[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 141 (Wednesday, July 23, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43495-43498]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-18733]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

[Docket No. 030530139-3139-01; I.D. 010401B]


Marine Protected Areas and an Inventory of Existing Marine 
Managed Areas

AGENCY: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 
Department of Commerce (DOC).

ACTION: Solicitation of public comments on proposed criteria for 
building an Inventory of Marine Managed Areas.

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SUMMARY: NOAA and the Office of the Secretary, Department of the 
Interior (DOI), jointly propose criteria, definitions, and data fields 
that will be used in development of an Inventory of U.S. Marine Managed 
Areas or MMAs. The MMA Inventory will provide information that will 
lead to the fulfillment of requirements of Executive Order (E.O.) 13158 
on Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). This action requests comments on the 
working criteria for including existing sites in the MMA Inventory, and 
describes data fields to provide consistent information about each 
site. This notice also makes clear that the development of the MMA 
Inventory is Phase I, to be followed by the development of the List of 
MPAs (Phase II) called for in E.O. 13158. The intent of this document 
is to solicit public participation in the development of an inventory 
of existing U.S. MMAs (Federal, state, commonwealth, territorial, and 
tribal sites) as a resource for managers, scientists, and the general 
public.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before September 22, 2003.

ADDRESSES: Comments regarding the proposed MMA Inventory criteria, 
definitions, and data fields should be sent to Joseph Uravitch, 
National MPA Center, N/ORM, NOAA, 1305 East-West Highway, Silver 
Spring, Maryland 20910. Comments also will be accepted if submitted via 
e-mail to [email protected]. E-mail comments should state ``MMA 
Inventory Comments'' on the subject line.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Joseph Uravitch, NOAA, 301-713-3155, 
x195, or Piet deWitt, DOI, 202-208-6224.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Electronic Access

    This Federal Register document also is accessible via the Internet 
at the Office of the Federal Register's web site at http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aces140.html.

Background

    E.O. 13158 directs DOC and DOI, in consultation with the Department 
of Defense, the Department of State, the United States Agency for 
International Development, the Department of Transportation, the 
Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation, and 
other pertinent Federal agencies, to work with non-Federal partners to 
protect significant natural and cultural resources within the marine 
environment of the United States, including the Great Lakes, by 
strengthening and expanding a scientifically-based comprehensive 
national system of MPAs. A key purpose of E.O. 13158 is to ``enhance 
the conservation of our Nation's natural and cultural marine heritage 
and the ecologically and economically sustainable use of the marine 
environment for future generations.'' A first step in developing this 
scientifically-based national system of MPAs is the development of an 
inventory of MMAs. This inventory will become the initial pool of sites 
from which the List of MPAs called for in section 4(d) of E.O. 13158 
will be developed.
    DOC and DOI were given specific roles by E.O. 13158. DOC has 
delegated lead responsibility to the Under Secretary of Commerce for 
Oceans and Atmosphere. DOI has delegated its lead to the Assistant 
Secretary, Lands and Minerals Management. NOAA and DOI have stewardship 
responsibilities for marine resources under various Federal laws, 
including the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, 
the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the 
Coastal Zone Management Act, the National Marine Sanctuaries Act, the 
Antiquities Act, the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration 
Act, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, and the National Park 
Service Organic Act. These and other authorities direct DOC and DOI 
agencies to manage marine areas for a wide variety of objectives. Area-
based management has been used for years to protect marine habitats and 
submerged cultural resources, rebuild and sustain fisheries, provide 
recreational opportunities, promote marine research, recover endangered 
species, and support local economies that depend on ocean resources. 
These areas have been managed in different ways ranging from 
restricting specific activities and allowing sustainable use of natural 
resources within an area, to the establishment of marine reserves that 
limit access and close the site to all uses except research.
    The MMA Inventory will be used in Phase I to inform Federal, state, 
commonwealth, territorial, local, and tribal agencies of the locations 
and characteristics of existing MMAs and to form a pool from which 
sites may later be considered for placement on the List of MPAs (Phase 
II). Resource managers and others can use this information to better 
manage these areas and determine the effectiveness of individual sites, 
as well as regional and national assemblages. The core purposes of the 
MMA Inventory are:
    Providing centralized, easily accessed information and maps on 
existing Federal, state, commonwealth, territorial, local, and tribal 
MMAs in the United States;
    [sbull] Providing information and tools for environmental 
assessments and effectiveness monitoring (supporting independent 
analyses and studies of a wide variety of marine issues by governmental 
and non-governmental users);
    [sbull] Providing important site-specific information for 
developing and maintaining the official nationwide List of MPAs 
required by section 4(d) of E.O. 13158; and
    [sbull] Providing information to fulfill other requirements of E.O. 
13158.
    NOAA and DOI have placed a variety of protective or restrictive 
measures on different marine areas to achieve different management 
purposes. The definitions and working criteria proposed in this notice 
are being used to build the MMA Inventory and may, at some future date, 
be used in determining which sites should be placed on the List of MPAs 
(Phase II). However, these definitions and criteria are not final and 
are subject to change based on public comment and through experience 
gained by using the MMA

