Comment from DEBORAH BARKER

See attached file(s) COMMENTS REGARDING: 59902 Federal Register DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 50 CFR Part 226 [Docket No. 100127045–0120–01] RIN 0648–AY62 Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants: Proposed Rulemaking To Designate Critical Habitat for Black Abalone AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce. This proposal should not be approved it will not lead to the recover or Black Abalone populations along the coast of Califronia. Please make the following additions, in red font, to the proposed rule Under Mortality Paragraph 2 Factors such as predation by sea otters, poaching, reduced genetic diversity, ocean acidification, non-anthropogenic predation (e.g., by octopuses, lobsters, sea stars, fishes, sea otters, and shorebirds) and competition (e.g., with sea urchins), food limitation, environmental pollutants and toxins, and substrate destruction may all impose mortality on black abalone at varying rates, but predicting the relative impacts of each of these factors on the long-term viability of black abalone is difficult without further study. However, there are numerous studies that indicate that sea otter predation was a major factor that caused the decline in black abalone populations and thier continuing predation has prevented the recover of the population. Further more, recent studies show that abalone populations do not recover to levels comparable those preceding fisheries collapse in marine protected areas. Depleted abalone populations persist at depleted levels in protected areas, but, they do not recover. The following supports this conclusion., “ these results suggest that continued fishery closure and protection in no-take reserves are effective tools for allowing persistence of abalone populations, though there are no signs of recovery to levels comparable to those preceding fisheries collapse.” (Persistence of depleted abalones in marine reserves of central California, Author(s),MICHELI Fiorenza ; SHELTON Andrew O. ; BUSHINSKY Seth M, Publisher Elsevier , Identifier ISSN : 0006-3207 CODEN : BICOBK Source Biological conservation Y. 2008, vol. 141, No. 4, pages 1078-1090 [13 pages] [bibl. : 1 p.1/2 Thank you for your time consideration and efforts. Sincerely, Deborah L.K. Barker