Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 39 / Monday, March 2, 2009 / Proposed Rules 9071 

pathological condition is subject to the 

requirements and prohibitions in 

sections 202 through 206 of GINA and 

§§ 1635.4 through 1635.7 and 1635.9 of 

this part. 

[FR Doc. E9–4221 Filed 2–27–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6570–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND 

SECURITY 

Coast Guard 

33 CFR Parts 160, 161, 164, and 165 

[USCG–2005–21869] 

RIN 1625–AA99 

Vessel Requirements for Notices of 

Arrival and Departure, and Automatic 

Identification System 

AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS. 

ACTION: Notice of second public 

meeting; request for comments. 

SUMMARY: In response to requests 

received, the Coast Guard announces a 

second public meeting, to be held 

March 25, 2009, in Seattle, WA, to 

receive comments on a notice of 

proposed rulemaking to amend Coast 

Guard regulations governing Notice of 

Arrival and Departure (NOAD) and 

Automatic Identification System (AIS) 

requirements. This is an additional 

meeting to the one previously 

announced for March 5, 2009, in 

Washington, DC. 

DATES: A public meeting will be held in 

Seattle, WA, on March 25, 2009, from 1 

p.m. to 3:30 p.m. The comment period 

for the proposed rule closes April 15, 

2009. All written comments and related 

material must be received by the Coast 

Guard on or before April 15, 2009. 

ADDRESSES: The March 25, 2009, public 

meeting will be held at the following 

location: 

• Seattle, WA—Henry M. Jackson 

Federal Building, 915 Second Ave., 

Fourth Floor North Auditorium, Seattle, 

WA 98174–1067. 

A government-issued photo 

identification will be required for 

entrance to the building. 

Written comments and related 

material may also be submitted to Coast 

Guard personnel specified at that 

meeting. All comments and related 

material submitted after the meeting 

must be submitted using any one of the 

following methods: 

(1) Federal eRulemaking Portal: 

http://www.regulations.gov under 

docket number USCG–2005–21869. 

(2) Fax: 202–493–2251. 

(3) Mail: Docket Management Facility 

(M–30), U.S. Department of 

Transportation, West Building Ground 

Floor, Room W12–140, 1200 New Jersey 

Avenue, SE., Washington, DC 20590– 

0001. 

(4) Hand delivery: Same as mail 

address above, between 9 a.m. and 5 

p.m., Monday through Friday, except 

Federal holidays. The telephone number 

is 202–366–9329. 

To avoid duplication, please use only 

one of these four methods. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: If 

you have questions concerning the 

NOAD portion of this proposed 

rulemaking or concerning the public 

meeting, please contact Lieutenant 

Sharmine Jones, Office of Vessel 

Activities (CG–543), Coast Guard, 

Sharmine.N.Jones@uscg.mil, telephone 

202–372–1234. If you have questions on 

the AIS portion of this proposed 

rulemaking, contact Mr. Jorge Arroyo, 

Office of Navigation Systems (CG–5413), 

Coast Guard, Jorge.Arroyo@uscg.mil, 

telephone 202–372–1563. If you have 

questions on viewing or submitting 

material to the docket, call Ms. Renee V. 

Wright, Program Manager, Docket 

Operations, telephone 202–366–9826. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background and Purpose 

We published a notice of proposed 

rulemaking (NPRM) in the Federal 

Register on December 16, 2008 (73 FR 

76295), entitled ‘‘Vessel Requirements 

for Notices of Arrival and Departure, 

and Automatic Identification System.’’ 

In it we stated our intention to hold a 

public meeting, and to publish a notice 

to announce the location and date of the 

public meeting. 73 FR 76296. In this 

notice, we announce an additional 

public meeting, to the one previously 

announced for March 5, 2009, in 

Washington, DC (74 FR 7534), to receive 

comments on this proposed rule. 

In the NPRM, we proposed to expand 

the applicability of Notice of Arrival 

and Departure (NOAD) and Automatic 

Identification System (AIS) 

requirements to more commercial 

vessels, modify NOAD reporting 

requirements, establish a mandatory 

method for electronic data submission 

and establish a separate requirement for 

certain vessels to submit notices of 

departure. The proposed rulemaking 

would also clarify existing AIS 

requirements and extend the 

applicability of AIS requirements to 

additional vessels and beyond Vessel 

Traffic Service areas to all U.S. 

navigable waters. 

