[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 157 (Monday, August 16, 1999)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 44475-44476]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-21073]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 660

[I.D. 080499B]


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 American Samoa 
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 August 26, 1999. A public scoping meeting is 
scheduled for August 19, 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: American Samoa, August 19, 1999, 3-5 p.m., Conference Room, 
Division of Marine and Wildlife Resources, Pago Pago, AS. Phone contact 
684-633-4456 for information. Subsequent public scoping meetings are 
tentatively planned for Hawaii (details regarding times and locations 
will follow in a separate Federal Register announcement).

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 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, 
allowable gear types to harvest coral reef resources in the U.S. 
exclusive economic zone (EEZ), 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 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. Marine debris, largely from fishing 
gear, is adversely impacting reefs in the Northwestern Hawaiian 
Islands.
    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. 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.

Public Information Meetings

    Additional public information meetings and public hearings on the 
proposed EISs may be held in Hawaii later in the year. These meetings 
will be advertised in the Federal Register and the local newspapers.

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.


[[Page 44476]]


    Dated: August 10, 1999.
Bruce C. Morehead,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 99-21073 Filed 8-11-99; 9:37 am]
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