Department of Commerce October 25, 2013 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Pursuant to its emergency authority, NMFS extends and revises an emergency action that temporarily suspended and modified monkfish landing limits for vessels issued a Federal limited access monkfish Category C or D fishing under a Northeast multispecies day-at-sea, or both a Northeast multispecies and monkfish day-at-sea, in the monkfish Northern Fishery Management Area. This action is necessary to help mitigate expected adverse economic and social harm resulting from substantial reductions to the 2013 annual catch limits for several stocks managed under the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan. The intent is to provide additional fishing opportunities for vessels affected by recent reductions to Northeast multispecies annual catch limits, without resulting in overfishing monkfish within the Northern or Southern Fishery Management Areas.

The Manufacturing Council will hold a meeting to discuss the work the Council will focus on for the remainder of its term. At the meeting, the Council will hear updates from its four subcommittees on workforce development and public perception of manufacturing; manufacturing energy policy; tax policy and export growth; and innovation, research and development. The Council will discuss current workforce development efforts by the federal government, the importance of alternative energy technologies for manufacturers, the effects of current tax policies on manufacturers, and the importance of continued research and development for the manufacturing industry. A final agenda will be available on the Council's Web site one week prior to the meeting. The Council was re-chartered on April 5, 2012, to advise the Secretary of Commerce on government programs and policies that affect U.S. manufacturing and provide a means of ensuring regular contact between the U.S. Government and the manufacturing sector.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) seeks comments on draft NISTIR 7628 Rev. 1, Guidelines for Smart Grid Cyber Security. Draft NISTIR 7628 Rev. 1 was completed by the NIST-led Smart Grid Cybersecurity Committee (formerly the Cyber Security Working Group) of the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel. The document has been updated to address changes in technologies and implementations since the release of NISTIR 7628 in September 2010. In addition, the document development strategy, cryptography and key management, privacy, vulnerability classes, research and development topics, standards review, and key power system use cases have been updated and expanded to reflect changes in the Smart Grid environment since 2010. The final version is expected to be posted in the fall of 2013.

NOAA has typically updated tidal datum elevations for the nation to new National Tidal Datum Epoch (NTDE) time periods every 20- 25 years. Updates are necessary due to long-term sea level change. In 1998, NOS recognized the need for a modified procedure for determination of tidal datums for regions with anomalously high rates of relative sea level change. This modified procedure is necessary at selected stations to ensure that the tidal datums accurately represent the existing stand of sea level. The procedure is limited only to those stations in areas with high rates of vertical land motion that have documented anomalous relative sea level trends exceeding 9.0 millimeters per year. Sea level analyses in these anomalous regions are conducted approximately every 5 years to determine if the mean sea level difference exceeds the established threshold tolerances in order to qualify for a special update. Anomalous relative sea level trends are seen along the western Gulf Coast, southeast Alaska, and southern Cook Inlet, AK. For example, the magnitude of the sea level trends in these areas is +9.24 millimeters per year in Grand Isle, LA; -12.92 millimeters per year in Juneau, AK; and -9.45 millimeters per year in Seldovia, AK. This procedure is necessary to provide the most accurate information available for applications that are essential to supporting Federal, State and private sector coastal zone activities, including hydrographic surveys and coastal mapping, navigational safety, wetland restoration, marine boundary determinations, coastal engineering, storm warnings and hazard mitigation, emergency management, and hydrodynamic modeling. While maintaining the 19 year NTDE computational period for tidal mean range and diurnal range, a shorter more recent 5 year computational period is used to compute the mean tide level datums to better reflect the current elevation of mean sea level relative to the land. Consequently, tidal datums at stations exhibiting anomalous trends are computed from mean sea level, diurnal tide level and mean tide level values for the most recent 5 year time period, and tidal ranges (GT and MN) based on the most recent full 19 year NTDE at stations. The average absolute difference between 19 year NTDE time periods across the nation of 0.03 meters (0.10 foot) is generally used as the threshold difference to warrant consideration of a 19 year NTDE update, and a 20-25 year review cycle has been adequate to capture the changes of 0.03-0.04 meters for most locations. To meet this target at locations with anomalous rates of sea level change, tidal datum elevation updates must occur more frequently. In general, the vertical changes in datum elevations which result from these more frequent special tidal datum updates every 5 years are kept as close to the 0.03 meters (0.10 foot) to 0.05 meter target as possible. In comparison to the overall accuracy of hydrographic- cartographic processes and scale and resolution and accuracy of soundings on the NOAA nautical charts, these elevations changes will not necessitate a correction or update to the charts every time a datum update is issued. However, in regions that have experienced rapid land movement, the changes to actual soundings and shoreline depiction may need to be updated on the next regularly scheduled chart edition. Although depictions of the datum changes will not be evident on the largest scale NOAA nautical charts, the datum changes will be noticeable when establishing or re-occupying tide stations using accepted surveying techniques and updating elevations on tidal bench marks provided by NOAA. Appropriate outreach will be conducted per office guidelines prior to performing each update.

We (NMFS) announce a 90-day finding on a petition to list 23 species of corals as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). We find that the petition presents substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that the petitioned action may be warranted for 3 species: Cantharellus noumeae, Siderastrea glynni, and Tubastraea floreana. Therefore, we will conduct status reviews of the three species to determine if the petitioned actions are warranted. To ensure that the status reviews are comprehensive, we are soliciting scientific and commercial information pertaining to these petitioned species from any interested party. We find that the petition does not present substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that the petitioned action may be warranted for 20 species: Acropora roseni, Acropora suharsonoi, Alveopora excelsa, Alveopora minuta, Ctenella chagius, Hydnophora bonsai, Isopora togianensis, Lithophyllon ranjithi, Lobophyllia serratus, Millepora boschmai, Millepora striata, Montipora setosa, Parasimplastrea sheppardi, Pectinia maxima, Pocillopora fungiformis, Porites desilveri, Porites eridani, Porites ornata, Rhizopsammia wellingtoni, and Stylophora madagascarensis.