Department of Commerce January 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Commerce, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

On December 8, 2010, NOAA published a proposed rule in the Federal Register to amend the low overflight regulations of the Channel Islands, Monterey Bay, Gulf of the Farallones, and Olympic Coast national marine sanctuaries. Specifically, NOAA proposes to amend the regulations requiring that motorized aircraft maintain certain minimum altitudes above specified locations within the boundaries of the listed sanctuaries; and state that failure to comply with these altitude limits is presumed to disturb marine mammals or seabirds and is a violation of the sanctuary regulations.

In accordance with section 751(c) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (``the Act''), the Department of Commerce (``the Department'') is automatically initiating a five-year review (``Sunset Review'') of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders listed below. The International Trade Commission (``the Commission'') is publishing concurrently with this notice its notice of Institution of Five-Year Review which covers the same orders.

NMFS, Southeast Region, in collaboration with the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council), intends to prepare an EIS to describe and analyze a range of alternatives for management actions to be included in Amendment 21 to the Snapper-Grouper Fishery Management Plan for the South Atlantic Region (Amendment 21). These alternatives will consider several management approaches for limiting effort in the snapper-grouper fishery, including: trip limits, endorsements, cooperatives, catch shares, regional quotas, and State- by-State quotas. The purpose of this amendment is to rationalize effort in the commercial snapper-grouper fishery in order to achieve and maintain optimum yield (OY), prevent overfishing, and rebuild overfished stocks. Rationalizing effort is expected to mitigate some of the problems resulting from derby fishing conditions or at least prevent the condition from becoming more severe. The purpose of this NOI is to solicit public comments on the scope of issues to be addressed in the EIS.

NMFS, Southeast Region, in collaboration with the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council), intends to prepare an EIS to describe and analyze a range of alternatives for management actions to be included in an amendment to the Fishery Management Plan for the Snapper-Grouper Fishery of the South Atlantic Region (FMP). These alternatives will consider measures to establish a long-term red snapper fishery management program in the South Atlantic to optimize yield and rebuild the stock, while minimizing socioeconomic impacts. More specifically, these alternatives will consider the elimination of harvest restrictions on red snapper as the stock increases in biomass. The purpose of this NOI is to solicit public comments on the scope of issues to be addressed in the EIS.

NMFS is reallocating projected unused amounts of Pacific cod among multiple sectors in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area. These actions are necessary to allow the 2010 total allowable catch of Pacific cod to be harvested.

The SEDAR assessments of the Gulf of Mexico stocks of yellowedge grouper and tilefish will consist of a series of workshops and webinars: a Data Workshop, a series of Assessment webinars, and a Review Workshop.