National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration June 22, 2018 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Commerce, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

NMFS issues regulations to implement management measures described in a framework action to the Fishery Management Plan for the Reef Fish Resources of the Gulf of Mexico (FMP), as prepared by the Gulf of Mexico (Gulf) Fishery Management Council (Council). This final rule revises the mutton snapper commercial and recreational minimum size limits, the recreational bag limit, and the stock annual catch limit (ACL). In addition, this final rule revises the gag commercial minimum size limit. The purposes of this final rule are to reduce harvest of mutton snapper to prevent overfishing while also achieving optimum yield (OY), and streamline management measures to help increase compliance with the fishing regulations for mutton snapper and gag in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the Gulf off Florida.

NMFS has received a petition for an incidental take regulation (ITR) from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). The requested ITR would govern the authorization of take of small numbers of marine mammals over the course of five years incidental to geophysical survey activities conducted by industry operators in Federal waters of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico (GOM). BOEM submitted the petition in support of oil and gas industry operators, who would conduct the activities. A final ITR would allow for the issuance of Letters of Authorization (LOA) to the aforementioned industry operators over a five-year period. As required by the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), NMFS requests comments on its proposed rule, including the following; the proposed regulations, several alternatives to the proposed regulations described in the ``Proposed Mitigation'' and ``Alternatives for Consideration'' sections of the preamble, two baselines against which to evaluate the incremental economic impacts of the proposed regulations (addressed in the ``Economic Baseline'' section), and, two sections with broader implications: A clarification of NMFS's interpretation and application of the ``small numbers'' standard (see the ``Small Numbers'' section of the preamble); and an alternative method for assessing Level B harassment from exposure to anthropogenic noise (see the ``Estimated Take'' section of the preamble).