5210 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 18 / Friday, January 26, 2024 / Notices 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

[RTID 0648–XD625] 

Notice of Availability of a Draft 

Environmental Impact Statement for 

the Issuance of an Incidental Take 

Statement Under the Endangered 

Species Act for Salmon Fisheries in 

Southeast Alaska Subject to the 2019 

Pacific Salmon Treaty Agreement and 

Funding to the State of Alaska To 

Implement the 2019 Pacific Salmon 

Treaty Agreement 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice; availability of a draft 

environmental impact statement; 

request for written comments. 

SUMMARY: A Notice of Intent to prepare 

this draft environmental impact 

statement (DEIS) was published in the 

Federal Register on October 4, 2023. 

This DEIS is prepared pursuant to the 

National Environmental Policy Act 

(NEPA) to assess the environmental 

impacts associated with NMFS issuing 

an incidental take statement (ITS) under 

section 7 of the Endangered Species Act 

(ESA) that would exempt take of 

threatened or endangered ESA-listed 

species by participants in Southeast 

Alaska (SEAK) salmon fisheries that are 

subject to the 2019 Pacific Salmon 

Treaty (PST) Agreement. This DEIS also 

assesses the environmental impacts of 

NMFS funding grants to the State of 

Alaska (State) to monitor and manage 

the SEAK salmon fisheries and salmon 

stocks subject to the 2019 PST 

Agreement. If warranted, NMFS would 

issue an ITS, consistent with 

requirements of the ESA, as part of a 

consultation on two agency actions 

related to the 2019 PST Agreement, 

including the funding to the State. That 

consultation would conclude with the 

issuance of a biological opinion (BiOp) 

that evaluates the effects of those agency 

actions on ESA-listed species and 

critical habitat. This DEIS directly 

responds to a court order and analyzes 

the effects of the proposed issuance of 

an ITS for those two agency actions. 

DATES: NMFS requests comments on 

this DEIS. All comments must be 

received by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on 

March 11, 2024. 

ADDRESSES: This document is available 

on the National Marine Fisheries 

Service Alaska Region website at: 

https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/ 

resource/document/environmentalimpact-statement-issuance-incidentaltake-statement-salmon and at https://

www.regulations.gov by entering docket 

number ‘‘NOAA–NMFS–2023–0152’’ in 

the search bar. 

You may submit comments on the 

DEIS identified by NOAA–NMFS–2023– 

0152 by any of the following methods: 

• Electronic Submission: Submit all 

electronic public comments via the 

Federal e-Rulemaking Portal. Go to 

https://www.regulations.gov and enter 

NOAA–NMFS–2023–0152 in the Search 

box. Click the ‘‘Comment’’ icon, 

complete the required fields and enter 

or attach your comments. 

• Mail: Submit written comments to 

Gretchen Herrington, Assistant Regional 

Administrator, Sustainable Fisheries 

Division, Alaska Region NMFS, Attn: 

Susan Meyer. Mail comments to P.O. 

Box 21668, Juneau, AK 99802–1668. 

Instructions: Comments sent by any 

other method, to any other address or 

individual, or received after the end of 

the comment period may not be 

considered by NMFS. All comments 

received are a part of the public record, 

and will generally be posted for public 

viewing on https://www.regulations.gov 

without change. All personal identifying 

information (e.g., name, address), 

confidential business information, or 

otherwise sensitive information 

submitted voluntarily by the sender is 

publicly accessible. NMFS will accept 

anonymous comments (enter ‘‘N/A’’ in 

the required fields if you wish to remain 

anonymous). 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Kelly Cates, telephone: 907–586–7221; 

email: kelly.cates@noaa.gov; or Bridget 

Mansfield, telephone: 907–586–7221; 

email: bridget.mansfield@noaa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This EIS 

directly responds to court orders to 

provide decision-makers and the public 

with an assessment of the 

environmental, economic, and social 

impacts of alternative approaches to the 

issuance of an ITS under Section 7 of 

the ESA that would exempt take of 

threatened or endangered ESA-listed 

species by participants in SEAK salmon 

fisheries that are subject to the 2019 PST 

Agreement. 

