National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration March 16, 2020 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Pacific Fishery Management Council's (Pacific Council) Ad Hoc Sablefish Management and Trawl Allocation Attainment Committee (SaMTAAC) will hold a webinar meeting, which will be open to the public.

The New England Fishery Management Council (Council) is scheduling a joint public meeting of its Ecosystem-Based Fishery Management (EBFM) Committee and Plan Development Team to consider actions affecting New England fisheries in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Recommendations from this group will be brought to the full Council for formal consideration and action, if appropriate.

NMFS has received a request from Virginia Electric and Power Company, d/b/a Dominion Energy Virginia (Dominion), for authorization to take marine mammals incidental to conducting construction activities off the coast of Virginia in the area of Research Lease of Submerged Lands for Renewable Energy Activities on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Offshore Virginia (Lease No. OCS-A-0497), in support of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) Project. Pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), NMFS is requesting comments on its proposal to issue an incidental harassment authorization (IHA) to incidentally take marine mammals during the specified activities. NMFS is also requesting comments on a possible one-year renewal that could be issued under certain circumstances and if all requirements are met, as described in Request for Public Comments at the end of this notice. NMFS will consider public comments prior to making any final decision on the issuance of the requested MMPA authorizations and agency responses will be summarized in the final notice of our decision.

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 comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

NMFS is closing the commercial fishery for the aggregated large coastal sharks (LCS) and hammerhead shark management groups in the western Gulf of Mexico sub-region. This action is necessary because the commercial landings of sharks in the aggregated LCS management group in the western Gulf of Mexico sub-region for the 2020 fishing season are projected to reach 80 percent of the available commercial quota, and are projected to reach 100 percent of the quota by the end of the fishing season, and the aggregated LCS and hammerhead shark management groups are quota-linked under the regulations. This closure will affect anyone commercially fishing for sharks in the western Gulf of Mexico sub-region.