Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 7 / Tuesday, January 12, 2021 / Notices 2443 

Common name Scientific name Listing status Historical 

range 

Final listing rule 

(Federal Register 

citation and 

publication date) 

Contact person, phone, 

email 

Contact person’s U.S. mail 

address 

Kendall warm springs 

dace.

Rhinichthys osculus 

thermalis.

Endangered ... Wyoming ....... 35 FR 16047; 10/13/ 

1970.

Tyler Abbott, Project Leader, 307–757–3707; 

tylerabbott@fws.gov.

Ecological Services, Wyoming Field Office, 334 

Parsley Boulevard 

Cheyenne, WY 82007. 

Request for New Information 

To ensure that a 5-year status review 

is complete and based on the best 

available scientific and commercial 

information, we request new 

information from all sources. See What 

Information Do We Consider in Our 

Review? for specific criteria. If you 

submit information, please support it 

with documentation such as maps, 

bibliographic references, methods used 

to gather and analyze the data, and/or 

copies of any pertinent publications, 

reports, or letters by knowledgeable 

sources. 

How do I ask questions or provide 

information? 

If you wish to provide information for 

any species listed above, please submit 

your comments and materials to the 

appropriate contact in the table above. 

Put your comment to the attention of 

FWS–R6–ES–2020–N113. You may also 

direct questions to those contacts. 

Individuals who are hearing impaired or 

speech impaired may call the Federal 

Relay Service at 800–877–8339 for TTY 

assistance. 

Public Availability of Submissions 

Before including your address, phone 

number, email address, or other 

personal identifying information in your 

comment, you should be aware that 

your entire comment—including your 

personal identifying information—may 

be made publicly available at any time. 

While you can ask us in your comment 

to withhold your personal identifying 

information from public review, we 

cannot guarantee that we will be able to 

do so. 

Contents of Submissions 

Please make your comments as 

specific as possible. Please confine your 

comments to issues for which we seek 

comments in this notice, and explain 

the basis for your comments. Include 

sufficient information with your 

comments to allow us to authenticate 

any scientific or commercial data you 

include. 

The comments and recommendations 

that will be most useful and likely to be 

relevant to agency decisions are: (1) 

Those supported by quantitative 

information or studies; and (2) Those 

that include citations to, and analyses 

of, the applicable laws and regulations. 

Completed and Active Reviews 

A list of all completed and currently 

active 5-year status reviews addressing 

species for which the Mountain-Prairie 

Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife 

Service has lead responsibility is 

available at http://www.fws.gov/ 

endangered/. 

Authority 

This document is published under the 

authority of the Endangered Species Act 

of 1973, as amended (16 U.S.C. 1531 et 

seq.). 

Noreen Walsh, 

Regional Director, Mountain-Prairie Region. 

[FR Doc. 2021–00416 Filed 1–11–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4333–15–P 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Fish and Wildlife Service 

[FWS–R5–FAC–2020–N159; FF05F24400– 

201–FXFR13350500000; OMB Control 

Number 1018–0127] 

Agency Information Collection 

Activities; Submission to the Office of 

Management and Budget for Review 

and Approval; Horseshoe Crab and 

Cooperative Fish Tagging Programs 

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, 

Interior. 

ACTION: Notice of information collection; 

request for comment. 

SUMMARY: In accordance with the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, we, 

the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, are 

proposing to renew an information 

collection. 

DATES: Interested persons are invited to 

submit comments on or before February 

11, 2021. 

ADDRESSES: Written comments and 

recommendations for the proposed 

information collection should be sent 

within 30 days of publication of this 

notice to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/ 

PRAMain. Find this particular 

information collection by selecting 

‘‘Currently under Review—Open for 

Public Comments’’ or by using the 

search function. Please provide a copy 

of your comments to the Service 

Information Collection Clearance 

Officer, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 

MS: PRB/PERMA (JAO/3W), 5275 

Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041– 

3803 (mail); or by email to Info_Coll@

fws.gov. Please reference OMB Control 

Number 1018–0127 in the subject line of 

your comments. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Madonna L. Baucum, Service 

Information Collection Clearance 

Officer, by email at Info_Coll@fws.gov, 

or by telephone at (703) 358–2503. 

Individuals who are hearing or speech 

impaired may call the Federal Relay 

Service at 1–800–877–8339 for TTY 

assistance. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In 

accordance with the Paperwork 

Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA, 44 U.S.C. 

3501 et seq.) and 5 CFR 1320.8(d)(1), we 

provide the general public and other 

Federal agencies with an opportunity to 

comment on new, proposed, revised, 

and continuing collections of 

information. This helps us assess the 

impact of our information collection 

requirements and minimize the public’s 

reporting burden. It also helps the 

public understand our information 

collection requirements and provide the 

requested data in the desired format. 

