.gov no later than
Friday, February 3, 2012. Should
problems arise with web registration,
call Daryel Dunston at (240) 221–4343
or send a request to register to Mr.
Dunston. Include name, title,
organization or other affiliation, full
address and phone, fax and email
information and send to his attention
either by fax to (301) 945–4295, or by
email to ddunston@edjassociates.com.
[Note: these are not toll-free telephone
numbers.] Additional identification
documents may be required. Space is
limited.
Note: Photo identification will be required
for admission to the meeting.
Written Comments: Interested parties
may submit written comments and
questions by Friday, February 3, 2012,
to Robin Delany-Shabazz, Designated
Federal Official for the Coordinating
Council on Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention, at
Robin.Delany-Shabazz@usdoj.gov. The
Coordinating Council on Juvenile
Justice and Delinquency Prevention
expects that the public statements
presented will not repeat previously
submitted statements. Written questions
from the public may also be invited at
the meeting.
Melodee Hanes,
Acting Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2012–1362 Filed 1–23–12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4410–18–P
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[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 15 (Tuesday, January 24, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3450-3453]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-1344]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
RIN 0648-XA937
Guidelines for Assessing Marine Mammal Stocks
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of availability; request for comments.
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SUMMARY: NMFS solicits public comments on draft revisions to the
guidelines for preparing marine mammal stock assessment reports (SARs).
[[Page 3451]]
DATES: Comments must be received by March 26, 2012.
ADDRESSES: The following draft revisions to the guidelines for
preparing marine mammal stock assessment reports are contained in full
in Appendix IV of the Guidelines for Assessing Marine Mammal Stocks:
Report of the GAMMS III Workshop; the workshop report is available in
electronic form via the Internet at https://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/sars/.
Copies of the workshop report may be requested from Shannon Bettridge,
Office of Protected Resources, (301) 427-8402,
Shannon.Bettridge@noaa.gov.
You may submit comments, identified by [NOAA-NMFS-2012-0007], by
any of the following methods:
Electronic Submissions: Submit all electronic public comments via
the Federal eRulemaking Portal https://www.regulations.gov.
Mail: Send comments to: Chief, Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle
Conservation Division, Office of Protected Resources, National Marine
Fisheries Service, 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910,
Attn: GAMMS.
Instructions: All comments received are a part of the public record
and will generally be posted to https://www.regulations.gov without
change. All Personal Identifying Information (for example, name,
address, etc.) voluntarily submitted by the commenter may be publicly
accessible. Do not submit Confidential Business Information or
otherwise sensitive or protected information.
NMFS will accept anonymous comments (enter N/A in the required
fields, if you wish to remain anonymous). You may submit attachments to
electronic comments in Microsoft Word, Excel, WordPerfect, or Adobe PDF
file formats only.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Shannon Bettridge, Office of Protected
Resources, (301) 427-8402, Shannon.Bettridge@noaa.gov; Jeffrey Moore,
(858) 546-7000, jeff.e.moore@noaa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
Section 117 of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) (16 U.S.C.
1361 et seq.) requires NMFS and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
(FWS) to prepare stock assessments for each stock of marine mammals
occurring in waters under the jurisdiction of the United States. These
reports must contain information regarding the distribution and
abundance of the stock, population growth rates and trends, estimates
of annual human-caused mortality and serious injury from all sources,
descriptions of the fisheries with which the stock interacts, and the
status of the stock. Initial stock assessment reports (SARs, or
Reports) were completed in 1995.
NMFS convened a workshop in June 1994, including representatives
from NMFS, FWS, and the Marine Mammal Commission (Commission), to
prepare draft guidelines for preparing SARs. The report of this
workshop (Barlow et al.,1995) included the guidelines for preparing
SARs and a summary of the discussions upon which the guidelines were
based. The draft guidelines were made available, along with the initial
draft SARs, for public review and comment (59 FR 40527, August 9, 1994)
and were finalized August 25, 1995 (60 FR 44308).
In 1996, NMFS convened a second workshop (referred to as the
Guidelines for Assessing Marine Mammal Stocks, or ``GAMMS,'' workshop)
to review the guidelines and to recommend changes to them, if
appropriate. Workshop participants included representatives from NMFS,
FWS, the Commission, and the three regional scientific review groups
(SRGs). The report of that workshop (Wade and Angliss, 1997) summarized
the discussion at the workshop and contained revised guidelines. The
revised guidelines represented minor changes from the initial version.
The revised guidelines were made available for public review and
comment along with revised stock assessment reports on January 21, 1997
(62 FR 3005) and later finalized.
In September 2003, NMFS again convened a workshop (referred to as
GAMMS II) to review guidelines for SARs and again recommend minor
changes to the guidelines. Participants at the workshop included
representatives of NMFS, FWS, the Commission, and the regional SRGs.
Changes to the guidelines resulting from the 2003 workshop were
directed primarily toward identifying population stocks and estimating
PBR for declining stocks of marine mammals. The revised guidelines were
made available for public review and comment on November 18, 2004 (69
FR 67541), and the revisions were completed and finalized on June 20,
2005 (70 FR 35397).