Pacific Salmon Treaty and SEAK 

Salmon Fishery Management 

The PST provides a framework for the 

management of salmon fisheries in the 

U.S. and Canada and regulates the 

salmon fisheries that occur in the ocean 

and inland waters of Oregon, 

Washington, British Columbia, the 

Yukon, and southeast Alaska, and the 

rivers that flow into these waters. The 

PST established fishing regimes that set 

upper limits on intercepting fisheries, 

defined as fisheries in one country that 

harvest salmon originating in another 

country, and sometimes include 

provisions that apply to the 

management of the Parties’ nonintercepting fisheries as well. The 

overall purpose of the regimes is to 

accomplish the conservation, 

production, and harvest allocation 

objectives set forth in the PST. These 

objectives are designed to prevent 

overfishing, provide for each country to 

benefit from production originating in 

its waters, avoid undue disruption of 

existing fisheries, and reduce 

interceptions to the extent practicable. 

Each Party to the PST must 

implement the fisheries management 

framework domestically. Salmon 

fisheries in both Federal and state 

waters off SEAK are managed consistent 

with the 2019 PST Agreement. For 

Federal fisheries occurring in the 

Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) off the 

coast of SEAK, the U.S. does this 

through implementation of provisions of 

the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery 

Conservation and Management Act and 

the Fishery Management Plan for the 

Salmon Fisheries in the EEZ off Alaska 

(FMP). The FMP establishes two 

management areas, the East Area and 

the West Area with a border at Cape 

Suckling. In the East Area, the FMP 

delegates management of the 

commercial troll and sport salmon 

fisheries that occur in the EEZ to the 

State and prohibits commercial salmon 

fishing with net gear in the EEZ. 

NMFS does not manage the salmon 

fisheries that occur in state waters 

(internal waters and marine waters from 

shore to 3 nautical miles (approximately 

6 kilometers) offshore) of SEAK. The 

State of Alaska Department of Fish and 

Game (ADF&G) manages salmon troll, 

net, personal use, and sport fisheries 

subject to the PST’s conservation, 

production, and harvest allocation 

objectives in state waters. The SEAK 

commercial salmon fisheries occurring 

in state waters include troll, purse seine, 

drift gillnet, and set gillnet fisheries. 

The State’s management of salmon 

fisheries, including harvest monitoring, 

stock assessment, and transboundary 

river enhancement necessary to 

implement the 2019 PST Agreement, is 

partially funded through Federal grants 

dispersed by NOAA. 

ESA Consultation and Litigation 

History 

In response to the 2019 PST 

Agreement, NMFS consulted under 

section 7 of the ESA on three actions: 


lotter on DSK11XQN23PROD with NOTICES1
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 18 / Friday, January 26, 2024 / Notices 5211 

• Delegation of management authority 

over salmon fisheries in the SEAK EEZ 

to the State of Alaska on the basis of 

new information regarding the effects of 

the action and the contemporary status 

of impacted ESA-listed species; 

• Federal funding through grants to 

the State of Alaska for the State’s 

management of commercial and sport 

salmon fisheries and transboundary 

river enhancement necessary to 

implement the 2019 PST Agreement; 

and, 

• Federal funding of a conservation 

program to support critical Puget Sound 

Chinook stocks and Southern Resident 

Killer Whales (SRKW) related to the 

2019 PST Agreement, one component of 

which included funding of a prey 

increase program for SRKW. 

The Federal funding of the 

conservation program to support Puget 

Sound Chinook stocks and SRKW was 

a separate action from the two Federal 

actions related to the SEAK salmon 

fisheries (delegation and funding). In 

2019, NMFS completed the consultation 

and issued the 2019 BiOp and ITS. In 

the 2019 BiOp, NMFS concluded that 

the actions were not likely to jeopardize 

the continued existence of any of the 

ESA-listed species and that the actions 

were not likely to destroy or adversely 

modify designated critical habitat for 

any of the listed species. NMFS issued 

an ITS in the 2019 BiOp for take 

associated with the Federal actions 

related to the SEAK salmon fisheries, 

compliance with which would exempt 

participants in these fisheries from the 

ESA’s prohibition on the incidental take 

of threatened and endangered species. 

In 2020, the Wild Fish Conservancy 

(WFC)filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District 

Court for the Western District of 

Washington challenging the 2019 BiOp 

(Wild Fish Conservancy v. Quan, No. 

2:20–CV–417–RAJ–MLP (W.D. Wash.)). 

WFC alleged NMFS violated the ESA 

and NEPA. On August 8, 2022, the 

district court found that NMFS violated 

both the ESA and NEPA (Wild Fish 

Conservancy v. Quan, No. 2:20–CV– 

417–RAJ–MLP, 2021 WL 8445587 (W.D. 

Wash. Sept. 27, 2021), report and 

recommendation adopted, No. 2:20–CV– 

417–RAJ, 2022 WL 3155784 (W.D. 

Wash. Aug. 8, 2022)). 

With respect to NEPA, the court 

concluded NMFS failed to conduct a 

NEPA analysis for the issuance of the 

ITS with the 2019 BiOp. The court also 

concluded that NMFS failed to conduct 

adequate NEPA analysis for the 

adoption of the prey increase program. 

The court remanded to the agency to 

address its conclusions regarding these 

NEPA, as well as the ESA, deficiencies. 

As part of its effort to address the 

court’s orders on remand, NMFS 

intends to conduct a new ESA section 

7 consultation on the effects from the 

federal actions related to the SEAK 

salmon fisheries (delegation and 

funding), and if warranted, would issue 

a new ITS as part of that consultation. 

Compliance with a new ITS would 

exempt participants in the SEAK 

salmon fisheries under the 2019 PST 

Agreement from the ESA’s prohibition 

on the incidental take of threatened and 

endangered species. 

Draft Environmental Impact Statement 

This DEIS responds specifically to the 

court order with respect to the stated 

failure to prepare an analysis pursuant 

to NEPA for the issuance of the ITS for 

the SEAK salmon fisheries. This DEIS 

analyzes the effects of a reasonable 

range of alternatives for the proposed 

issuance of a new ITS. 

In light of the nexus between the 

court’s orders on the ESA and NEPA 

deficiencies and in light of NMFS’s 

ongoing disbursement of funds to the 

State, this EIS also evaluates the effects 

of the following actions under 

consultation: 

• NMFS’s delegation of management 

authority over salmon fisheries in the 

EEZ in SEAK to the State of Alaska 

under the Salmon FMP; and 

• Federal funding through grants to 

the State of Alaska for the State’s 

management of commercial and sport 

salmon fisheries and transboundary 

river enhancement necessary to 

implementation of the 2019 PST 

Agreement. This is also a second 

proposed action considered as a 

component of the alternatives. 

Ultimately, this DEIS provides an 

assessment of the environmental, 

economic, and social impacts of the 

SEAK salmon fisheries in federal and 

state waters, even though none of the 

federal actions directly authorize the 

fisheries, because NMFS expects these 

impacts to occur from the operation of 

the salmon fisheries in SEAK that are 

prosecuted pursuant to the 2019 PST 

Agreement, facilitated by proposed 

Federal funding of grants to the State 

under the 2019 PST Agreement, and 

proposed to be exempted from liability 

for incidental takes of ESA listed 

species through the issuance of a new 

ITS. 

Since the primary Federal action 

here—the issuance of the ITS—would 

exempt incidental take of ESA-listed 

species that occur in compliance with 

the ITS, the DEIS focuses on effects to 

those species (both ESA-listed salmon 

and ESA-listed marine mammals). In 

addition, the DEIS also analyzes the 

impacts of the SEAK salmon fisheries 

on non-ESA-listed salmon, marine 

mammals, habitat, seabirds, greenhouse 

gas emissions and climate change. The 

DEIS also analyzes the impacts of the 

alternatives on fishery participants, 

communities, and Alaska Native tribes. 

NMFS is also preparing a separate EIS 

for the expenditure of Federal funding 

to for the prey increase program for 

SRKW (88 FR 54301, August 10, 2023). 

For more information about that EIS, see 

https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/action/ 

review-prey-increase-program-southernresident-killer-whales. 

Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq. 

Dated: January 23, 2024. 

Everett Wayne Baxter, 

Acting Director, Office of Sustainable 

Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2024–01606 Filed 1–25–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

[RTID 0648–XD664] 

Pacific Fishery Management Council; 

Public Meeting 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice of public online meeting. 

SUMMARY: The Pacific Fishery 

Management Council’s (Pacific Council) 

Ad-Hoc Klamath River Fall Chinook 

Workgroup will hold an online meeting. 

DATES: The online meeting will be held 

Tuesday, February 13, 2024, from 9 a.m. 

until 3 p.m., Pacific standard time, or 

until business for the day concludes. 

ADDRESSES: This meeting will be held 

online. Specific meeting information, 

including directions on how to join the 

meeting and system requirements will 

be provided in the meeting 

announcement on the Pacific Council’s 

website (see www.pcouncil.org). You 

may send an email to Mr. Kris 

Kleinschmidt (kris.kleinschmidt@

noaa.gov) or contact him at (503) 820– 

2280, extension 412 for technical 

assistance. 

Council address: Pacific Fishery 

Management Council, 7700 NE 

Ambassador Place, Suite 101, Portland, 

OR 97220–1384. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Robin Ehlke, Staff Officer, Pacific 

Council; telephone: (503) 820–2410. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

primary purpose of the meeting is to 


lotter on DSK11XQN23PROD with NOTICES1