Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 19 / Thursday, January 29, 2015 / Notices 4883 

pilot whale, WNA; Atlantic white-sided 

dolphin; short-beaked common dolphin; 

common bottlenose dolphin, Western 

North Atlantic/offshore ; harbor 

porpoise, Gulf of Maine/Bay of Fundy; 

harbor seal, WNA; gray seal, WNA; 

common bottlenose dolphin, Gulf of 

Mexico continental shelf; common 

bottlenose dolphin, Gulf of Mexico 

eastern coastal; common bottlenose 

dolphin, Gulf of Mexico Oceanic; 

common bottlenose dolphin, northern 

Gulf of Mexico bay, sound and estuary 

(27 stocks); pantropical spotted dolphin, 

Gulf of Mexico; and Risso’s dolphin 

Gulf of Mexico. Information on the 

remaining Atlantic region stocks can be 

found in the final 2013 reports (Waring 

et al., 2014). 

Most revisions included updates of 

abundance and/or mortality and serious 

injury estimates. The status of one stock, 

Gulf of Maine/Bay of Fundy harbor 

porpoise, changed from strategic to nonstrategic. New survey data provided 

calculated values of abundance, Nmin, 

and PBR for the following stocks of 

common bottlenose dolphin: Gulf of 

Mexico continental shelf, Gulf of 

Mexico eastern coastal stock, Gulf of 

Mexico northern coastal stock, Gulf of 

Mexico western coastal, Mississippi 

River Delta, and Mississippi Sound, 

Lake Borgne, Bay Boudreau. 

Pacific Reports 

In the Pacific region (waters along the 

west coast of the United States, within 

waters surrounding the main and 

Northwest Hawaiian Islands, and within 

waters surrounding U.S. territories in 

the Western Pacific), SARs were revised 

for 10 stocks under NMFS jurisdiction 

(5 ‘‘strategic’’ and 5 ‘‘non-strategic’’ 

stocks) and one was added for the 

Western North Pacific gray whale (a 

‘‘strategic’’ stock). All stocks were 

reviewed and the following stocks were 

revised for 2014: Hawaiian monk seal; 

southern Resident killer whale; false 

killer whale, Main Hawaiian Islands 

Insular; false killer whale, Hawaii 

Pelagic; sperm whale, California/

Oregon/Washington; Western North 

Pacific gray whale; California sea lion; 

Harbor seal, California; Northern 

elephant seal, California; Eastern North 

Pacific gray whale; and false killer 

whale, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. 

Information on the remaining Pacific 

region stocks can be found in the final 

2013 reports (Carretta et al., 2014). 

New estimates of abundance for the 

California/Oregon/Washington stock of 

sperm whales are based on a Bayesian 

trend analysis that utilizes previously 

collected line-transect data (Moore and 

Barlow, 2014), resulting in a more stable 

time series of abundance estimates. 

Mortality and serious injury estimates of 

California/Oregon/Washington sperm 

whales in California drift gillnets are 

updated, based on pooling additional 

years of data (>5 years) to reduce bias 

and improve precision in mean annual 

bycatch estimates (Carretta and Moore, 

2014). The combination of new 

abundance estimates and pooling of 

bycatch estimates over a longer time 

period for this stock of sperm whales 

results in mean annual bycatch 

estimates that no longer exceed PBR. 

Dated: January 23, 2015. 

Wanda Cain, 

Acting Director, Office of Protected Resources, 

National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2015–01751 Filed 1–28–15; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

RIN 0648–XD546 

Notice of Availability of the Draft NOAA 

Restoration Center Programmatic 

Environmental Impact Statement 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice of Availability of a Draft 

Programmatic Environmental Impact 

Statement; request for comments. 

SUMMARY: NMFS announces the 

availability of the NOAA Restoration 

Center Programmatic Environmental 

Impact Statement. Publication of this 

notice begins the public comment 

period for this Draft Programmatic 

Environmental Impact Statement 

(DPEIS). The purpose of the DPEIS is to 

evaluate, in compliance with the 

National Environmental Policy Act 

(NEPA), the potential direct, indirect, 

and cumulative impacts of 

implementing the alternative 

programmatic approaches to coastal 

habitat restoration within the NOAA 

Restoration Center and other NOAA 

programs implementing similar habitat 

restoration activities. 

DATES: Interested parties should provide 

written comments by March 20, 2015. 

ADDRESSES: Interested parties that wish 

to send comments may send an email to 

rc.compliance@noaa.gov. Interested 

parties that wish to send comments 

through regular mail may use the 

following mailing address: NOAA 

Restoration Center (F/HC3), ATTN: 

Restoration DPEIS Comments, 1315 East 

West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 

20910. The NOAA Restoration Center 

Web site that contains information and 

updates relevant to this DPEIS can be 

found at: http://www.restoration.noaa.

gov/environmentalcompliance. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Melanie Gange at 301–427–8664 or via 

the following email address: 

rc.compliance@noaa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

In the DPEIS, NOAA proposes to fund 

or otherwise implement coastal habitat 

restoration activities through its existing 

programmatic framework and related 

procedures. NOAA contains multiple 

programs that carry out habitat 

restoration projects throughout the 

coastal United States, which includes 

the Great Lakes and territories. Many of 

these programs are housed within the 

National Marine Fisheries Service, 

Office of Habitat Conservation’s 

Restoration Center (NOAA RC). Projects 

implemented by NOAA vary in terms of 

their size, complexity, geographic 

location and NOAA involvement, and 

often benefit a wide range of habitat 

types and affect a number of different 

species. Fish passage, hydrologic/tidal 

reconnection, shellfish restoration, coral 

recovery, salt marsh and barrier island 

restoration, erosion prevention, debris 

removal, and invasive species removal, 

are all examples of project types 

implemented by NOAA through its 

various programs. 

The DPEIS includes a suite of 

restoration approaches that NOAA 

proposes will most effectively conserve 

and restore the coastal and marine 

resources under NOAA trusteeship. 

This analysis builds upon and replaces 

the Programmatic Environmental 

Assessment (PEA) and Supplemental 

(SPEA) published in 2002 and 2006, 

respectively. The analyses in the PEA 

and SPEA, where relevant, along with 

NOAA’s analyses of individual project 

impacts, have informed the updated 

analyses in this DPEIS. NOAA believes 

that this DPEIS will promote an efficient 

NEPA compliance process for future 

NOAA-supported habitat restoration 

activities, through various programs. 

Alternatives: This document provides 

a programmatic-level environmental 

analysis to support NOAA’s proposal to 

continue habitat restoration activities 

involving trust resources throughout the 

coastal United States. The DPEIS takes 

a broad look at issues and 

programmatic-level alternatives 

(compared to a document for a specific 

project or action) and provides guidance 

for future restoration activities to be 

carried out by NOAA. In addition to 

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4884 Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 19 / Thursday, January 29, 2015 / Notices 

providing a programmatic analysis, 

NOAA intends to use this document to 

approve future site-specific actions, 

including grant actions, so long as the 

activity being proposed is within the 

range of alternatives and scope of 

potential environmental consequences 

considered within this NEPA analysis. 

Any future site-specific restoration 

activities proposed by NOAA that are 

not within the scope of alternatives or 

environmental consequences considered 

in this PEIS will require additional 

analysis under NEPA. 

NOAA has determined that two 

alternatives are reasonable and meet the 

purpose and need. These are Alternative 

1—Current Management and Alternative 

2—Technical Assistance. 

‘‘Current Management,’’ the No 

Action Alternative, is a comprehensive 

restoration approach that includes 

activities such as technical assistance, 

on-the-ground riverine and coastal 

habitat restoration activities, and land 

and water acquisition activities. For 

programmatic analyses of on-going 

programs, where program activities are 

being analyzed as opposed to a single 

specific project action, the No Action 

Alternative can be interpreted as ‘‘no 

change from current management’’ (CEQ 

40 Questions, 46 FR 18026 (March 23, 

1981). Riverine and coastal habitat 

restoration activities in this alternative 

include but are not limited to, fish 

passage projects; channel, bank and 

floodplain restoration; buffer area and 

watershed revegetation; saltmarsh 

restoration; oyster restoration; marine 

debris removal; submerged aquatic 

vegetation restoration; invasive species 

removal; and coral restoration. 

‘‘Technical Assistance’’ is an 

alternative approach that includes no 

on-the-ground restoration, and is 

limited to activities including project 

planning, modeling, feasibility studies, 

engineering and design studies, and 

permitting activities. 

Impacts Analysis: This DPEIS 

presents NOAA’s restoration activities 

and their environmental consequences 

grouped into three categories of 

restoration activities: Technical 

assistance; on-the-ground riverine and 

coastal habitat restoration activities; and 

land and water acquisition activities. 

