[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 179 (Monday, September 17, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 52860-52862]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-18305]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

RIN 0648-XA20


Notice of Availability of Proposed Low Effect Habitat 
Conservation Plan for Washington Department of Natural Resources' 
Commercial Geoduck Fishery

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

ACTION: Notice of availability; receipt of application.

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SUMMARY: NMFS advises interested parties of Washington Department of 
Natural Resources' (WDNR) application for an incidental take permit 
(ITP), pursuant to section 10(a)(1)(B) of the

[[Page 52861]]

Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (ESA). The requested 50-year 
permit would authorize the incidental take of covered species 
associated with WDNR's management of the State's Commercial Geoduck 
Fishery in Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
    NMFS is requesting comments on the permit application and on 
whether the proposed Geoduck Fishery Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) 
qualifies as a ``low-effect'' HCP. The HCP is available for public 
review.

DATES: Written comments should be received on or before October 17, 
2007.

ADDRESSES: All comments concerning the preparation of the HCP should be 
addressed to: Laura Hamilton, National Marine Fisheries Service, 
Washington State Habitat Office, 510 Desmond Drive SE, Suite 103, Lacey 
WA 98503, fscimile number 360-753-9517. Comments may be submitted by e-
mail to the following address: [email protected]. In the subject 
line of the e-mail, include the document indentifier: Geoduck HCP.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Laura Hamilton, NMFS (360)753-5820.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Availability of Documents

    Individuals wishing copies of the application or proposed HCP 
should contact NMFS by telephone (see FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT) 
or by letter (see ADDRESSES). Copies of the subject documents also are 
available for public inspection during regular business hours at NMFS' 
Washington State Habitat Office (see ADDRESSES) and are available at 
the following website: www.nwr.noaa.gov/Salmon-Habitat/Habitat-Conservation-Plans/Index.cfm.

Statutory Authority

    Section 9 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) (16 U.S.C. 1538) and 
implementing regulations prohibit the taking of animal species listed 
as endangered or threatened. The term ``take'' is defined under the ESA 
(16 U.S.C. 1532(19)) as to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, 
kill, trap, capture, or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such 
conduct. NMFS' definition of ``harm'' includes significant habitat 
modification or degradation where it actually kills or injures fish or 
wildlife by significantly impairing essential behavioral patterns, 
including breeding, feeding, spawning, migrating, rearing, and 
sheltering (64 FR 60727, November 8, 1999).
    Section 10 of the ESA and implementing regulations specify 
requirements for the issuance of incidental take permits (ITPs) to non-
Federal entities for the take of endangered and threatened species. 
Regulations governing permits for threatened species and endangered 
species, respectively, are at 50 CFR 17.32 and 50 CFR 17.22. Any 
proposed take must be incidental to otherwise lawful activities, not 
appreciably reduce the likelihood of the survival and recovery of the 
species in the wild, and minimize and mitigate the impacts of such take 
to the maximum extent practicable. In addition, the applicant must 
prepare a habitat conservation plan (HCP) describing the impact that 
will likely result from such taking, the strategy for minimizing and 
mitigating the take, the funding available to implement such steps, 
alternatives to such taking, and the reason such alternatives are not 
being implemented.