[[Page 43496]]

Inventory and implementing E.O. 13158. The public will be informed of 
changes to the criteria through the Federal Register and the MPA web 
site, http://www.mpa.gov.
    It is important to distinguish between the MMA Inventory and the 
List of MPAs. The MMA Inventory is not designed to fulfill the 
requirement of E.O. 13158 for a List of MPAs but is the first step 
toward development of that List. The List is to be established at some 
future date after an administrative process for listing has been 
established.
    After public comment on this notice, NOAA and DOI will decide if 
the working criteria for building the MMA Inventory should be 
broadened, narrowed, or otherwise modified. A notice of agency decision 
will be published in the Federal Register and the MPA web site, http://www.mpa.gov, will be modified appropriately.

Proposal

    E.O. 13158 defines a ``marine protected area'' as ``any area of the 
marine environment that has been reserved by Federal, State, 
territorial, tribal, or local laws or regulations to provide lasting 
protection for part or all of the natural and cultural resources 
therein.'' The E.O. defines ``marine environment'' to mean ``those 
areas of coastal and ocean waters, the Great Lakes and their connecting 
waters, and submerged lands thereunder, over which the United States 
exercises jurisdiction, consistent with international law.'' The E.O. 
does not define other key terms in the MPA definition such as 
``lasting,'' ``protection,'' and ``cultural resources.'' Given the 
breadth of these terms and the wide array of sites they could include, 
NOAA and DOI are clarifying key terms within the E.O.'s MPA definition 
that will serve as criteria for determining MMAs.
    Therefore, NOAA and DOI jointly propose the following definitions 
for: ``area,'' ``marine,'' ``reserved,'' ``lasting,'' ``protection,'' 
and ``cultural.'' These definitions serve as criteria and include a 
description of the characteristics necessary for inclusion in the MMA 
Inventory and a description of features that would exclude a site from 
the MMA Inventory.

Area

To be included in the MMA Inventory, the site:
    Must have legally defined geographical boundaries, and may be of 
any size, except that the site must be a subset of the U.S. Federal, 
state, commonwealth, territorial, local or tribal marine environment in 
which it is located. Application of this criterion would exclude, for 
example: Generic broad-based resource management authorities without 
specific locations. Areas whose boundaries change over time based on 
species presence.

Marine

To be included in the MMA Inventory, the site:
    Must be: (a) ocean or coastal waters (note: coastal waters may 
include intertidal areas, bays or estuaries); (b) an area of the Great 
Lakes or their connecting waters; (c) an area of lands under ocean or 
coastal waters or the Great Lakes or their connecting waters; or (d) a 
combination of the above. The term ``intertidal'' is understood to mean 
the shore zone between the mean low water and mean high water marks. An 
MMA may be part of a larger site that includes uplands, however, the 
terrestrial portion is not considered an MMA. For mapping purposes, an 
MMA may show an associated terrestrial protected area.
    NOAA and DOI propose to use the following definition for the term 
``estuary'': ``Part of a river or stream or other body of water having 
unimpaired connection with the open sea, where the sea water is 
measurably diluted with fresh water derived from land drainage, and 
extending upstream to where ocean-derived salts measure less than 0.5 
parts per thousand during the period of average annual low flow.'' 
Application of this criterion would exclude, for example, strictly 
freshwater sites outside the Great Lakes region that contain marine 
species at certain seasons or life history stages unless that site is a 
component of a larger, multi-unit MMA. Estuarine-like sites on 
tributaries of the Great Lakes will be considered for inclusion if they 
are located within the eight digit U.S. Geological Survey cataloging 
unit adjacent to a Great Lake or its connecting waters.

