Department of Commerce December 23, 2010 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

NMFS has received an application, pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), from the Alaska Aerospace Corporation (AAC) for authorization to take small numbers of marine mammals incidental to launching space launch vehicles, long-range ballistic target missiles, and other smaller missile systems at the Kodiak Launch Complex (KLC) for the period of February 2011 through February 2016. Pursuant to the MMPA, NMFS is requesting comments on its proposal to issue regulations and subsequent Letters of Authorization (LOAs) to AAC to incidentally harass Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus) and harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) during the specified activity.

This final rule implements addenda to add exemptions from certain Federal fishing regulations to some or all Northeast (NE) multispecies sector operations plans that were previously approved by the final sector rule published April 9, 2010. That rule approved FY 2010 sector operations plans and contracts for, and made allocations of Annual Catch Entitlements (ACE) to, 17 sectors in the NE multispecies fishery. In addition, this action approves an exemption functionally equivalent to the Gulf of Maine (GOM) Haddock Sink Gillnet Pilot Program for FY 2010 sectors (proposed in Amendment 16 to the NE Multispecies Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for both common pool and sector vessels, but disapproved by NMFS), since this program would be more controlled for sectors and unlikely to compromise efforts to eliminate overfishing and rebuild overfished stocks. The exemptions are intended to provide additional flexibility and improve profitability for sector vessels.

On June 18, 2010, the Department of Commerce (``Department'') published in the Federal Register the preliminary results in the 2008- 2009 antidumping duty administrative review of pure magnesium from the People's Republic of China (``PRC'').\1\ The period of review (``POR'') is May 1, 2008, through April 30, 2009. We initiated an administrative review of the antidumping order on pure magnesium from the PRC with respect to Tianjin Magnesium International Co., Ltd. (``TMI''), Tianjin Xianghaiqi Resources Import & Export Trade Co., Ltd. (``TXR''), and Pan Asia Magnesium Co., Ltd. (``Pan Asia''). Because neither TXR nor Pan Asia responded to the Department's antidumping duty questionnaire, we determined that they were not entitled to a separate rate in the Preliminary Results and included them in the PRC-Wide Entity.\2\ We determined that TMI, the only responsive respondent in this proceeding, made sales in the United States at prices below normal value (``NV''). We invited interested parties to comment on our Preliminary Results. Based on our analysis of the comments received, we made changes to the margin calculations for TMI. The final dumping margin for this review is listed in the ``Final Results Margins'' section below.

The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council) will hold a series of public hearings regarding Regulatory Amendment 9 to the Snapper Grouper Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for the South Atlantic Region, a Comprehensive Annual Catch Limit (ACL) Amendment, and its Comprehensive Ecosystem-Based Amendment 2. The Council will also conduct scoping meetings regarding Amendments 21, 22, and 24 to the Snapper Grouper FMP and Amendment 5 to the Golden Crab Fishery Management Plan for the South Atlantic Region. See SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION.

The New England Fishery Management Council's (Council) Groundfish Committee will meet to consider actions affecting New England fisheries in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ).