Department of Commerce May 21, 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On April 18, 2012, we, NMFS, published a proposed rule in the Federal Register to restructure the funding and deployment system for observers in North Pacific groundfish and halibut fisheries via Amendment 86 to the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area (BSAI FMP) and Amendment 76 to the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish of the Gulf of Alaska (GOA FMP). The public comment period for the subject proposed rule closes on June 18, 2012. We will hold a public hearing in Seattle, WA, to receive oral and written comments on the proposed regulations during the public comment period.

Notice is hereby given that a permit has been issued to Robin Baird, Ph.D., Cascadia Research, 218\1/2\ W. 4th Avenue, Olympia, WA 98501, to conduct research on marine mammals in the Atlantic Ocean.

We, NMFS, intend to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), related to the Makah Indian Tribe's (Tribe) request that we authorize treaty right hunting of eastern North Pacific gray whales in usual and accustomed fishing grounds off the coast of Washington State. This notice briefly describes the background of the Makah Tribe's request for waiver, terminates a prior draft EIS (DEIS), and identifies and requests comments on a set of new potential alternatives currently under consideration.

The Department of Commerce (the Department) is amending its regulations concerning the revocation of antidumping and countervailing duty orders in whole or in part, and the termination of suspended antidumping and countervailing duty investigations. This rule eliminates the provision for revocation of an antidumping or countervailing duty order with respect to individual exporters or producers based on those individual exporters or producers having received antidumping rates of zero for three consecutive years, or countervailing duty rates of zero for five consecutive years.

The SEDAR assessment of the Gulf of Mexico stock of red snapper will consist of a series of three workshops: a Data Workshop, an Assessment Workshop, and a Review Workshop. This series of workshops will be referred to as SEDAR 31. See SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION.

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.

This rule revises the turtle excluder device (TED) requirements to allow the use of new materials and to modify existing approved TED designs. Specifically, this rule allows using flat bar, rectangular pipe, and oval pipe as construction material in currently- approved TED grids; using a brace bar on hard TEDs; increasing the maximum mesh size on escape flaps from 1\5/8\ to 2 inches (4.1 to 5.1 cm); including the Boone Big Boy TED for use in the shrimp fisheries; using three large TED and Boone Wedge Cut escape openings; and using the Chauvin shrimp deflector to improve shrimp retention. This rule also adds a TED for use in the summer flounder fishery. Additionally, the rule corrects the TED regulations to rectify an oversight regarding the maximum size chain that can be used on the Parker TED escape opening flap.