[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 7 (Wednesday, January 11, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 1668-1669]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-393]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

[Docket No. 111205722-1793-01]
RIN 0648-XA851


Endangered and Threatened Species; 90-Day Finding on Petition To 
Delist the Southern Oregon/Northern California Coast Evolutionarily 
Significant Unit of Coho Salmon Under the Endangered Species Act

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

ACTION: Notice of 90-day petition finding.

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SUMMARY: We, NMFS, announce a 90-day finding on a petition to delist 
the Southern Oregon/Northern California Coast (SONCC) Evolutionarily 
Significant Unit (ESU) of coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) under the 
Endangered Species Act (ESA). We find that the petition does not 
present substantial scientific or commercial information indicating 
that the petitioned action may be warranted.

ADDRESSES: Copies of the petition are available at: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/or upon request from the Assistant Regional 
Administrator, Protected Resources Division, NMFS, Southwest Regional 
Office, 501 West Ocean Blvd., Suite 4200, Long Beach, CA 90802.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Rosalie del Rosario, NMFS, Southwest 
Region Office, (562) 980-4085; or Dwayne Meadows and Margaret H.

[[Page 1669]]

Miller, NMFS, Office of Protected Resources (301) 427-8403.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    Section 4 of the ESA (16 U.S.C. 1533) contains provisions allowing 
interested persons to petition the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary) to 
add a species to or remove a species from the List of Endangered and 
Threatened Wildlife and to designate critical habitat. The Secretary 
has delegated the authority for these actions to the NOAA Assistant 
Administrator for Fisheries.
    On October 31, 2011, we received a petition from the Siskiyou 
County Water Users Association and Dr. Richard Gierak requesting that 
we delist the SONCC ESU of coho salmon under the ESA. The petitioners 
previously submitted three petitions requesting we delist coho salmon. 
We analyzed those petitions and found the petitions did not present 
substantial scientific or commercial information indicating the 
petitioned action may be warranted. The negative 90-day finding notice 
for the three petitions was published in the Federal Register on 
October 7, 2011 (76 FR 62375). The current petition largely reiterates 
the petitioners' previous arguments, including that the species is not 
native to the Klamath River watershed, the species is in good condition 
overall, and extinction is inevitable. These arguments were rejected in 
our response to the previous petitions, and need not be repeated here.
    In the current petition, the petitioners have specified their 
request to delist the SONCC ESU, presented some additional information 
regarding the status of coho stocks before and after construction of 
dams, and have added citations to articles on ocean temperature, heat 
content and volcanic activity in the Pacific Ocean. However, the data 
and citations are either offered without context or relationship to the 
petitioned action, or relate to the entire taxonomic species of coho 
salmon and not specifically to the SONCC ESU. In addition, petitioners 
have added a discussion of threats to the species, and included the 
full minutes of a Karuk Tribal Council meeting that were mentioned, but 
not provided, in their earlier petitions, to support their argument. 
However, petitioners' discussion of threats to the species supports 
maintaining the listing, and the Karuk Tribal Council minutes provide 
no additional evidence indicating whether the species is or is not, as 
petitioners claim, native to the Klamath River basin. Accordingly, none 
of this additional information modifies the underlying scientific basis 
for our original determination or causes us to re-evaluate our earlier 
position.

ESA Statutory and Regulatory Provisions and Evaluation Framework

    Section 4(b)(3)(A) of the ESA (16 U.S.C. 1533(b)(3)(A)) requires 
that we make a finding as to whether a petition to list, delist, or 
reclassify a species presents substantial scientific or commercial 
information indicating the petitioned action may be warranted. ESA 
implementing regulations define ``substantial information'' as the 
``amount of information that would lead a reasonable person to believe 
that the measure proposed in the petition may be warranted'' (50 CFR 
424.14(b)(1)). In determining whether a petition presents substantial 
scientific or commercial information to list or delist a species, we 
take into account information submitted with, and referenced in, the 
petition and all other information readily available in our files. To 
the maximum extent practicable, this finding is to be made within 90 
days of the receipt of the petition, and the finding is to be published 
promptly in the Federal Register (16 U.S.C. 1533(b)(3)(A)). ESA 
implementing regulations state that a species may be delisted only if 
the best scientific and commercial data available substantiate that it 
is neither endangered nor threatened for one or more of the following 
reasons: The species is extinct; the species is recovered; or 
subsequent investigations show the best scientific or commercial data 
available when the species was listed, or the interpretation of such 
data, were in error (50 CFR 424.11(d)).

Petition Finding

    As discussed above, this subject petition does not present any new 
or substantial scientific or commercial information related to whether 
the SONCC ESU of coho salmon is recovered, extinct, or that the best 
scientific or commercial data available when the species was listed, or 
the interpretation of such data, were in error. Therefore, we determine 
that the petition does not present substantial scientific or commercial 
information to indicate that the petitioned action may be warranted.

References Cited

    A complete list of the references used in this finding is available 
upon request (see ADDRESSES).

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

    Dated: January 5, 2012.
 Samuel D. Rauch III,
Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Programs, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2012-393 Filed 1-10-12; 8:45 am]
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