National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration August 5, 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

A major activity of the Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) is the production of a series of twenty-one Synthesis and Assessment Products (SAPs) that are designed to inform and aid decision making by policy makers, resource managers, stakeholders, the media, and the general public on issues related to global climate change. The Unified Synthesis Product (USP) Development Committee (USPDC), established by a Decision Memorandum on February 29, 2008, is the Federal Advisory Committee charged with responsibility to develop a draft USP that will synthesize the information contained in these 21 SAPs in the context of other recent climate and global change scientific studies and formal assessments.

NMFS announces the closure of the Nantucket Lightship Scallop Access Area (NLCA) to scallop vessels until June 15, 2010. This closure is based on a determination by the Northeast Regional Administrator (RA) that scallop vessels will have caught the yellowtail flounder (yellowtail) total allowable catch (TAC) for the NLCA on August 3, 2008. Effective 0001 hours, August 4, 2008, vessels may not fish for scallops in the NLCA. Vessels on a NLCA scallop trip at the time of this announcement must leave the NLCA prior to 0001 hour, August 4, 2008. This action is being taken to prevent the scallop fleet from exceeding the yellowtail TAC allocated to the NLCA for the 2008 scallop fishing year in accordance with the regulations implementing the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan (FMP), Northeast (NE) Multispecies FMP and the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.