National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration December 29, 2010 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Notice is hereby given that National Marine Fisheries Service, National Marine Mammal Laboratory (NMML), Alaska Fisheries Science Center (Dr. John Bengtson, Responsible Party), 7600 Sand Point Way, NE., Seattle, Washington 98115-6349, has applied in due form for a permit to conduct research on narwhals, Monodon monoceros.

We, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), announce the availability of a draft technical framework for ranking recovery potential of populations of Puget Sound Chinook salmon and watersheds supporting them. The draft framework relies on the best available scientific information regarding the status and structure of Puget Sound Chinook salmon populations and their habitat. It builds on the work of the Puget Sound technical recovery team, which provided the technical foundation of the Puget Sound Chinook recovery plan (NMFS 2006). The technical recovery team identified the population structure of Puget Sound Chinook and recommended biological recovery criteria (Ruckelshaus et al. 2002; 2006). It did not advise, however, on the relative roles of the various populations in achieving recovery and no such roles were identified in the recovery plan completed for the species. In contrast, technical teams that developed recovery criteria for other species of salmon in the Northwest did recommend roles for individual populations in recovery. Following adoption of the Puget Sound Chinook salmon recovery plan, we convened an internal technical team to analyze the role each population should play in recovery. The draft technical framework described in this notice represents the internal technical team's recommendations. This notice also describes potential management implications of the framework.

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council will convene a meeting of the Standing, Special Spiny Lobster and Special Reef Fish Scientific and Statistical Committees.

In accordance with the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), NMFS hereby issues a permit for a period of three years to authorize the incidental, but not intentional, taking of individuals from six marine mammal stocks listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by participants in several groundfish fisheries in the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska. This authorization is based on determinations that mortality and serious injury of endangered stocks of Central North Pacific (CNP) humpback whales, Western North Pacific (WNP) stock of humpback whales, Northeast Pacific (NEP) stock of fin whales, North Pacific stock of sperm whales, and Western U.S. stock of Steller sea lions; and on the threatened Eastern U.S. stock of Steller sea lions incidental to commercial fishing will have a negligible impact on these stocks, that recovery plans have been developed or are being prepared, that a monitoring program is established, and that vessels in the fisheries are registered. Take Reduction Plans (TRPs) are not required for the NEP stock of fin whales or the Eastern U.S. stock of Steller sea lions because mortality and serious injury of these stocks incidental to commercial fishing operations are at insignificant levels approaching a zero mortality and serious injury rate; TRPs for other species will be deferred as sufficient funding is not available at this time.