Department of Commerce July 23, 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This notice is provided to cancel the July 25, 2008 public hearing that was to be held by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Irvine, California regarding the appeal filed with the Department of Commerce by the Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency (TCA). The public hearing was noticed in the Federal Register on July 8, 2008, and is being canceled because the venue that had agreed to serve as the site for the hearingthe Bren Events Center of the University of California, Irvinehas withdrawn its agreement to do so. The public and Federal agency comment period for the TCA Consistency Appeal will remain open July 21, 2008 through August 4, 2008.

In accordance with the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) regulations, notification is hereby given that NMFS has issued an Incidental Harassment Authorization (IHA) to the University of Texas, Institute for Geophysics (UTIG) for the take of marine mammals, by Level B harassment only, incidental to conducting a low-energy marine seismic survey in the northeastern Pacific Ocean during June-July, 2008.

NMFS announces that anyone who enters the pelagic longline fishery in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) after June 19, 2008 (the ``control date''), is not guaranteed future participation in the fishery if the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) recommends, and NMFS approves, a program that limits entry into the fishery, or other fishery management measures. The Council is concerned about potentially-uncontrolled expansion of the CNMI-based pelagic longline fishery and the potential resultant interactions with and impacts on small-boat pelagic fisheries and localized depletion of pelagic fish stocks.

NMFS is prohibiting directed fishing for Pacific ocean perch in the Western Regulatory Area of the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). This action is necessary to prevent exceeding the 2008 total allowable catch (TAC) of Pacific ocean perch in the Western Regulatory Area of the GOA.

NMFS is prohibiting directed fishing for pelagic shelf rockfish by catcher processors participating in the limited access or opt-out fisheries that are subject to sideboard limits established under the Central GOA Rockfish Program in the West Yakutat District of the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). This action is necessary to prevent exceeding the 2008 sideboard limits of pelagic shelf rockfish established for catcher processors participating in the limited access or opt-out fisheries in the West Yakutat District of the GOA.