On August 3, 2020, we published in 

the Federal Register (85 FR 46694) a 

notice of our intent to request that OMB 

approve this information collection. In 

that notice, we solicited comments for 

60 days, ending on October 2, 2020. We 

received one comment in response to 

that notice, but it did not address the 

information collection requirements. No 

response to that comment is required. 

As part of our continuing effort to 

reduce paperwork and respondent 

burdens, we invite the public and other 

Federal agencies to comment on new, 

proposed, revised, and continuing 

collections of information. This helps us 

assess the impact of our information 

collection requirements and minimize 

the public’s reporting burden. It also 

helps the public understand our 

information collection requirements and 

provide the requested data in the 

desired format. 

We are especially interested in public 

comment addressing the following: 


khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES
2444 Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 7 / Tuesday, January 12, 2021 / Notices 

(1) Whether or not the collection of 

information is necessary for the proper 

performance of the functions of the 

agency, including whether or not the 

information will have practical utility; 

(2) The accuracy of our estimate of the 

burden for this collection of 

information, including the validity of 

the methodology and assumptions used; 

(3) Ways to enhance the quality, 

utility, and clarity of the information to 

be collected; and 

(4) How might the agency minimize 

the burden of the collection of 

information on those who are to 

respond, including through the use of 

appropriate automated, electronic, 

mechanical, or other technological 

collection techniques or other forms of 

information technology, e.g., permitting 

electronic submission of response. 

Comments that you submit in 

response to this notice are a matter of 

public record. We will include or 

summarize each comment in our request 

to OMB to approve this ICR. Before 

including your address, phone number, 

email address, or other personal 

identifying information in your 

comment, you should be aware that 

your entire comment—including your 

personal identifying information—may 

be made publicly available at any time. 

While you can ask us in your comment 

to withhold your personal identifying 

information from public review, we 

cannot guarantee that we will be able to 

do so. 

Abstract: The Maryland Fish and 

Wildlife Conservation Office 

(MDFWCO) will collect information on 

crabs and fishes captured by the public. 

Tag information provided by the public 

will be used to estimate recreational and 

commercial harvest rates, estimate 

natural mortality rates, and evaluate 

migratory patterns, length and age 

frequencies, and effectiveness of current 

regulations. 

Horseshoe crabs play a vital role 

commercially, biomedically, and 

ecologically along the Atlantic coast. 

Horseshoe crabs are commercially 

harvested and used as bait in eel and 

conch fisheries. Biomedical companies 

along the coast also collect and bleed 

horseshoe crabs at their facilities. 

Limulus amebocyte lysate, derived from 

horseshoe crab blood, is used by 

pharmaceutical companies to test 

sterility of products. Finally, migratory 

shorebirds also depend on the eggs of 

horseshoe crabs to refuel on their 

migrations from South America to the 

Arctic. One bird in particular, the rufa 

red knot (Calidris canutus rufa), feeds 

primarily on horseshoe crab eggs during 

its stopover. Effective January 12, 2015, 

the rufa red knot was listed as 

threatened under the Endangered 

Species Act (79 FR 73706; December 11, 

2014). 

In 1998, the Atlantic States Marine 

Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), a 

management organization with 

representatives from each State on the 

Atlantic coast, developed a horseshoe 

crab management plan. The ASMFC 

plan and its subsequent addenda 

established mandatory State-by-State 

harvest quotas, and created the 1,500- 

square-mile Carl N. Shuster, Jr., 

Horseshoe Crab Sanctuary off the mouth 

of Delaware Bay. 

Restrictive measures have been taken 

in recent years, but populations are 

increasing slowly. Because horseshoe 

crabs do not breed until they are 9 years 

or older, it may take some time before 

the population measurably increases. 

Federal and State agencies, universities, 

and biomedical companies participate 

in a Horseshoe Crab Cooperative 

Tagging Program. The Service’s 

MDFWCO maintains the information 

collected under this program and uses it 

to evaluate migratory patterns, survival, 

and abundance of horseshoe crabs. 

Agencies that tag and release the crabs 

complete FWS Form 3–2311 (Horseshoe 

Crab Tagging) and provide the Service 

with: 

• Organization name; 

• Contact person name; 

• Tag number; 

• Sex of crab; 

• Prosomal width; and 

• Capture site, latitude, longitude, 

waterbody, State, and date. 

Members of the public who recover 

tagged crabs provide the following 

information using FWS Form 3–2310 

(Horseshoe Crab Recapture Report): 

• Tag number; 

• Whether or not tag was removed; 

• Condition of crab; 

• Date captured/found; 

• Crab fate; 

• Finder type; 

• Capture method; 

• Capture location; 

• Reporter information; and 

• Comments. 

