[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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