[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 41 (Tuesday, March 2, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Page 9837]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-4579]


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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

Coast Guard

[USCG-2004-17080]


Local Notices to Mariners--Changes in Distribution Methods

AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Coast Guard is changing the way in which we make Local 
Notices to Mariners available to the public. We will continue to 
publish electronic versions of these notices and make them available 
free of charge via the Internet, but we will no longer print and mail 
copies of each notice.

DATES: This change takes effect April 1, 2004.

ADDRESSES: Although we are not requesting them, you may make comments 
on this change. To make sure that your comments and related material 
are not entered more than once in the docket, please submit them by 
only one of the following means:
    (1) Electronically through the Web site for the Docket Management 
System at http://dms.dot.gov.
    (2) By mail to the Docket Management Facility, (USCG-2004-17080), 
U.S. Department of Transportation, room PL-401, 400 Seventh Street SW., 
Washington, DC 20590-0001.
    (3) By fax to the Docket Management Facility at 202-493-2251.
    (4) By delivery to room PL-401 on the Plaza level of the Nassif 
Building, 400 Seventh Street SW., Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 
p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. The telephone 
number is 202-366-9329.
    The Docket Management Facility maintains the public docket for this 
notice. Comments and material received from the public will become part 
of this docket and will be available for inspection or copying at room 
PL-401 on the Plaza level of the Nassif Building, 400 Seventh Street 
SW., Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, 
except Federal holidays. You may also find this docket on the Internet 
at http://dms.dot.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For further information about the 
substance of this notice, contact Mr. Frank Parker, Office of Aids to 
Navigation, Commandant (G-OPN), U.S. Coast Guard, 2100 Second Street, 
SW., Washington DC 20593; telephone (202) 267-0358, fax (202) 267-4222, 
e-mail [email protected]. If you have questions on viewing or 
submitting material to the docket, call Andrea M. Jenkins, Program 
Manager, Docket Operations, telephone 202-366-0271.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Coast Guard has statutory and treaty 
obligations to make navigation information available to the public. 
Local Notices to Mariners (LNMs) are our primary means for 
communicating information pertaining to individual Coast Guard 
Districts. LNMs provide important safety information that is available 
nowhere else, and are distributed free of charge to subscribers. 
However, the cost of printing and mailing LNMs has become prohibitive. 
Technology now allows us to provide LNMs in a more timely and less 
costly manner via the Internet. The Coast Guard has published 
electronic (Internet) LNMs successfully for several years. Electronic 
LNMs appear on the Coast Guard Navigation Center's Web site at http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/lnm/default.htm. Recently, we revised our Aids to 
Navigation (ATON) Manual (COMDTINST M16500.7) to authorize elimination 
of printed LNMs. The last printed LNMs will be distributed April 1, 
2004.
    LNMs are referred to in two Coast Guard regulations, 33 CFR 62.21 
and 33 CFR subpart 72.01. They relate to Coast Guard agency management 
and, under the Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. 551 et seq.), 
they can be amended without public notice and comment. We expect to 
revise these regulations to eliminate obsolete references to print 
distribution, as part of our forthcoming 2004 technical amendments to 
Title 33 of the CFR. Moreover, insofar as these regulations pertain to 
LNMs, they are general policy statements without binding effect either 
on the public or on the Coast Guard. We intend the present Notice, 
along with the notices we will convey directly to our LNM print and 
electronic subscribers, to inform the public of the Coast Guard policy 
change eliminating printed distribution of LNMs, which was effected 
through revision of our ATON Manual.

    Dated: February 20, 2004.
Jeffrey J. Hathaway,
Rear Admiral, U.S. Coast Guard, Director of Operations Policy.
[FR Doc. 04-4579 Filed 3-1-04; 8:45 am]
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