Department of Commerce October 24, 2013 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

NMFS, upon application from the City of Seattle's Department of Transportation (SDOT), is issuing regulations to govern the unintentional taking of marine mammals incidental to construction associated with the replacement of the Elliott Bay Seawall in Seattle, Washington, for the period October 2013 to October 2018. These regulations allow for the issuance of Letters of Authorization (LOAs) for the incidental take of marine mammals during the described activities and specified timeframes, and prescribe the permissible methods of taking and other means of effecting the least practicable adverse impact on marine mammal species or stocks and their habitat, as well as requirements pertaining to the monitoring and reporting of any takings.

Effective 1200 hr, October 24, 2013, federally permitted vessels may not fish for, catch, possess, transfer, or land more than 2,000 lb (907.2 kg) of Atlantic herring (herring) per trip or calendar day in or from Management Area 3 until January 1, 2014, when the 2014 allocation for Area 3 becomes available. This action is required because NMFS projects that 92 percent of the catch limit for that area was caught as of October 18, 2013. Vessels that have entered port before 1200 hr, October 24, 2013, may possess, offload, and sell more than 2,000 lb of herring from Area 3, from that trip. Also effective 1200 hr, October 24, 2013, federally permitted dealers may not receive more than 2,000 lb (907.2 kg) of herring caught within Management Area 3 per trip or calendar day, unless it is from a trip landed by a vessel that entered port before 1200 hr, October 24, 2013.

We, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), propose a rule to designate and authorize the release of a nonessential experimental population (NEP) of Upper Columbia River spring-run (UCR) Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) under section 10(j) of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in the Okanogan River subbasin, and to establish a limited set of take prohibitions for the NEP. Under the proposed rule, the geographic boundary for the NEP would be the mainstem and all tributaries of the Okanogan River between the Canada- United States border and to the confluence of the Okanogan River with the Columbia River, Washington (hereafter ``Okanogan River NEP Area''). We have prepared a draft environmental assessment (EA) on this proposed action. We seek comment on both this proposed rule and the EA (see ADDRESSES section below).