Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 161 / Tuesday, August 21, 2007 / Notices 46607 

the appropriate deadline is the next business day. 

See Notice of Clarification: Application of ‘‘Next 

Business Day’’ Rule for Administrative 

Determination Deadlines Pursuant to the Act, 70 FR 

24533 (May 10, 2005). 

International Trade Commission 

Notification 

The Department will contact the 

International Trade Commission (‘‘ITC’’) 

and will make this extension notice 

available to the ITC. 

Dated: August 15, 2007. 

Gary Taverman, 

Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Import 

Administration. 

[FR Doc. E7–16448 Filed 8–20–07; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–DS–S 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

International Trade Administration 

The President’s Export Council: 

Meeting of the President’s Export 

Council; Correction 

AGENCY: International Trade 

Administration, U.S. Department of 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice of a time change for an 

open meeting via teleconference. 

SUMMARY: The President’s Export 

Council will hold a meeting via 

teleconference to deliberate a draft letter 

of recommendation to the President. 

This meeting was announced in a 

Federal Register document published 

on August 13, 2007 (72 FR 45224). This 

notice corrects the time of that meeting. 

Date: August 23, 2007. 

Time: 1 p.m. (EDT); Correction. 

For the Conference Call-In Number 

and Further Information, Contact: The 

President’s Export Council Executive 

Secretariat, Room 4043, Washington, DC 

20230 (Phone: 202–482–1124), or visit 

the PEC Web site, http:// 

www.ita.doc.gov/td/pec. 

Dated: August 16, 2007. 

J. Marc Chittum, 

Executive Secretary and Staff Director, 

President’s Export Council. 

[FR Doc. 07–4111 Filed 8–17–07; 9:33 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–DR–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

RIN 0648–XC04 

Fisheries of the Caribbean, Gulf of 

Mexico, and South Atlantic; 

Amendment 29 to the Fishery 

Management Plan for the Reef Fish 

Resources of the Gulf of Mexico 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice; intent to prepare a draft 

environmental impact statement (DEIS); 

scoping meetings; request for comments. 

SUMMARY: NMFS, Southeast Region, in 

collaboration with the Gulf of Mexico 

Fishery Management Council (Council) 

intends to prepare a DEIS to describe 

and analyze management alternatives to 

be included in an amendment to the 

Fishery Management Plan for the Reef 

Fish Resources of the Gulf of Mexico. 

These alternatives will consider 

measures to rationalize effort and 

reduce overcapacity in the commercial 

grouper fishery to achieve and maintain 

optimum yield in the multi-species 

grouper fishery. The purpose of this 

notice of intent is to solicit public 

comments on the scope of issues to be 

addressed in the DEIS. 

DATES: Written comments on the scope 

of issues to be addressed in the DEIS 

must be received by NMFS by 

September 20, 2007. Nine scoping 

meetings will be held in September 

2007. See SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

for specific dates and times. 

ADDRESSES: Written comments on the 

scope of the DEIS, suggested alternatives 

and potential impacts, and requests for 

additional information on the 

amendment should be sent to Sarah 

DeVido, National Marine Fisheries 

Service, Southeast Regional Office, 263 

13th Avenue South, St. Petersburg, FL 

33701–5511; telephone (727) 824–5305; 

fax (727) 824–5308. Comments may also 

be sent by email to 

Sarah.DeVido@noaa.gov. 

Requests for information packets and 

for sign language interpretation or other 

auxiliary aids should be directed to the 

Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management 

Council, 2203 North Lois Avenue, Suite 

1100, Tampa, FL 33607; telephone: 813–

348–1630; fax: 813–348–1711. Requests 

may also be sent by email to 

steven.atran@gulfcouncil.org. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Sarah DeVido; phone: (727) 824–5305; 

fax: (727) 824–5308; email: 

Sarah.DeVido@noaa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Current 

regulatory measures used in the 

management of the grouper complex 

include a license limitation system, 

quotas, trip limits, minimum size limits, 

area/gear restrictions, and season 

closures. Nonetheless, the commercial 

grouper fishery has become 

overcapitalized which means the 

collective harvest capacity of 

participants is in excess of that required 

to efficiently harvest the commercial 

share of the total allowable catch. The 

overcapitalization observed in the 

fishery has caused commercial grouper 

regulations to become increasingly 

restrictive over time, intensifying derby 

conditions under which fishermen race 

to harvest as many fish as possible 

before the quota is reached. The 

intensification of derby conditions has, 

in some years, led to premature closures 

of the fishery. 

Incentives for overcapitalization and 

derby fishery conditions are expected to 

be maintained as long as the current 

management structure persists. Under 

this management structure, the 

commercial grouper fishery is expected 

to continue to be characterized by 

higher than necessary levels of capital 

investment, increased operating costs, 

increased likelihood of shortened 

seasons, reduced safety at-sea, wide 

fluctuations in grouper supply and 

depressed ex vessel prices. These 

conditions lead to deteriorating working 

conditions and profitability for 

participants. 

Therefore, NMFS, in collaboration 

with the Council will develop a DEIS to 

describe and analyze management 

alternatives to rationalize effort and 

reduce overcapacity in the commercial 

grouper fishery in order to achieve and 

maintain optimum yield in this multispecies fishery. These alternatives 

include, but are not limited to: 

elimination of latent permits, a buyback 

or buyout program, permit 

endorsements, an individual fishing 

quota program, or an individual 

transferable effort quota program. 

In accordance with NOAA’s 

Administrative Order 216–6, Section 

5.02(c), Scoping Process, NMFS in 

collaboration with the Council has 

identified preliminary environmental 

issues as a means to initiate discussion 

for scoping purposes only. These 

preliminary issues may not represent 

the full range of issues that eventually 

will be evaluated in the EIS. 

NMFS, in collaboration with the 

Council, has scheduled the following 

nine scoping meetings to provide the 


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