Fish and Wildlife Service August 29, 2014 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), have received applications from Apache Alaska Corporation (Apache), SAExploration, Inc., LLC (SAE), and BlueCrest Energy, Inc. (BlueCrest), formerly Buccaneer Alaska Operations, LLC, for authorization under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 (MMPA), as amended, to take small numbers of northern sea otters from the Southcentral stock by harassment incidental to proposed oil and gas exploration activities in Cook Inlet, Alaska. In accordance with provisions of the MMPA, we request comments on our proposed authorization for the applicant to incidentally take, by harassment, small numbers of northern sea otters from the Southcentral stock for a period of 1 year. We anticipate no take by injury or death and include none in this proposed authorization, which would be for take by harassment only.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), determine threatened species status under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (Act), as amended, for Oregon spotted frog (Rana pretiosa), an amphibian species from British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and California. The effect of this regulation will be to add this species to the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife.