[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 53 (Friday, March 18, 2016)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 14820-14821]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-06116]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Parts 223 and 224

RIN 0648-XC751


Endangered and Threatened Species; Identification of 14 Distinct 
Population Segments of the Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) and 
Proposed Revision of Species-Wide Listing

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

ACTION: Proposed rule; notice of availability of monitoring plan and 
opening of comment period.

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SUMMARY: We, NMFS, in collaboration with Federal and state partners, 
have drafted a monitoring plan (MP) for the distinct population 
segments (DPSs) of humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) that we did 
not propose to list as threatened or endangered under the Endangered 
Species Act of 1973, as amended (ESA), in our proposed revision of the 
species-wide listing. This document announces the availability of the 
draft MP and opens a 30-day public comment period on it.

DATES: Comments must be received by April 18, 2016.

ADDRESSES: Send comments to Marta Nammack, National ESA Listing 
Coordinator, NMFS Headquarters. You may submit comments, identified by 
FDMS Docket Number NOAA-NMFS-2015-0035 by any of the following methods:
     Electronic Submissions: Submit all electronic public 
comments via the Federal eRulemaking Portal http://www.regulations.gov. 
Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
     Hand-delivery: National ESA Listing Coordinator, Protected 
Resources Office, NMFS, 1315 East-West Highway, Room 13536, Silver 
Spring, MD 20910.
     Mail: NMFS, 1315 East-West Highway, Room 13536, Silver 
Spring, MD 20910.
    All comments received are a part of the public record and will 
generally be posted to http://www.regulations.gov without change. All 
Personal Identifying Information (for example, name, address, etc.) 
voluntarily submitted by the commenter may be publicly accessible. Do 
not submit Confidential Business Information or otherwise sensitive or 
protected information. NMFS will accept anonymous comments (enter N/A 
in the required fields, if you wish to remain anonymous). Attachments 
to electronic comments will be accepted in Microsoft Word, Excel, 
WordPerfect, or Adobe PDF file formats only.
    The draft MP, along with the proposed revision of the humpback 
whale species-wide listing (80 FR 22304; April 21, 2015) and the 
Biological Review Team's Status Review Report (Bettridge et al., 2015) 
upon which the proposed revision relies upon can be found on the NMFS 
Web site at: http://nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Marta Nammack, Office of Protected 
Resources, Silver Spring, MD (301) 427-8469.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background

    On April 21, 2015, we published a proposal to divide the globally 
listed endangered humpback whale into 14 DPSs, remove the current 
species-level listing, and in its place list 2 DPSs as endangered and 2 
DPSs as threatened. The remaining 10 DPSs were not proposed for listing 
because we determined that they are not threatened or endangered under 
the ESA.
    Section 4(g)(1) of the ESA requires that NMFS: ``. . . implement a 
system in cooperation with the States to monitor effectively for not 
less than five years the status of all species which have recovered to 
the point at which the measures provided pursuant to this Act [the ESA] 
are no longer necessary and which, in accordance with the provisions of 
this section, have been removed from either of the lists published 
under subsection (c).'' General guidance for monitoring plan 
development is provided by recommendations jointly developed by the 
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NMFS (USFWS and NMFS 2008). This 
guidance, called the ``Post-Delisting Monitoring Plan Guidance,'' 
clarified that: ``The primary goal of PDM is to monitor the species to 
ensure the status does not deteriorate, and if a substantial decline in 
the species . . . or an increase in threats is detected, to take 
measures to halt the decline so that re-proposing it as a threatened or 
endangered species is not needed.'' Although our determination that 
certain DPSs of humpback whale no longer qualify for listing is not 
technically a ``delisting,'' for the reasons explained in the proposed 
listing rule, we find that it is appropriate to monitor the status of 
the populations that will no longer be listed if the proposed rule is 
finalized. This is consistent with the intent of section 4(g)(1) of the 
Act. 16 U.S.C. 1533(g)(1). The Post-Delisting Monitoring Plan guidance 
thus guides us in our development of a monitoring plan for those 
humpback whale DPSs.
    Pursuant to ESA section 4(g)(1), we have drafted a MP for the 
humpback whale DPSs that we did not propose to list as threatened or 
endangered.

Public Comments Solicited

    We are notifying the public of the availability of a draft MP and 
providing the public an opportunity to submit comments on the draft MP 
for 30 days. The comment period shall be limited to 30 days because the 
statutory deadline for our final listing determination on the proposed 
rule is April 21, 2016, and we must finalize the MP by this date, too. 
We will consider all comments we receive during the comment period and 
incorporate suggestions, as appropriate, before finalizing the MP. 
Please submit

[[Page 14821]]

any comments to the ADDRESSES listed above.

    Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.

     Dated: March 14, 2016.
Donna S. Wieting,
Director, Office of Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries 
Service.
[FR Doc. 2016-06116 Filed 3-17-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-22-P