National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration May 10, 2017 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council (Council) will hold a public hearing via webinar to solicit public comments on Draft Reef Fish Amendment 44Minimum Stock Size Threshold for Reef Fish Stocks.

The New England Fishery Management Council will hold six public hearings and one webinar to solicit comments on the Omnibus Deep Sea Coral Amendment.

The New England Fishery Management Council (Council) is scheduling a joint public meeting of its Monkfish Advisory Panel on Tuesday, May 23, 2017, 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.

We, NMFS, issue a final rule to list six foreign marine elasmobranch species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). These six species are the daggernose shark (Isogomphodon oxyrhynchus), Brazilian guitarfish (Rhinobatos horkelii), striped smoothhound shark (Mustelus fasciatus), narrownose smoothhound shark (Mustelus schmitti), spiny angelshark (Squatina guggenheim), and Argentine angelshark (Squatina argentina). We are publishing this final rule to implement our final determination to list the daggernose shark, Brazilian guitarfish, striped smoothhound shark, spiny angelshark and Argentine angelshark as endangered species under the ESA, and the narrownose smoothhound shark as a threatened species under the ESA. We have reviewed the status of these six species, including efforts being made to protect these species, and considered public comments submitted on the proposed rule as well as new information received since publication of the proposed rule. We have made our final determinations based on the best scientific and commercial data available. We will not designate critical habitat for any of these species because the geographical areas occupied by these species are entirely outside U.S. jurisdiction, and we have not identified any unoccupied areas within U.S. jurisdiction that are essential to the conservation of any of these species.