National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration January 11, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) and its advisory committees will hold public meetings February 7 through February 15, 2005 at the Renaissance Madison Hotel, 515 Madison Street, Seattle, Washington.

NMFS issues a final rule to remove two technical revisions made in an April 2003 final rule to the northern right whale (Eubalaena sp.) listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The technical revisions purported to change: the way right whales are listed by splitting the endangered northern right whale into two separate endangered species - North Pacific right whale and North Atlantic right whale; the definition of ``right whale'' as it applies to the right whale approach regulations; and the section heading for right whale critical habitat. NMFS has determined that issuance of the 2003 final rule did not comply with the requirements of the ESA. This final rule corrects these mistakes by removing these technical revisions to 50 CFR and reinstating the language that existed before April 2003.

NMFS will be preparing an EIS to analyze the potential impacts of applying new criteria in guidelines to determine what constitutes a ``take'' of a marine mammal under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) and Endangered Species Act (ESA) as a result of exposure to anthropogenic noise in the marine environment. This notice describes the proposed action and possible alternatives and also describes the proposed scoping process.