National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration October 5, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee (MAFAC or Committee) is the only Federal advisory committee with the responsibility to advise the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary) on all matters concerning living marine resources that are the responsibility of the Department of Commerce. The Committee makes recommendations to the Secretary to assist in the development and implementation of Departmental regulations, policies and programs critical to the mission and goals of the NMFS. Nominations are encouraged from all interested parties involved with or representing interests affected by NMFS actions in managing living marine resources. Nominees should possess demonstrable expertise in a field related to the management of living marine resources and be able to fulfill the time commitments required for two annual meetings. Individuals serve for a term of three years for no more than two consecutive terms if re-appointed. NMFS is seeking qualified nominees to fill a vacancy and bring the Committee to its full compliment of 21 members.

This proposed rule would establish the 2007 first trimester season quotas for large coastal sharks (LCS), small coastal sharks (SCS), and pelagic sharks. The proposed rule also would modify the existing mid-Atlantic shark closed area in 2007. In addition, this rule proposes the opening and closing dates for the LCS fishery based on adjustments to the trimester quotas. The intended effect of these proposed actions is to provide advance notice of quotas and season dates for the Atlantic commercial shark fishery and address over- and underharvests that occurred in the Atlantic shark fishery in the first trimester of 2006.

The National Geodetic Survey (NGS) will publish North American Datum of 1983 (NAD 83) State Plane Coordinate (SPC) grid values in both meters and U.S. Survey Feet (1 ft = 1200/3937 m) in Idaho, for all well-defined geodetic survey control monuments maintained by NGS in the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS) and computed from various geodetic positioning utilities. The adoption of this standard is implemented in accordance with NGS policy and a request from the Idaho Transportation Department, the Idaho Society of Professional Land Surveyors, and the Idaho Department of Administration GIS Coordinator.

On August 11, 2006, NOAA published a proposed rule in the Federal Register to establish marine reserves and marine conservation areas within the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary (Sanctuary). The preamble of that rule contained inconsistent or inaccurate figures denoting the current size of the Sanctuary that need to be corrected. This document corrects and clarifies those figures.