At the request of the public 

participant reporting the tagged crab, we 

send data pertaining to the tagging 

program and tag and release information 

on the horseshoe crab tag that was 

found. 

Fish will be tagged with an external 

tag containing a toll-free number for 

MDFWCO. Tagged species of fish 

include striped bass (Morone saxatilis), 

Atlantic (Acipenser oxyrinchus) and 

shortnose sturgeon (Acipenser 

brevirostrum), northern snakehead 

(Channa argus), and American shad 

(Alosa sapidissima). Members of the 

public reporting a tag will be asked a 

series of questions pertaining to the fish 

that they are referencing. The Service 

uses the following four forms to collect 

information used by fisheries managers 

throughout the Atlantic Coast (Interior 

regions 1 and 2), depending on species: 

• Form 3–2493, ‘‘American Shad 

Recapture Report’’; 

• Form 3–2494, ‘‘Snakehead 

Recapture Report’’; 

• Form 3–2495, ‘‘Striped Bass 

Recapture Report’’; and 

• Form 3–2496, ‘‘Sturgeon Recapture 

Report.’’ 

American shad are tagged by the New 

York Department of Environmental 

Conservation (NYDEC), which retains 

all fish tagging information. The public 

reports tags to MDFWCO, who provides 

information on tag returns to NYDEC. 

Tag return data are used to monitor 

migration and abundance of shad along 

the Atlantic coast. 

Northern snakehead is an invasive 

species found in many watersheds 

throughout the mid-Atlantic region. It 

has been firmly established in the 

Potomac River since at least 2004. 

Federal and State biologists within the 

Potomac River watershed have been 

tasked with managing the impacts of 

northern snakehead. Tagging of 

northern snakehead is used to learn 

more about the species so that control 

efforts can be better informed. Tagging 

is also used to estimate population sizes 

to monitor trends in abundance. 

Recreational and commercial fishers 

reporting tags provide information on 

catch rates and migration patterns as 

well. 

Striped bass are cooperatively 

managed by Federal and State agencies 

through the Atlantic States Marine 

Fisheries Commission (ASMFC). The 

ASMFC uses fish tag return data to 

conduct stock assessments for striped 

bass. The database and collection are 

housed within MDFWCO, while the 

tagging is conducted by State agencies 

participating in striped bass 

management. Without this data 

collection, striped bass management 

would likely suffer from a lack of 

quality data. As required by Congress 

under the Atlantic Striped Bass 

Conservation Act (16 U.S.C. 5151– 

5158), striped bass tagging data is used 

to manage the coast-wide stock. 

Sturgeon are tagged by Federal, State, 

and university biologists and 

nongovernmental organizations along 

the U.S. east coast and into Canada, and 

throughout the United States and 

Canada. Local populations of Atlantic 

sturgeon have been listed as either 

threatened or endangered since 2012, 

and shortnose populations have been 


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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 7 / Tuesday, January 12, 2021 / Notices 2445 

listed since 1973. The information 

collected provides data on tag retention 

and sturgeon movement along the east 

coast. The data are also used to address 

some of the management and research 

needs identified by amendment 1 to the 

ASMFC’s Atlantic Sturgeon Fishery 

Management Plan. 

Data collected across these tagging 

programs are similar in nature, 

including: 

• Tag number; 

• Date of capture; 

• Waterbody of capture; 

• Capture method; 

• Fish length, weight, and fate 

(whether released or killed); and 

• Fisher type (i.e., commercial, 

recreational, etc.). 

In addition, if the tag reporter desires 

more information on their tagged fish or 

wants the modest reward that comes 

with reporting a tag, we ask their 

address so that we can mail them the 

information. 

Title of Collection: Horseshoe Crab 

and Cooperative Fish Tagging Programs. 

OMB Control Number: 1018–0127. 

Form Number: FWS Forms 3–2310, 3– 

2311, and 3–2493 through 3–2496. 

Type of Review: Extension of a 

currently approved collection. 

Respondents/Affected Public: 

Respondents include Federal and State 

agencies, universities, and biomedical 

companies who conduct tagging, and 

members of the general public who 

provide recapture information. 

Total Estimated Number of Annual 

Respondents: 2,006. 

Total Estimated Number of Annual 

Responses: 3,628. 

Estimated Completion Time per 

Response: Varies from 5 minutes to 95 

hours, depending on activity. 

Total Estimated Number of Annual 

Burden Hours: 2,239. 

Respondent’s Obligation: Voluntary. 

Frequency of Collection: Respondents 

will provide information on occasion, 

upon tagging or upon encounter with a 

tagged crab or fish. 

Total Estimated Annual Nonhour 

Burden Cost: None. 

