Department of Commerce June 7, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

NMFS has received an application from Shell Offshore, Inc. (SOI) and WesternGeco for an Incidental Harassment Authorization (IHA) to take small numbers of marine mammals, by harassment, incidental to conducting marine geophysical programs, including deep seismic surveys, on oil and gas lease blocks located on Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) waters in the mid and eastern Beaufort and on pre-lease areas in the Northern Chukchi Sea. Under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), NMFS is requesting comments on its proposal to issue an IHA to SOI and WesternGeco to incidentally take, by harassment, small numbers of several species of marine mammals between mid-July and November, 2007 incidental to conducting seismic surveys.

NMFS will present an additional public workshop in June 2007 on the proposed program to implement the Amendment 80 Program (Program) for potentially eligible participants and other interested parties. The Program would implement a limited access privilege program (LAPP) for specific groundfish fisheries in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area (BSAI). At the workshop, NMFS will provide an overview of the proposed Program, discuss the key proposed Program elements, and answer questions. NMFS is conducting this public workshop to provide assistance to fishery participants in understanding and reviewing this proposed Program.

This final rule amends regulations governing the North Atlantic swordfish fishery to provide additional opportunities for U.S. vessels to more fully utilize the U.S. North Atlantic swordfish quota, in recognition of the improved stock status of the species. The U.S. North Atlantic swordfish quota is derived from the recommendations of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), and is implemented under the authority of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act) and the Atlantic Tunas Convention Act (ATCA). For the past several years, the United States has not fully harvested its available North Atlantic swordfish quota. This final rule will increase swordfish retention limits for Incidental swordfish permit holders, and modify recreational swordfish retention limits for HMS Charter/Headboat (CHB) and Angling category permit holders. It will also modify HMS limited access vessel upgrading restrictions for vessels concurrently issued certain HMS permits. These actions are necessary to address persistent underharvests of the domestic North Atlantic swordfish quota, while continuing to minimize bycatch to the extent practicable, so that swordfish are harvested in a sustainable, yet economically viable manner.