[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 161 (Friday, August 20, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 45514-45515]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-21594]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
[I.D. 081699A]
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Proposed Fishery
Management Plan (FMP) for the Coral Reef Ecosystem Fishery Management
Plan of the Western Pacific Region (Coral Reef Ecosystem FMP); EIS for
the FMP for the Bottomfish and Seamount Groundfish Fisheries of the
Western Pacific Region; (Bottomfish and Seamount Groundfish Fisheries
FMP)
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare EISs; request for comments; notice
of scoping meeting.
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SUMMARY: NOAA announces its intention to prepare an EIS in accordance
with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 for the proposed
Coral Reef Ecosystem FMP, and an EIS for the Bottomfish and Seamount
Groundfish Fisheries FMP. The Western Pacific Fishery Management
Council (Council) will hold a public scoping hearing in Kona, Hawaii,
on management alternatives to be analyzed under both EISs.
DATES: Written comments on the intent to prepare the EISs will be
accepted on or before September 10, 1999. A public scoping meeting is
scheduled for August 31, 1999.
ADDRESSES: Written comments on the intent to prepare the EISs or other
aspects of the scoping documents, which contain suggested alternatives
and potential impacts, should be sent to, and copies of the scoping
documents are available from, Kitty M. Simonds, Executive Director,
Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, 1164 Bishop St.,
Suite 1400, Honolulu, HI 96813, and to Charles Karnella, Administrator,
National Marine Fisheries Service, Pacific Islands Area Office, 1601
Kapiolani Blvd., Suite 1110, Honolulu HI 96814.
The following location and time have been set for the scoping
meeting: King Kamehameha's Kona Beach Hotel (phone 808-329-2911), 2-
Elua Room, August 31, 1999, 6-8 p.m. Phone contact 808-522-8220 for
information.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kitty M. Simonds, at 808-522-8220.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: A summary of the Coral Reef Ecosystem FMP
will be presented including initial
[[Page 45515]]
recommendations for management action, as described here. Comments will
be solicited from the public on these and any other management
alternatives the public cares to offer.
Management measures that might be adopted in the Coral Reef
Ecosystem FMP include permit and reporting requirements for non-
subsistence harvest of coral reef resources, marine protected areas to
ensure greater conservation and management to special locations (e.g.,
Penguin Bank, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands), allowable gear types to
harvest coral reef resources in the U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ,
3-200 miles (5.56 to 370.4 km) from shore in Hawaii and from most other
U.S. Pacific Islands), prohibition on use of gear in ways destructive
to habitat, and a framework management process to add future new
measures. The FMP would also include essential fish habitat and habitat
areas of particular concern, including fishing and non-fishing threats,
as well as other components of FMPs required under the Magnuson-Stevens
Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act). An
additional measure, still under consideration for possible inclusion,
is a ban on the possession or collection, for commercial purposes, of
wild live rock and coral (other than coral covered by the Fishery
Management Plan for the Precious Corals Fisheries of the Western
Pacific Region). The collection of live rock or coral for scientific
and research purposes and the collection of small amounts of live coral
as brood-stock for captive breeding/aquaculture would be allowed by
permit.
The Coral Reef Ecosystem FMP, and its associated EIS, would be the
Council's fifth FMP for the EEZ for all U.S. Pacific Islands. This area
includes nearly 11,000 km2 (4,000 square miles) of coral
reefs. Development of the Coral Reef Ecosystem FMP is timely,
considering such new mandates and initiatives as the April 1999 report
to Congress by the Ecosystem Principles Advisory Panel on Ecosystem-
Based Fishery Management, the President's 1998 Executive Order on Coral
Reefs (E.O. 13089), and priorities of the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force
and the U.S. Coral Reef Initiative, as well as the provisions of the
Magnuson-Stevens Act, as amended by the Sustainable Fisheries Act. The
draft Coral Reef Ecosystem FMP would describe the importance of coral
reef resources to Hawaii and the region and current and potential
threats that warrant an FMP at this time. Information regarding the
harvest of these resources in the EEZ is largely unknown. Potential for
unregulated harvest and bio-prospecting for reef fish, live grouper,
live rock and coral exists throughout the region.
The public is also invited to assist the Council in developing the
scope of alternatives and impacts that should be analyzed in an EIS for
the Bottomfish and Seamount Groundfish Fisheries FMP. An EIS has not
been prepared for the FMP. Since the FMP was implemented in 1986, many
changes have occurred in this fishery, and with the stocks and
management regimes. As part of the scoping process for the EIS for this
FMP, the public is also invited to comment on an alternative being
considered for the addition of bottomfish species in the EEZ around the
U.S. Pacific Island possessions (and the Commonwealth of the Northern
Mariana Islands (CNMI)), to the management unit of the Bottomfish and
Seamount Groundfish FMP. Federal regulations for the EEZ off the U.S.
Pacific Island possessions (and the CNMI) that would provide basic
protection and conservation measures are already established in the
EEZs for other parts of the Western Pacific Region, and include no
taking with explosives, poisons, trawl nets or bottom-set gillnets. A
definition of overfishing for a list of identified FMP management unit
species would be established and evaluated annually, with required
action in the event of overfishing.
Special Accommodations
This meeting is physically accessible to people with disabilities.
Requests for sign language interpretation or other auxiliary aids
should be directed to Kitty M. Simonds, (see ADDRESSES), 808-522-8220
(voice) or 808-522-8226 (fax), at least 5 days prior to the meeting
date.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: August 16, 1999.
Gary C. Matlock,
Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries
Service.
[FR Doc. 99-21594 Filed 8-19-99; 8:45 am]
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