National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration April 23, 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

We, the NMFS, have completed Endangered Species Act (ESA) status reviews for five species of rockfish (Sebastes spp.) occurring in Puget Sound, Washington, in response to a petition submitted by Mr. Sam Wright of Olympia, Washington, to list these species in Puget Sound as threatened or endangered species. We reviewed best available scientific and commercial information on the status of these five stocks and considered whether they are in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of their ranges, or are likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of their ranges. For bocaccio (S. paucispinis), we have determined that the members of this species in the Georgia Basin are a distinct population segment (DPS) and are endangered throughout all of their range. We propose to list this bocaccio DPS as endangered. We have determined that yelloweye rockfish (S. ruberrimus) and canary rockfish (S. pinniger) in the Georgia Basin are DPSs and are likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout all of their range. We propose to list the Georgia Basin DPSs of yelloweye and canary rockfish as threatened. We determined that populations of greenstriped rockfish (S. elongatus) and redstripe rockfish (S. proriger) occurring in Puget Sound Proper are DPSs but are not in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of their ranges or likely to become so in the foreseeable future. We find that listing the greenstriped rockfish Puget Sound Proper DPS and the redstripe rockfish Puget Sound Proper DPS is not warranted at this time.

NOAA and the Department of the Interior (DOI) invited federal, state, commonwealth, and territorial MPA programs with potentially eligible existing MPAs to nominate their sites to the national system of MPAs (national system). A total of 225 nominations were received. Following a 30-day public review period, 26 public comments were received by the National Marine Protected Areas Center and forwarded to the relevant managing agencies. After review of the public comments, managing agencies were asked to make a final determination of sites to nominate to the national system. All the nominations were confirmed by the managing agencies. Finding them to be eligible for the national system, the National Marine Protected Areas Center has accepted the nominations for 225 sites and placed them on the List of National System MPAs.