In February 2011, NMFS convened another workshop (referred to as
GAMMS III) to review guidelines for preparing SARs and again recommends
changes to the guidelines. Participants at the workshop included
representatives from NMFS, FWS, the Commission, and the three regional
SRGs. NMFS solicits public comments on the draft revisions to the
guidelines for preparing SARs, contained in Appendix IV of the GAMMS
III workshop report. The GAMMS III workshop report is available at
https://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/sars/. Below are brief summaries of the
recommended revisions to the guidelines based on the most recent
workshop.
Revisions to Guidelines
The objectives of the GAMMS III workshop were to (1) consider
methods for assessing stock status (i.e., how to apply the Potential
Biological Removal framework, or PBR) when abundance data are outdated,
nonexistent, or only partially available; (2) develop policies on stock
identification and application of PBR to small stocks, transboundary
stocks, and situations where stocks mix; and (3) develop consistent
national approaches to a variety of other issues, including reporting
mortality and serious injury (M&SI) information in assessments. Nine
specific topics were discussed at the workshop. The deliberations of
these nine topics resulted in a series of suggested modifications to
the current Report guidelines (NMFS, 2005). The report of the GAMMS III
workshop includes summaries of the presentations and discussions for
each of the agenda topics, as well as suggested revisions to the
guidance document for preparing Reports. Appendices of the workshop
report provide a variety of supporting documents, including the full
suggested text revision of the Guidelines for Preparing the Stock
Assessment Reports (Appendix IV).
PBR calculations with outdated abundance estimates: For an
increasing number of marine mammal stocks, the most recent abundance
estimates are more than 8 years old. Under existing guidelines (NMFS,
2005), these are considered to be outdated and thus not used to
calculate PBR. The current practice is to consider the PBR for a stock
``undetermined'' after supporting survey information is more than eight
years old, unless there is compelling evidence that the stock has not
declined. However, ``undetermined'' PBR is confusing, does not support
management decisions, and may be interpreted in such a way that there
is no limit to the level of allowable mortality. The following
revisions to calculate PBRs for stocks with old abundance information
are: (1) During years 1-8 after the most recent abundance survey,
``uncertainty projections'' will be used, based on uniform distribution
assumptions, to
[[Page 3452]]
serially reduce the Nmin estimate by a small increment each
year; (2) After 8 years, and assuming no new estimate of abundance has
become available, then a worst-case scenario is assumed (i.e., a
plausible 10 percent decline per year since the most recent survey),
and so a retroactive 10 percent decline per year is applied; and (3) If
data to estimate a population trend model are available, such a model
can be used to influence the uncertainty projections during the first 8
years.
Improving stock identification: For most marine mammal species, few
stock definition changes have been made since the initial SARs were
written. Most stocks were defined at scales that were larger than major
eco-regions, suggesting that the scale is likely too large. A
recommended addition to the guidelines is the direction that each
Report will state in the ``Stock Definition and Geographic Range''
section whether it is plausible the stock contains multiple
demographically independent populations that should be separate stocks,
along with a brief rationale. If additional structure is plausible and
human-caused mortality or serious injury is concentrated within a
portion of the range of the stock, the Reports should identify the
portion of the range in which the mortality or serious injury occurs.
Assessment of very small stocks: The PBR estimate for some stocks
may be very small (just a few animals or even less than one). In such
cases, low levels of observer coverage may introduce substantial small-
sample bias in bycatch estimates. A draft revision to the guidelines is
the inclusion of a table that provides recommendations for the amount
of sampling effort (observer coverage and/or number of years of data
pooling) required to limit small-sample bias, given a certain PBR
level, in the Technical Details section of the SARs guidelines.
Further, if suggested sampling goals (per the table) cannot be met,
then mortality should be estimated and reported, but the estimates
should be qualified in the SARs by stating they very well could be
biased.
Assessment of small endangered stocks: Some endangered species,
like Hawaiian monk seals, are declining with little to no direct human-
caused mortality and the stock's dynamics therefore do not conform to
the underlying model for calculating PBR. Thus, PBR estimates for some
endangered species stocks have not been included, or have been
considered ``undetermined'' in SARs. In such cases, if feasible, PBR
should still be calculated and included in the SARs to comply with the
MMPA, but a draft revision to the guidelines is that Report authors may
depart from these guidelines if sound reasons are given in the SAR.
Apportioning PBR across feeding aggregations, allocating mortality
for mixed stocks, and estimating PBR for transboundary stocks: In some
cases, mortality and serious injury occur in areas where more than one
stock of marine mammals occur. The draft revised guidelines specify
that when biological information is sufficient to identify the stock
from which a dead or seriously injured animal came, the mortality or
serious injury should be associated only with that stock. When one or
more deaths or serious injuries cannot be assigned directly to a stock,
then those deaths or serious injuries may be partitioned among stocks
within the appropriate geographic area, provided there is sufficient
information to support such partitioning (e.g., based on the relative
abundances of stocks within the area). The Reports will contain a
discussion of the potential for over or under-estimating stock-specific
mortality and serious injury. In cases where mortalities and serious
injuries cannot be assigned directly to a stock and available
information is not sufficient to support partitioning those deaths and
serious injuries among stocks, the draft revised guidelines state that
the total unassigned mortality and serious injuries should be assigned
to each stock within the appropriate geographic area. When deaths and
serious injuries are assigned to each overlapping stock in this manner,
the Reports will contain a discussion of the potential for over-
estimating stock-specific mortality and serious injury.