Reserved

To be included in the MMA Inventory, the site:
    Must be established by and currently subject to Federal, state, 
commonwealth, territorial, local or tribal law or regulation.
Application of this criterion would exclude, for example:
    Privately created or maintained marine sites.

Lasting

To be included in the MMA Inventory, the site:
    Must provide year-after-year protection for at least three months 
of each year.
    Must be established with an expectation of, or at least the 
potential for, permanence. If the reservation will expire on a date 
certain, the reservation must provide a minimum of two years of 
continuous protection and must have a specific mechanism to consider 
renewal of protection at the expiration of the reservation.
Application of this criterion would exclude, for example:
    Areas subject only to temporary protections, such as areas 
protected only by emergency fishery regulations under the Magnuson-
Stevens Act, which expire after 180 days, and areas that are protected 
by annual management specifications.

Protection

To be included in the MMA Inventory, the site:
    Must have existing laws or regulations that are designed and 
applied to afford the site with increased protection for part or all of 
the natural and submerged cultural resources therein for the purpose of 
maintaining or enhancing the long-term conservation of these resources, 
beyond any general protections that apply outside the site.
Application of this criterion would exclude, for example:
    Areas closed to avoid fishing gear conflicts.
    Area-based regulations established solely to limit fisheries by 
quota management or to facilitate enforcement.
    In addition, the Executive Order uses the term cultural resources. 
NOAA and DOI interpret this to mean any submerged historical or 
submerged cultural feature, including archaeological sites, historic 
structures, shipwrecks, artifacts, and subsistence uses in the marine 
environment.
    Taken together, these definitions and criteria provide the basis 
for selecting sites to be included in the MMA Inventory.

MMA Inventory Data Fields

    In addition to the above proposal, comments are solicited on what 
data and information should be provided about each site in the MMA 
Inventory. To make the MMA Inventory a useful resource for managers, 
scientists, users and the public, NOAA and DOI propose to provide 
specific information in a consistent format for each site. This 
information could be used by both government and non-government 
entities to aid analyses of protection of marine resources and improve 
regional

[[Page 43497]]

and national coordination among existing sites. Data in the MMA 
Inventory eventually will be used to assess whether or not specific 
sites meet the definitions and criteria to be placed on the List of 
MPAs. In order to use existing mapping data, maps for sites with upland 
components will depict the entire area (i.e., the marine area 
constitutes the MMA by these proposed definitions/criteria; however, 
the maps in the MMA Inventory also will show any upland component of 
the national park, national estuarine research reserve, etc.).
    NOAA and DOI propose to collect, use, and make available to the 
public the following information (listed below and found on the web 
site http://www.mpa.gov) for each site in the MMA Inventory. The 
agencies request public comments on these data fields to determine what 
information will be most useful for managers, scientists, user-groups, 
and other members of the public.
Proposed data fields:
    MMA Name (name of the site protected); Type of Area (national 
marine sanctuary, national park, etc.); Level of Government Managing 
Site (Federal, state, local, tribal); Management Organizations 
(government agency/department responsible for site management); Purpose 
of Protections (explanation of what the site was established to protect 
or manage); Site Description (brief description of site including 
general features and most prominent, noteworthy, and unique features); 
Information Web Reference (primary informational web home page 
address); Location (nearest state, territory or commonwealth); Site 
Boundaries (if available provide: text description, latitude/longitude 
coordinates, digital coverage of site boundary, and digital or hard-
copy map); Size of Area (number of square miles of surface of both 
water and land areas within site); Additional Location/Size Information 
(approximate shoreline length, overlap with other protected areas, 
connectivity with other protected areas); Marine Components (oceans, 
bays, estuaries, intertidal areas, Great Lakes, submerged lands, and/or 
other); Natural Features (biological and geological features); Cultural 
Features (archaeological remains, historic shipwrecks, subsistence 
uses); Legal Basis for Establishment (name, citation, and summary of 
legal authority for creating MMA); Date Established (date initial 
protection afforded to marine natural or submerged cultural resources, 
other important dates of increasing protection or expansion of site); 
Primary Restrictions (brief summary of primary restrictions in MMA); 
Legal Basis for Implementation (citation to regulations or other legal 
basis for implementing MMA); Expiration Date of Protections (date, if 
any, of expiration of regulations or other authority); Site Programs 
and Plans (types of management programs and plans developed for the 
MMA); Enforcement (government agencies/departments responsible for 
enforcing restrictions on site); Effectiveness (measures used to 
determine management effectiveness); Zone Information (if management of 
the site is zoned: general zone information, zone purposes, zone 
boundary delineation, zone resource protections, zone activity and use 
restrictions); and Information Sources (site staff/contact, 
publications, web sites, other sources).

