Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 213 / Thursday, November 4, 2004 / Notices 64317

oral statements and will be made a part 

of the hearing record. Written 

statements and exhibits may be 

delivered before or during the hearing, 

or they may be submitted for up to 45 

days following the date of the hearing to 

the Docket Management Facility listed 

under ADDRESSES.

Dated: October 29, 2004. 

Joseph J. Angelo, 

Director of Standards, Marine Safety, 

Security, and Environmental Protection, U.S. 

Coast Guard. 

Richard Lolich, 

Acting Director, Office of Ports and Domestic 

Shipping, U.S. Maritime Administration.

[FR Doc. 04–24642 Filed 11–3–04; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–15–P

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service 

Draft Revised Recovery Plan for the 

Laysan Duck (Anas laysensis)

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, 

Interior.

ACTION: Notice of document availability 

for review and comment. 

SUMMARY: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife 

Service (we) announces the availability 

of the Draft Revised Recovery Plan for 

the Laysan Duck (Anas laysanensis) for 

public review and comment.

DATES: Comments on the draft revised 

recovery plan must be received on or 

before January 3, 2005.

ADDRESSES: Copies of the draft revised 

recovery plan are available for 

inspection, by appointment, during 

normal business hours at the following 

location: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 

Pacific Islands Fish and Wildlife Office, 

300 Ala Moana Boulevard, Room 3–122, 

Honolulu, Hawaii 96850 (telephone: 

(808) 792–9400). Requests for copies of 

the draft revised recovery plan and 

written comments and materials 

regarding this plan should be addressed 

to the Field Supervisor, Ecological 

Services, at the above Honolulu address. 

An electronic copy of the draft revised 

recovery plan is also available at http:/

/endangered.fws.gov/recovery/

index.html#plans.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Holly Freifeld, Fish and Wildlife 

Biologist, at the above Honolulu 

address.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

Recovery of endangered or threatened 

animals and plants is a primary goal of 

the Endangered Species Act (Act) (16 

U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) and our endangered 

species program. Recovery means 

improvement of the status of listed 

species to the point at which listing is 

no longer required under the criteria set 

out in section 4(a)(1) of the Act. 

Recovery plans describe actions 

considered necessary for the 

conservation of the species, establish 

criteria for downlisting or delisting 

listed species, and estimate time and 

cost for implementing the measures 

needed for recovery.

The Act requires the development of 

recovery plans for endangered or 

threatened species unless such a plan 

would not promote the conservation of 

the species. Section 4(f) of the Act 

requires that public notice, and an 

opportunity for public review and 

comment, be provided during recovery 

plan development. We will consider all 

information presented during the public 

comment period on each new or revised 

recovery plan. Substantive technical 

comments may result in changes to a 

recovery plan. Substantive comments 

regarding recovery plan implementation 

may not necessarily result in changes to 

the recovery plans, but will be 

forwarded to appropriate Federal agency 

or other entities so that they can take 

these comments into account during the 

course of implementing recovery 

actions. Individual responses to 

comments will not be provided. 

The Laysan duck is federally listed as 

endangered and is also listed as 

endangered by the State of Hawaii. This 

species currently is found only on the 

small island of Laysan in the 

Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, but it 

was also known historically from the 

island of Lisianski, and bones or fossils 

have been found in the Main Hawaiian 

Islands on Hawaii, Maui, Molokai, 

Oahu, and Kauai, indicating it 

previously had a much wider 

distribution. The Main Hawaiian Island 

populations of this species likely were 

extirpated by nonnative mammalian 

predators around the time of human 

settlement. The Laysan duck’s current 

population is estimated to be 459 birds, 

but its numbers on Laysan have 

fluctuated from 7 to 688 adult birds 

during the past century. This species 

uses all available habitats on Laysan, 

including coastal areas, a hypersaline 

lagoon, mudflats, and densely vegetated 

upland areas. It eats a variety of 

arthropods, sometimes seeds, leaves, 

and algae, and at certain seasons 

consumes large quantities of aquatic 

midge larvae. The primary threats to 

this species are its small population size 

and restricted range, stochastic 

fluctuations in food availability that 

cause its numbers to vary, potential 

inbreeding depression and disease 

susceptibility, and storms that could 

cause direct mortality and destroy the 

duck’s habitat on the single low-lying 

island to which it is currently restricted. 

The recovery goals are to conserve 

and recover the Laysan duck to the 

point where it can be downlisted 

(reclassified from endangered to 

threatened status) and eventually to 

delist the species (remove it from the 

List of Endangered and Threatened 

Wildlife and Plants). The objectives by 

which these goals will be met are to 

protect the existing population on 

Laysan and reestablish additional viable 

populations of the duck in areas that are 

managed to be free of predators. To 

accomplish these objectives, this 

recovery plan outlines high priority 

tasks that fall generally into four 

categories. First, the duck population on 

Laysan must be monitored and its 

habitat restored and protected. Second, 

wild juvenile ducks must be 

translocated to appropriate predator-free 

Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and 

eventually to sites in the Main Hawaiian 

Islands where predators are effectively 

controlled. Translocated populations 

must be closely monitored and managed 

to enhance population growth. Third, a 

captive propagation program must be 

initiated, with the aim of producing 

Laysan ducks for release primarily at 

predator-controlled Main Hawaiian 

Island sites. Fourth, further research 

must be undertaken on the life history, 

demography, disease susceptibility, and 

genetics of the Laysan duck to refine the 

recovery criteria and management 

techniques for this species. 

Public Comments Solicited 

We solicit written comments on the 

draft revised recovery plan described. 

All comments received by the date 

specified above will be considered prior 

to approval of this plan.

Authority: The authority for this action is 

section 4(f) of the Endangered Species Act, 

16 U.S.C. 1533(f).

Dated: August 12, 2004. 

David J. Wesley, 

Acting Regional Director, Region 1, U.S. Fish 

and Wildlife Service.

[FR Doc. 04–24619 Filed 11–3–04; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4310–55–P