NMFS strengthened the language in the draft guidelines regarding
trans-boundary stocks, cautioning against extrapolating abundance
estimates from one surveyed area to another unsurveyed area to estimate
range-wide PBR. However, informed interpolation (e.g.,. based on
habitat associations) may be used, as appropriate and supported by
existing data, to fill gaps in survey coverage and estimate abundance
and PBR over broader areas. If estimates of mortality or abundance from
outside the U.S. EEZ cannot be determined, PBR calculations should be
based on abundance in the EEZ and compared to mortality within the EEZ.
Clarifying reporting of mortality and serious injury incidental to
commercial fishing: Currently, SARs do not consistently summarize
mortality and serious injury incidental to commercial fishing. The
draft revised guidelines specify that SARs include a summary of all
human-caused mortality and serious injury including information on all
sources of mortality and serious injury. Additionally, a summary of
mortality and serious injury incidental to U.S. commercial fisheries
should be presented in a table, while mortality and serious injury from
other sources (e.g., recreational fisheries, other sources of M&SI
within the U.S. EEZ, foreign fisheries on the high seas) should be
clearly distinguished from U.S. commercial fishery-related mortality.
Finally, the draft revised guidelines contain the addition of a
subsection entitled ``Summary of the most important potential Human-
caused Mortality and Serious Injury threats that are unquantified'' in
the SARs, and the SARs should also indicate if there are no known major
sources of unquantifiable human-caused mortality and serious injury.
When stock declines are sufficient for a strategic designation:
There is no formal process to periodically evaluate the depleted status
of non-ESA listed marine mammal stocks, and the current Report
guidelines (NMFS, 2005) do not provide any guidance for recommending
that a stock be designated as depleted. Therefore, the draft revised
guidelines include the following: ``Stocks that have evidence
suggesting at least a 50 percent decline, either based on previous
abundance estimates or historical abundance estimated by back-
calculation, should be noted in the Status of Stocks section as likely
to be below OSP. The choice of 50 percent does not mean that OSP is at
50 percent of historical numbers, but rather that a population below
this level would be below OSP with high probability. Similarly, a stock
that has increased back to levels pre-dating the known decline may be
within OSP; however, additional analyses may determine a population is
within OSP prior to reaching historical levels.''
Additionally, the draft revised guidelines include the following
clarification: ``A stock shall be designated as strategic if it is
declining and has a greater than 50 percent probability of a continuing
decline of at least 5 percent per year. Such a decline, if not stopped,
would result in a 50 percent decline in 15 years and would likely lead
to the stock being listed as threatened. The estimate of trend should
be based on data spanning at least 8 years. Alternative thresholds for
decline rates and duration, as well as alternative data criteria, may
also be used if sufficient rationale is provided to indicate that the
decline is likely to result in the stock being listed as threatened
within the foreseeable future. Stocks that have been designated as
[[Page 3453]]
strategic due to a population decline may be designated as non-
strategic if the decline is stopped and the stock is not otherwise
strategic.''
And finally, to the draft revised guidelines include the following
direction regarding recovery factors for declining stocks: ``A stock
that is strategic because, based on the best available scientific
information, it is declining and is likely to be listed as a threatened
species under the ESA within the foreseeable future (sec. 3(19)(B) of
the MMPA) should use a recovery factor between 0.1 and 0.5.''
Assessing stocks without abundance estimates or PBR: For many
stocks, data are so sparse that it is not possible to produce an
Nmin or therefore not possible to estimate PBR. When
mortality and/or population abundance estimates are unavailable, the
PBR approach cannot be used to assess populations, in spite of a
statutory mandate to do so. The draft revised guidelines include the
addition to the Status of Stocks section the following sentence:
``Likewise, trend monitoring can help inform the process of determining
strategic status.''
Characterizing uncertainty in key SAR elements: It is difficult to
infer the overall uncertainty for key parameters as they are currently
reported in the SARs. The draft revised guidelines direct that in the
Stock Definition and Geographic Range, Elements of the PBR Formula,
Population Trend, Annual Human-Caused Mortality and Serious Injury and
Status of the Stock sections, SAR authors are to provide a description
of key uncertainties associated with parameters in these sections and
evaluate the effects of these uncertainties in sufficient detail to
support a synthesis of how accurately stock status could be assessed.
Including non-serious injuries and disturbance in SARs: A final
draft revision to the guidelines is the addition that if there are no
known habitat issues or other factors causing a decline or impeding
recovery, this should be stated in the Status of Stocks section.
Dated: January 18, 2012.
James H. Lecky,
Director, Office of Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries
Service.
[FR Doc. 2012-1344 Filed 1-23-12; 8:45 am]
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