Process

    An initial and partial MMA Inventory comprised primarily of Federal 
sites, such as fisheries management zones, national parks, national 
wildlife refuges, and national marine sanctuaries, has been assembled 
and published on the MPA web site, http://www.mpa.gov. This initial MMA 
Inventory also includes state-federal national estuarine research 
reserves and some state sites in the Gulf of Maine and Western Pacific 
regions. More sites will be added to the MMA Inventory in the future.
    The MMA Inventory will not contain all currently protected or 
managed sites in the marine environment. For example, sites developed 
by Regional Fishery Management Councils, in conjunction with the 
National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), NOAA, that provide less than 
three-months' protection or afford only annual restrictions would not 
appear in the MMA Inventory on the basis of the proposed working 
criteria.
    Some MMA Inventory sites presumably will not meet all of the 
criteria necessary for placement on the List of MPAs during Phase II of 
this process. However, these sites will be maintained as part of the 
MMA Inventory to provide managers, analysts, and other interested 
parties with a comprehensive database of U.S. MMAs, including sites 
that may be considered for the List of MPAs, sites on the List of MPAs, 
and sites determined not to meet the criteria for the List of MPAs. 
Additional information will be added to the MMA Inventory as it becomes 
available.

Consultation and Public Comment

    E.O. 13158 requires NOAA and DOI to develop the national MPA system 
in consultation with the Department of Defense, the Department of 
State, the United States Agency for International Development, the 
Department of Transportation, the Environmental Protection Agency, the 
National Science Foundation, and other pertinent Federal agencies. NOAA 
and DOI are also to consult with states and territories that contain 
portions of the marine environment, tribes, Regional Fishery Management 
Councils, and other entities, as appropriate, to promote coordination 
of Federal, state, territorial, and tribal actions to establish and 
manage MPAs. NOAA and DOI actively solicit comments from these entities 
and from the general public on any aspect of this notice of proposed 
MMA Inventory criteria, definitions, and data fields. Preliminary draft 
definitions and criteria, as well as inventory data fields, were first 
released to the public on December 21, 2000, when NOAA and DOI unveiled 
their MPA web site at http://www.mpa.gov. The public was invited 
informally to comment on any aspect of the web site including the 
definitions and criteria. For purposes of developing a final notice, 
comments made in response to the web site invitation will be considered 
as well as those made in response to this notice. Following review of 
comments received, NOAA and DOI will publish a final notice of MMA 
Inventory criteria, definitions, and data fields in the Federal 
Register and http://www.mpa.gov.

Classification

Regulatory Planning and Review

    This action is not aa regulatory action subject to E.O. 12866 (58 
FR 51735, October 4, 1993). This notice would not impose a compliance 
burden on the economy generally because the proposed definitions and 
MMA Inventory criteria provided here are only designed to collect data 
that may later be used to implement E.O. 13158.

Energy Effects

    NOAA and DOI have determined that this action will have no effect 
on energy supply, distribution, or use as required by Executive Order 
13211 (66 FR 28355).

Administrative Procedure Act

    Pursuant to authority at 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(A), prior notice and an 
opportunity for public comment are not required to be given, as this is 
a document concerning agency procedure or practice. Nevertheless, NOAA 
and DOI want the benefit of the public's comment and are voluntarily 
giving prior notice and opportunity for public comment.


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    Dated: June 25, 2003.
Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr.,
Vice Admiral, U.S. Navy (Ret.), Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans 
and Atmosphere.
[FR Doc. 03-18733 Filed 7-22-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-08-S