Department of Commerce June 3, 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Notice is hereby given that Natural Resource Scientists, Incorporated (NRS), P.O. Box 1210, Red Bluff, CA, 96080, has been issued a permit to take Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), Central Valley spring-run Chinook salmon (O. tshawytscha), and California steelhead (O. mykiss) for purposes of scientific research.

NMFS, upon application from the U.S. Navy (Navy), is issuing regulations to govern the unintentional taking of marine mammals, by harassment, incidental to missile launch operations from San Nicolas Island (SNI), California, for a 5-yr period. The Navy's activities are considered military readiness activities pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), as amended by the National Defense Authorization Act of 2004 (NDAA). These regulations, which allow for the issuance of ``Letters of Authorization'' (LOAs) for the incidental take of marine mammals during the described activities and specified time frames, prescribe the permissible methods of taking and other means of effecting the least practicable adverse impact on marine mammal species and their habitat, as well as requirements pertaining to the monitoring and reporting of such taking.

NMFS announces that the Elephant Trunk Scallop Access Area (ETAA) is closed effective 0001, June 1, 2009, to general category scallop vessels for the remainder of the 2009 fishing year. This action is based on the determination that allowing the ETAA to remain open when the Quarter II LAGC IFQ fishery opens on June 1, 2009, will result in an overrun of trip and catch quotas for that access area. This action is being taken to prevent the allocation of general category trips in the ETAA from being exceeded during the 2009 fishing year, in accordance with the regulations implementing Framework 19 to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan (FMP) and the Magnuson- Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.