National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration October 1, 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Estuarine Reserves Division, Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, National Ocean Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Department of Commerce has approved the Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve Management Plan Revision.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Ocean Service publishes this notice of exception to the Final Guidelines for the Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program (CELCP). For those grants issued in fiscal year 2006 that are due to expire on September 30, 2009, NOAA may extend the financial assistance award period for up to 6 additional months, providing for a potential maximum award duration of three years and six months.

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council (Council) will convene public meetings.

NMFS issues this final rule to implement Amendment 7 to the Fishery Management Plan for the Shrimp Fishery of the South Atlantic Region (FMP), as prepared and submitted by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council). For South Atlantic rock shrimp, this final rule renames the rock shrimp permit and endorsement; requires all South Atlantic shrimp permit holders to provide economic data if selected; reinstates all limited access rock shrimp endorsements for those vessel owners who renewed their open access permit in the year in which they failed to renew their limited access endorsement; removes the 15,000-lb (6,804-kg) rock shrimp landing requirement; and reinstates all limited access rock shrimp endorsements lost due to not meeting the landing requirement. NMFS also implements several non- substantive changes in codified text through this final rule. NMFS also informs the public of the approval by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) of the collection-of-information requirement contained in this final rule and publishes the OMB control number for that collection. The intended effect of this final rule is to improve data collection, reduce permit confusion, and maintain a viable rock shrimp fishery in the South Atlantic region.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is proposing to revise its regulations on the introduction of introduced species into the Gulf of the Farallones and Monterey Bay national marine sanctuaries (GFNMS and MBNMS, respectively). This action is being taken in response to a letter received by the Governor of California on December 23, 2008. The Governor certified that the terms of designation to regulate introduced species in these sanctuaries were unacceptable in State waters of the sanctuaries. In response to the Governor's letter, NOAA is proposing to modify its regulations to except all State-permitted aquaculture activities in the two sanctuaries.