Department of Commerce April 19, 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to comment on the continuing information collection, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Act of 1996, Public Law 104-13 (44 U.S.C 3506(c)(2)(A)).

NMFS has received an application from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (Lamont-Doherty) in collaboration with the National Science Foundation (NSF), for an Incidental Harassment Authorization (Authorization) to take marine mammals, by harassment only, incidental to conducting three marine geophysical (seismic) surveys in the southeast Pacific Ocean, in the latter half of 2016 and/or the beginning half of 2017. The proposed dates are between June 2016 and June 2017, to account for logistical and scheduling needs of the applicant. Per the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), we are requesting comments on our proposal to issue an Authorization to Lamont-Doherty to incidentally take, by level B harassment, 44 species of marine mammal during the specified activity and to incidentally take, by Level A harassment, 26 species of marine mammals. Although considered unlikely, any Level A harassment potentially incurred would be expected to be in the form of some smaller degree of permanent hearing loss due in part to the required monitoring measures for detecting marine mammals and required mitigation measures for power downs or shut downs of the airgun array if any animal is likely to enter the Level A exclusion zone. NMFS does not expect any serious injury, mortality, or deafness to occur in marine mammals as a result of this proposed survey.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announces that the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Advisory Board will hold an open meeting on Thursday May 19, 2016, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.