Department of Commerce March 14, 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

NMFS announces that the Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) has submitted Amendment 2 to the Fishery Management Plan for U.S. West Coast Fisheries for Highly Migratory Species (HMS FMP) for Secretarial review. Amendment 2 would modify the current suite of management unit species, establish a new category of ecosystem component species, modify the process for revising numerical estimates of maximum sustainable yield and optimal yield, and specify status determination criteria so that overfishing and overfished determinations can be made for all management unit species.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council submitted Amendment 34 to the Fishery Management Plan for Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands King and Tanner Crabs to NMFS for review. If approved, Amendment 34 would amend the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Crab Rationalization Program to exempt additional recipients of crab quota share from Gulf of Alaska Pacific cod and pollock harvest limits, called sideboards, which apply to some vessels and license limitation program licenses that are used to participate in these fisheries. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council determined that these additional recipients demonstrated a sufficient level of historical participation in Gulf of Alaska Pacific cod or pollock fisheries, and that they should be exempt from the current sideboards. This action is necessary to give these recipients an opportunity to participate in the Gulf of Alaska Pacific cod and pollock fisheries at historical levels. This action is intended to promote the goals and objectives of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the Fishery Management Plan for Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands King and Tanner Crabs, and other applicable laws.

Notice is hereby given that Craig Matkin, North Gulf Oceanic Society, Homer, AK, has been issued a permit to conduct research on marine mammals.

As a result of the determinations by the Department of Commerce (``Department'') and the International Trade Commission (``ITC'') that revocation of the antidumping duty order on porcelain- on-steel cooking ware (``POS cookware'') from the People's Republic of China (``PRC'') would likely lead to a continuation or recurrence of dumping and material injury to an industry in the United States, the Department is publishing a notice of continuation of the antidumping duty order.

The Western Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) will hold a Western Pacific Stock Assessment Review (WPSAR).

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is preparing a preliminary plan to review its existing significant regulations in response to the President's Executive Order 13563 on Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review. The purpose of NOAA's review is to make the agency's regulatory program more effective and less burdensome in achieving its regulatory objectives by identifying those regulations that should be modified, streamlined, expanded or repealed. NOAA is asking for ideas and information from the public in preparing its preliminary plan explaining how it will conduct such a review.