[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 115 (Thursday, June 14, 2001)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 32304-32305]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-15058]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Parts 223 and 224

[Docket No. 010522134-1134-01; I.D. 050201D]
RIN 0648-XA69


Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; 90-Day Finding for 
a Petition to list Bocaccio (Sebastes paucispinis) as Threatened

AGENCY:  National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration, Commerce.

ACTION:  Notification of 90-day petition finding and request for 
comments.

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SUMMARY:  NMFS has received a petition to list the southern bocaccio 
(Sebastes paucispinis) as a threatened species and to designate 
critical habitat concurrent with the listing. NMFS finds that the 
petition presents substantial scientific and commercial information 
indicating that the request for listing may be warranted. Therefore, 
NMFS is conducting a status review to determine whether the petitioned 
action is warranted. To assure that the review is comprehensive, NMFS 
is soliciting information and data regarding this species and its 
habitat from any interested party. NMFS will use information received 
during the comment period and other information in its review of the 
status of the southern bocaccio.

DATES:  Comments and information must be received by August 13, 2001.

ADDRESSES:  Requests for copies of the petition and comments regarding 
the listing of bocaccio should be submitted to Jim Lecky, Assistant 
Regional Administrator for Protected Resources, 501 W. Ocean Blvd., 
Suite 4200, Long Beach, CA, 90802-4213. The petition and supporting 
data are available for public inspection by appointment, Monday through 
Friday, at the same address.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jim Lecky, NMFS Southwest Region, 562/
980-4000; or Marta Nammack, NMFS Office of Protected Resources, 301/
713-1401, ext. 116.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    Section 4 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) contains provisions 
allowing interested persons to petition the Secretary of the Interior 
or the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary) to add a species to or remove 
a species from the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and to 
designate critical habitat. On January 30, 2001, NMFS received a 
petition from the Natural Resources Defense Council, Center for 
Biological Diversity, and Center for Marine Conservation (Petitioners) 
to list the central/southern distinct population segment of bocaccio, 
or, in the alternative, bocaccio throughout its entire range as 
threatened under the ESA and to designate critical habitat.
    Petitioners contend that bocaccio have suffered precipitous 
population declines over the last several decades and that these 
population declines threaten bocaccio with extinction and compromise 
its ability to recover. The primary factor identified by Petitioners is 
overutilization, specifically overfishing by fisheries targeting 
bocaccio and as bycatch in other fisheries. Other factors identified by 
Petitioners as contributing to the status of bocaccio include 
inadequate regulatory mechanisms, habitat modification due to bottom 
trawl fishing gear, pollution of nearshore habitat used by juvenile 
bocaccio, and shifts in oceanographic conditions.
    NMFS has recognized two separate West Coast bocaccio populations, 
divided at approximately 36 deg. N. latitude. The southern population 
(south of 36 deg. N. latitude), which ranges from Cape Mendocino to 
Baja California, Mexico, is the stock for which NMFS has received a 
petition and is synonymous with what Petitioners have called the 
central/southern population of bocaccio. In the 1999 stock assessment 
report for southern bocaccio, the spawning output of the southern 
bocaccio stock was estimated to be 2.1 percent of the estimated 
spawning output at its unfished level. This stock was designated as 
overfished under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and 
Management Act on March 3, 1999.
    Initial stock rebuilding measures were implemented through the 2000 
annual specifications and management measures for Pacific coast 
groundfish. These measures included the setting of a conservative 
allowable biological catch level and optimum yield level. These 
conservative levels precluded any directed targeting of bocaccio and 
reserved allowable catch to incidental catch in other fisheries. On 
September 5, 2000, NMFS announced formal approval of the rebuilding 
plan for southern bocaccio (65 FR 53646).
    On December 29, 2000, NMFS published a final rule (65 FR 82947) 
approving Amendment 12 to the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery 
Management Plan and disapproving three overfished stock rebuilding 
plans, including the plan previously approved for bocaccio. Amendment 
12 provides framework procedures for developing overfished species 
rebuilding plans, for setting guidelines for rebuilding plan contents, 
and procedures for submitting rebuilding plans to NMFS for review and 
approval/disapproval. The three rebuilding plans that were disapproved 
in that action were disapproved because of inconsistencies with the new 
procedure and guidelines established by Amendment 12, not because the 
harvest limits were inadequate to provide for rebuilding of the stock. 
The Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) will resubmit recommended 
rebuilding plans for review by NMFS, consistent with the requirements 
of Amendment 12, for the 2002 fishing year cycle.
    In the presentation of their petition, Petitioners rely on the 
information produced by NMFS and the PFMC in their evaluation of 
southern bocaccio relative to overfishing criteria and a review of 
published literature on the status, distribution, and ecology of 
bocaccio.

