April 17, 2013
EVENTS
April 17, 23, 25 Public hearings on South Atlantic Fishery Management Council's proposed use of Vessel Monitoring Systems in the Snapper Grouper Fishery.
April 22-23
Public workshops in Juneau and Yakutat, Alaska, on the need to protect Alaskan harbor seal habitats.
April 30
Additional public hearing on proposed swordfish measures, online via webinar.
April, May, June
Three Atlantic Shark Identification Workshops will be held in North Carolina, New York, and Florida. All are free.
Six Protected Species Safe Handling, Release, and Identification Workshops will be held in Florida, New Jersey, Maryland, Rhode Island, North Carolina, and Mississippi. All are free.
Thursdays in April
2013 Fish and Fisheries Public Seminars at Maritime Gloucester.
May 7-9
Managing Our Nation's Fisheries-3 conference in Washington, DC.
May 16
Workshop for owners/ operators of vessels and shoreside processors for pollock fishery
FEDERAL REGISTER ACTIONS
Click here for a list of only those actions open for public comment. Scroll search for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
For a list of all daily actions, check the Federal Register online.
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NOAA continues its month-long highlight of the importance of healthy habitats. Check out stories on conserving water in California's Russian River valley, restoring fish passage on Oregon's Umpqua River, and employing beavers in habitat restoration, plus a new video on reclaiming gravel pits for salmon habitat.
NOAA, the state of California, and other partners are exploring an innovative method of restoring fish habitat in the Russian River Valley by reclaiming abandoned gravel pits. Removing levees, reshaping banks, and re-contouring the river bottom would reconnect more than 350 acres of dynamic habitat for salmon and steelhead.
Wine growers in Sonoma County, California draw water from the nearby Russian River to protect their grapes from winter frost. But water extraction can reduce water levels in the river and its tributaries, stranding fish. Better frost forecasting, combined with less water-intensive methods of battling frost, is helping balance the needs of farmers and fish.
Beavers add wood to streams, create natural dams, and reconnect streams with their floodplains-often the same objectives of river restoration projects. A new project aimed at boosting salmon recovery relocates "nuisance" beavers from other locations into the Methow watershed, where their industrious engineering improves salmon habitat.
By May 13, submit your comments on proposed 2013 quota
specifications for the Atlantic bluefin tuna fishery. These specifications allocate available underharvest under certain circumstances and are necessary to implement the recommendations of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT).
NOAA Fisheries has proposed listing 66 coral species under the Endangered Species Act, which prohibits the " take" (harassment, capture, or killing) of endangered species without an authorized permit for scientific research or species propagation. This website provides a "Permit FAQ" for researchers, aquarists, and others interested in obtaining such a permit for these newly-listed coral species.
On Tuesday, the Obama Administration released its final plan for translating the National Ocean Policy into on-the-ground actions to benefit the American people.
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A recent study shows that goosefish, or monkfish (Lophius americanus) prey on dovekies, the smallest members of the puffin family, even though goosefish are generally deepwater, bottom-dwelling fish and dovekies are shallow-water feeders.
The Northeast Fisheries Science Center's James J. Howard Marine Sciences Laboratory was closed for several months after Sandy's landfall, but it is now open, operating, and looking forward to a productive spring and summer research season. The entire Sandy Hook area is slated to reopen to the public on Memorial Day.
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By May 17, submit your comments on NOAA Fisheries' proposed reorganization of the regulations implementing Fishery Management Plans across the southeast. This does not create any new rights or obligations, but reorganizes existing regulatory requirements into a more logical format (by fishery) so that constituents can more easily locate those of interest.
By May 17, submit your comments on NOAA Fisheries' intention to prepare a draft Environmental Impact Statement analyzing a range of management alternatives for the South Atlantic Snapper-Grouper Fishery.
New data update the numbers of dolphin and whale strandings in the northern Gulf of Mexico that have occurred in the Unusual Mortality Event beginning February 2010 (before the Deepwater Horizon oil spill). Scientists are investigating the bacteria Brucella as a possible cause.
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New Fish Passage on North Umpqua River Opens Up Historical Habitat
Last fall, PacifiCorp completed a multi-year construction project adding upstream and downstream fish passage facilities to the North Umpqua Hydroelectric Project. In partnership with biologists and engineers from NOAA and other federal and state agencies, PacifiCorp will provide improvements to the river's downstream habitats as well.
NOAA Fisheries has authorized Washington, Oregon, and Idaho to capture and euthanize California sea lions that have been specifically identified as negatively affecting the recovery of salmon and steelhead trout populations listed under the Endangered Species Act. The states believe that the sea lions congregating every spring just below the Bonneville Dam, 146 miles up the Columbia River, have such an impact.
The Pacific Fishery Management Council adopted a new Fishery Ecosystem Plan to allow broader consideration of ecosystem factors such as food web, habitat, climate change, and human interactions with the fisheries.
The Pacific Fishery Management Council adopted a set of ocean salmon seasons that provides both recreational and commercial opportunities coastwide. California and Oregon fishermen in particular will benefit from strong abundance forecasts for Sacramento and Klamath River fall Chinook this year.
By May 13, submit your comments on a request from the Seattle Department of Transportation to authorize take of marine mammals incidental to construction to replace the Elliot Bay Seawall in Seattle.
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NOAA Fisheries will hold two public workshops in Juneau and Yakutat, Alaska, later this month to inform stakeholders of anAdvance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. This notice considers regulations to protect glacially associated harbor seal habitats from vessel disturbance. NOAA will accept written comments at the workshops.
The 1994 changes to the Marine Mammal Protection Act established three regional scientific review groups to advise and report on the status of marine mammal stocks within Alaska waters, along the Pacific Coast, and in the Gulf of Mexico. This working document summarizes the Alaska group's latest findings. |
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