An agency may not conduct or 

sponsor and a person is not required to 

respond to a collection of information 

unless it displays a currently valid OMB 

control number. 

The authority for this action is the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 

U.S.C. 3501 et seq.). 

Dated: January 6, 2021. 

Madonna Baucum, 

Information Collection Clearance Officer, U.S. 

Fish and Wildlife Service. 

[FR Doc. 2021–00332 Filed 1–11–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4333–15–P 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Fish and Wildlife Service 

[Docket No. FWS–R6–ES–2019–0010; 

FF06E00000 212 FXES11140600000] 

Incidental Take Permit Application; 

Habitat Conservation Plan and 

Categorical Exclusion for the 

Threatened Grizzly Bear; Flathead, 

Glacier, Lincoln, and Toole Counties, 

Montana 

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, 

Interior. 

ACTION: Notice of availability of 

documents; request for comments. 

SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and 

Wildlife Service, announce the 

availability of documents related to an 

application for an incidental take permit 

(ITP) under the Endangered Species Act. 

BNSF Railway (BNSF) has applied for 

an ITP, which, if granted, would 

authorize take of the federally 

threatened grizzly bear that is likely to 

occur incidental to railroad operations 

and maintenance. The documents 

available for review and comment are 

the applicant’s habitat conservation 

plan, which is part of the ITP 

application, and our draft 

environmental action statement and 

low-effect screening form, which 

support a categorical exclusion under 

the National Environmental Policy Act. 

We invite comments from the public 

and Federal, Tribal, State, and local 

governments. 

DATES: We will accept comments 

received or postmarked on or before 

February 11, 2021. Comments submitted 

online at Regulations.gov (see 

ADDRESSES) must be received by 11:59 

p.m. Eastern Time on the closing date. 

ADDRESSES: Obtaining Documents: The 

documents this notice announces, as 

well as any comments and other 

materials that we receive, will be 

available for public inspection online in 

Docket No. FWS–R6–ES–2019–0010 at 

http://www.regulations.gov. 

Submitting Comments: You may 

submit comments by one of the 

following methods: 

• Online: http://www.regulations.gov. 

Follow the instructions for submitting 

comments on Docket No. FWS–R6–ES– 

2019–0010. 

• U.S. mail: Public Comments 

Processing, Attn: Docket No. FWS–R6– 

ES–2019–0010; U.S. Fish and Wildlife 

Service Headquarters, MS: PERMA; 

5275 Leesburg Pike; Falls Church, VA 

22041–3803. 

We request that you send comments 

by only the methods described above. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ben 

Conard, by phone at 406–758–6882, by 

email at Ben_Conard@fws.gov, or via the 

Federal Relay Service at 800–877–8339. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: We, the 

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), 

have received an application from BNSF 

Railway (BNSF) for a 7-year incidental 

take permit (ITP) under the Endangered 

Species Act of 1973, as amended (ESA; 

16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.). The application 

addresses the potential for take of the 

federally threatened grizzly bear (Ursus 

arctos horribilis) that is likely to occur 

incidental to ongoing operations and 

maintenance of approximately 206 

miles of railroad. 

The documents available for review 

and comment are the applicant’s habitat 

conservation plan (HCP), which is part 

of the ITP application, and our draft 

environmental action statement and 

low-effect screening form. These 

documents helped inform our 

conclusion that the activities proposed 

by the permit application will have a 

low effect on the species and the human 

environment. Accordingly, the HCP 

qualifies for a categorical exclusion 

under the National Environmental 

Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA; 42 U.S.C. 

4321 et seq.). 

Applicant’s Habitat Conservation Plan 

BNSF has submitted a low-effect HCP 

in support of an application for an ITP 

to address take of the species that is 

likely to occur as the result of BNSF’s 

ongoing operations and management of 

approximately 206 miles of railway 

between Trego, Montana, and Shelby, 

Montana. The requested permit duration 

is for 7 years from permit issuance. The 

railway is within grizzly bear habitat in 

the Northern Continental Divide 

Ecosystem grizzly bear recovery zone. 

The biological goals and objectives are 

to reduce attractants and deter grizzly 

bears from entering high-risk areas of 

railway and to contribute to the 

recovery of the grizzly bear population 

by offsetting incidental take by reducing 

other sources of human-caused 

mortality. The proposed conservation 

program includes implementing 

measures to reduce attractants, 

providing financial support to Montana 

Fish, Wildlife, and Parks and the 

Blackfeet Indian Nation for reducing 

human/grizzly bear conflicts through 

increased personnel, equipment, and 

education. 

Public Availability of Comments 

Written comments we receive become 

part of the administrative record 

associated with this action. Before 

including your address, phone number, 

email address, or other personal 


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