All three of these restoration categories 

comprise the ‘‘Current Management’’ 

alternative. Technical assistance 

activities are typically minimallyintrusive, relatively low-cost and do not 

require extensive on-the-ground 

activities to be implemented. On-theground restoration activities include all 

of the physical riverine and coastal 

restoration that the NOAA RC supports. 

Land and water acquisition activities 

involve transactions of ownership, 

usage rights, or access. This alternative 

is anticipated to have typically longterm beneficial and short-term adverse 

impacts on the affected environment of 

various magnitudes and intensities, 

which are described in the DPEIS. 

The ‘‘Technical Assistance’’ 

alternative relies heavily, if not 

exclusively, on external sources of 

funding to conduct on-the-ground 

implementation. NOAA resources 

would only be focused on advisory or 

technical assistance aspects of the 

restoration work. The technical 

assistance activities would generally 

cause mostly indirect, long-term 

beneficial impacts, with short-term 

adverse impacts for more intrusive 

monitoring and sampling techniques. 

Request for Comment: The 

publication date of this notice 

constitutes the start of the comment 

period under NEPA for the PEIS. NOAA 

encourages all parties with an interest in 

or who are affected by habitat 

restoration activities to provide 

suggestions and comments. Comments 

are specifically requested regarding the 

alternatives, scope of analysis, 

assessment of impacts, and the process 

described in Appendix A for 

determining which future projects are 

covered by this analysis. For more 

detailed background information, 

including program descriptions, 

restoration project types, and the 

previously mentioned environmental 

assessment documents, please visit the 

NOAA Restoration Center Web site. 

Interested parties should provide 

written comments by March 20, 2015. 

Authority: 16 U.S.C. 661; 16 U.S.C. 1891a. 

Dated: January 26, 2015. 

Frederick C. Sutter, 

Director, Office of Habitat Conservation, 

National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2015–01744 Filed 1–28–15; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

RIN 0648–XD724 

Fishing Capacity Reduction Program 

for the Pacific Coast Groundfish 

Fishery 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice of loan repayment. 

SUMMARY: NMFS issues this notice to 

inform interested parties that the 

Oregon coastal Dungeness crab sub-loan 

in the fishing capacity reduction 

program for the Pacific Coast 

Groundfish Fishery has been repaid. 

Therefore, buyback fee collections on 

Oregon coastal Dungeness crab will 

cease for all landings after December 31, 

2014. 

DATES: Comments must be submitted on 

or before 5 p.m. EST February 13, 2015. 

ADDRESSES: Send comments about this 

notice to Paul Marx, Chief, Financial 

Services Division, NMFS, Attn: Oregon 

Coastal Dungeness Crab Buyback, 1315 

East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 

20910 (see FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

CONTACT). 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Michael A. Sturtevant at (301) 427–8799 

or Michael.A.Sturtevant@noaa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On 

November 16, 2004, NMFS published a 

Federal Register document (69 FR 

67100) proposing regulations to 

implement an industry fee system for 

repaying the reduction loan. The final 

rule was published July 13, 2005 (70 FR 

40225) and fee collection began on 

September 8, 2005. Interested persons 

should review these for further program 

details. 

The Oregon coastal Dungeness crab 

sub-loan of the Pacific Coast Groundfish 

Capacity Reduction (Buyback) loan in 

the amount of $1,367,545.28 will be 

repaid in full upon receipt of buyback 

fees on landings through December 31, 

2014. NMFS has received $2,117,701.75 

to repay the principal and interest on 

this sub-loan since fee collection began 

September 8, 2005. Based on buyback 

fees received to date, landings after 

December 31, 2014 will not be subject 

to the buyback fee. Therefore, buyback 

loan fees will no longer be collected in 

the Oregon coastal Dungeness crab 

fishery on future landings. 

Buyback fees not yet forwarded to 

NMFS for Oregon coastal Dungeness 

crab landings through December 31, 

2014 should be forwarded to NMFS 

immediately. Any overpayment of 

buyback fees submitted to NMFS will be 

refunded on a pro-rata basis to the fish 

buyers/processors based upon best 

available fish ticket landings data. The 

fish buyers/processors should return 

excess buyback fees collected to the 

harvesters, including buyback fees 

collected but not yet remitted to NMFS 

for landings after December 31, 2014. 

Any discrepancies in fees owed and fees 

paid must be resolved immediately. 

After the sub-loan is closed, no further 

adjustments to fees paid and fees 

received can be made. 

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