Background

    WDNR is seeking an ITP from NMFS for the incidental take of species 
that are listed as either threatened or endangered under the ESA, and 
certain species should they become listed during the 50-year term of 
the permit. The species under consideration for NMFS coverage include 
Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), Chum salmon (O. keta), coho 
salmon (O. kisutch), pink salmon (O. gorbuscha), Pacific herring 
(Clupea harengus pallasi), steelhead (O. mykiss), southern resident 
orca (Orcinus orca), pinto abalone (Haliotis kamtschatkana), and 
Olympia oyster (Ostrea conchaphila). The ITP would provide ESA 
regulatory certainty for Washington State's commercial geoduck fishery. 
Proposed covered activities under the HCP include the sub-tidal harvest 
of wild stock geoduck clams on state-owned aquatic lands for 
commercial, research and health sampling purposes.
    The majority of subtidal land in the state, and the resources 
embedded in them, are owned by Washington State and managed by the 
WDNR. The geoduck clam is among the most commercially valuable of these 
resources.
    The wild geoduck fishery in the state is jointly managed by WDNR, 
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), and the Puget Sound 
Treaty Indian Tribes (Tribes). The state and the Tribes each have a 
right to 50 percent of the allowable geoduck catch. The state and the 
Tribes are jointly responsible for estimating geoduck population size, 
determining sustainable yield, and protecting the health of the geoduck 
stock and the habitat they depend upon. WDNR offers the state's half of 
the geoduck harvest at auctions for the right of private companies and 
individuals to harvest specific quantities of geoducks in specific 
areas. As the state's co-managers of the geoduck resource, WDNR and 
WDFW enforce civil and criminal Washington State laws, regulations and 
contract conditions that apply to the state's fishery.
    Washington's commercial geoduck fishery is divided into six geoduck 
management regions. Commercial harvest occurs within one management 
region at a time, and usually on one tract at a time. There are 
currently 192 commercial geoduck tracts comprising approximately 29,908 
acres of subtidal bedlands. Ten to fourteen harvest quotas are offered 
at each WDNR geoduck harvest auction, resulting in 30 to 40 individual 
harvest agreements annually. Typically, one or two tracts are open for 
harvest at any given time. The tract boundaries are defined by a water 
depth of -18 feet (5.49 meters) mean lower low water (MLLW) to the 
outer edge of the harvest area depth of -70 feet (21.37 meters) MLLW. 
Most of the subtidal tracts range in size from 18 acres to 459 acres. A 
small number of tracts are larger. Harvest limits are based on the 
annual harvest level Total Allowable Catch (TAC). The TAC for a 
management region is the total weight of geoduck that may be harvested 
during the year in each management region. The number is calculated 
annually and is the product of the regional commercial biomass estimate 
multiplied by the equilibrium harvest rate.
    Harvesting is done by divers in shallow waters relatively close to 
shore. A water-jet is used which consists of a nozzle about 18 inches 
(0.6 meters) long with a 5/8 inch diameter (0.02 meters) tip at the 
digging end. The harvester simultaneously inserts the nozzle next to a 
geoduck siphon and grasps the siphon. A short burst of ambient water 
drawn from the surface at between 77-89 gallons per minute with a 
pressure of about 80 pounds per square inch, liquefies the sediment 
allowing for removal of the geoduck. The divers operate from medium 
sized 25 to 60 feet (7.62 to 18.29 meters) anchored boats, equipped 
with pumps and compressors to provide the divers with air through 
hoses, as well as to pressurize the water for the jets. In addition to 
one to two divers, each boat has a tender onboard to monitor the pumps 
and compressors and to haul harvested geoduck aboard. The tender and 
divers are in constant contact via telemetry (communications) through 
the diver's umbilical.
    The proposed minimization and mitigation measures include, but are 
not limited to: limiting the number of acres open to harvest in each 
management

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region per year; permitting harvest only from tracts designated through 
contract by WDNR; clearly marking tracts with easily identifiable 
stakes and/or buoys, and recording latitude and longitude positions on 
all markers; limiting surface noise levels; applying harvest boundaries 
and buffers to protect eelgrass beds, forage fish spawning areas and 
other sensitive nearshore habitats and providing direct oversight of 
the fishery by maintaining compliance staff aboard vessels on harvest 
tracts each day that commercial geoduck harvest occurs.
    Approval of the HCP may qualify as a ``low-effect'' plan as defined 
by the Habitat Conservation Planning Handbook (NMFS and USFWS, 
November, 1996). Determination of low effect HCPs is based upon the 
plan having: minor or negligible effects on federally-listed, proposed, 
or candidate species and their habitats; minor or negligible effects on 
other environmental values or resources; and, impacts that considered 
together with the impacts of other past, present, and reasonably 
foreseeable similarly situated projects would not result, over time, in 
cumulative effects to the environmental values or resources which would 
be considered significant. If the plan is found to qualify as a low-
effect HCP, further NEPA documentation beyond a categorical exclusion 
review would not be required by NMFS.

Request for Comments

    If you wish to comment on the permit application or the proposed 
HCP, you may submit your comments to the address listed in the 
ADDRESSES section of this document. NMFS requests that comments be 
specific. In particular, we request information regarding: direct, 
indirect, and cumulative impacts that implementation of the proposed 
HCP or other alternatives could have on endangered and threatened and 
other covered species, and their communities and habitats; potential 
adaptive management and/or monitoring provisions; funding issues; 
existing environmental conditions in the plan area; other plans or 
projects that might be relevant to this proposed project; permit 
duration; maximum acreage that should be covered; specific species that 
should or should not be covered; and minimization and mitigation 
efforts. We will evaluate this permit application, associated 
documents, and comments submitted thereon to determine whether the 
permit application meets the requirements of section 10(a) of the ESA 
and NEPA regulations.
    Individual respondents may request that we withhold their home 
address from the record, which we will honor to the extent allowable by 
law. There also may be circumstances in which we would withhold from 
the record a respondent's identity, as allowable by law. If you wish us 
to withhold your name and/or address, you must state this prominently 
at the beginning of your comment. Anonymous comments will not be 
considered. All submissions from organizations or businesses, and from 
individuals identifying themselves as representatives or officials of 
organizations or businesses, are available for public inspection in 
their entirety.
    If we determine that the requirements are met, we will issue an 
incidental take permit under section 10(a)(1)(B) of the ESA to the 
Applicant for take of the proposed covered species, incidental to 
otherwise lawful activities in accordance with the terms of the permit. 
We will not make our final decision until after the end of the 30-day 
comment period and will fully consider all comments received during the 
comment period.
    NMFS provides this notice pursuant to section 10(c) of the ESA and 
pursuant to implementing regulations for NEPA (40 CFR 1506.6).

    Dated: September 11, 2007.
Angela Somma,
Chief, Endangered Species Division, National Marine Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. E7-18305 Filed 9-14-07; 8:45 am]
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