Finding

    NMFS finds that Petitioners present substantial scientific and 
commercial information indicating that a listing may be warranted, 
based on the criteria specified in 50 CFR 424.14(b)(2). Although a 
positive 90-day finding under section 4(b)(3)(A) of the ESA is not a 
decision to list a species, this finding requires that a review of the 
status of southern bocaccio be completed within 12 months of receiving 
the petition (by January 30, 2002) to determine whether the petitioned 
action is warranted.

Listing Factors and Basis For Determinations

    Under section 4 (a) (1) of the ESA, a species can be determined to 
be endangered or threatened for any of the following reasons: (1) The 
present or threatened destruction, modification, or curtailment of its 
habitat or range; (2) overutilization for commercial, recreational, 
scientific, or educational purposes; (3) disease or predation; (4) the 
inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms; or (5) other natural or 
manmade factors affecting its continued

[[Page 32305]]

existence. Listing determinations are based solely on the best 
scientific and commercial data available, after conducting a review of 
the status of the species and taking into account efforts made by 
states or foreign nations to protect such species.

Information Solicited

    To ensure that the southern population of bocaccio (Sebastes 
paucispinis) status review is complete and based on the best available 
scientific and commercial data, NMFS is soliciting information and 
comments on whether the southern population of bocaccio is threatened 
by any of the listing criteria described above. Specifically, NMFS is 
soliciting information in the following areas: Historical abundance, 
current abundance, factors contributing to population declines, sources 
of mortality other than commercial and recreational fishing, habitat 
use, habitat condition, factors affecting habitat condition, and 
distinctness of the southern population. NMFS is also soliciting 
information on efforts to conserve bocaccio and the adequacy of those 
efforts in achieving their intended purpose.

Critical Habitat

    NMFS is also requesting information on areas that may qualify for 
critical habitat for the southern population of bocaccio. Areas that 
include the physical and biological features essential to the 
conservation of the species and which may require special management 
considerations of protection should be identified. Areas outside the 
current range of the species may be included if they are necessary for 
the conservation of the species. Essential features should include, but 
are not limited to: (1) space for individual growth and for normal 
behavior; (2) food, water, air, light, minerals, or other nutritional 
or physiological requirements; (3) cover or shelter; (4) sites for 
reproduction and development of offspring; and (5) habitats that are 
protected from disturbance or are representative of the historical, 
geographical, and ecological distribution of the species.
    For areas potentially qualifying as critical habitat, NMFS is 
requesting information describing: (1) the activities that affect the 
areas or could be affected by the designation; and (2) the economic 
costs and benefits of additional requirements of management measures 
likely to result from the designation.
    Comments should include: (1) supporting documentation, such as 
maps, bibliographic references, or reprints of pertinent publications, 
if applicable, and (2) the commenting party's name, address, and 
association, institution, or business.

    Authority:  16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.; 16 U.S.C. 742a et seq.; 31 
U.S.C. 9701; and 16 U.S.C. 1361 et seq.

    Dated: June 7, 2001.
William T. Hogarth,
Acting Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries 
Service.
[FR Doc. 01-15058 Filed 6-13-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-S