You may view the NPRM in our 

online docket, in addition to supporting 

documents prepared by the Coast Guard 

(Regulatory Analysis & Initial 

Regulatory Flexibility Analysis, Valuing 

Mortality Risk Reductions in Homeland 

Security Regulatory Analyses—Final 

Report June 2008, and an Environmental 

Checklist), and comments submitted 

thus far by going to http:// 

www.regulations.gov. Once there, select 

the Advanced Docket Search option on 

the right side of the screen, insert 

USCG–2005–21869 in the Docket ID 

box, press Enter, and then click on the 

item in the Docket ID column. If you do 

not have access to the Internet, you may 

view the docket by visiting the Docket 

Management Facility in Room W12–140 

on the ground floor of the Department 

of Transportation West Building, 1200 

New Jersey Avenue, SE., Washington, 

DC 20590, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., 

Monday through Friday, except Federal 

holidays. We have an agreement with 

the Department of Transportation to use 

the Docket Management Facility. 

We encourage you to participate in 

this rulemaking by submitting 

comments either orally at the meeting or 

in writing. If you bring written 

comments to the meeting, you may 

submit them to Coast Guard personnel 

specified at the meeting to receive 

written comments. These comments 

will be submitted to our online public 

docket. All comments received will be 

posted without change to http:// 

www.regulations.gov and will include 

any personal information you have 

provided. 

Anyone can search the electronic 

form of comments received into any of 

our dockets by the name of the 

individual submitting the comment (or 

signing the comment, if submitted on 

behalf of an association, business, labor 

union, etc.). You may review a Privacy 

Act notice regarding our public dockets 

in the January 17, 2008, issue of the 

Federal Register (73 FR 3316). 

Information on Service for Individuals 

With Disabilities 

For information on facilities or 

services for individuals with disabilities 

or to request special assistance at the 

public meeting, contact Lieutenant 

Sharmine Jones at the telephone number 

indicated under the FOR FURTHER

INFORMATION CONTACT section of this 

notice. 

Public Meeting 

The Coast Guard will hold a public 

meeting regarding this proposed 

rulemaking on March 25, 2009, from 

1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., in Seattle, WA, at 

the Henry M. Jackson Federal Building, 

915 Second Ave., Fourth Floor North 

Auditorium, Seattle, WA 98174–1067. 


erowe on PROD1PC63 with PROPOSALS-1
9072 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 39 / Monday, March 2, 2009 / Proposed Rules 

Should the length of oral comments or 

the number of commenters warrant 

doing so, the meeting may be extended 

to as late as 5 p.m. A government-issued 

photo identification (for example, a 

driver’s license) will be required for 

entrance to the building. 

We plan to record this meeting using 

an audio-digital recorder and to make 

that audio recording available through a 

link in our online docket. We will also 

provide a written summary of the 

meeting and comments and will place 

that summary in the docket. 

Dated: February 25, 2009. 

Howard L. Hime, 

Acting Director of Commercial Regulations 

and Standards. 

[FR Doc. E9–4356 Filed 2–25–09; 4:15 pm] 

BILLING CODE 4910–15–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

50 CFR Part 648 

[Docket No. 090206144–9186–01] 

RIN 0648–AX49 

Fisheries of the Northeastern United 

States; Atlantic Bluefish Fisheries; 

2009 Atlantic Bluefish Specifications 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Proposed rule; request for 

comments. 

SUMMARY: NMFS proposes 2009 

specifications for the Atlantic bluefish 

fishery, including state-by-state 

commercial quotas, a recreational 

harvest limit, and recreational 

possession limits for Atlantic bluefish 

off the east coast of the United States. 

The intent of these specifications is to 

establish the allowable 2009 harvest 

levels and possession limits to attain the 

target fishing mortality rate (F), 

consistent with the Atlantic Bluefish 

Fishery Management Plan (FMP). 

DATES: Written comments must be 

received no later than 5 p.m. eastern 

standard time, on March 17, 2009. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, 

identified by 0648–AX49, by any one of 

the following methods: 

• Electronic Submissions: Submit all 

electronic public comments via the 

Federal e-Rulemaking portal: http:// 

www.regulations.gov, 

• Fax: (978) 281–9135, Attn: Regional 

Administrator. 

• Mail: Patricia A. Kurkul, Regional 

Administrator, NMFS, Northeast 

Regional Office, 55 Great Republic 

Drive, Gloucester, MA 01930. Mark the 

outside of the envelope: ‘‘Comments on 

2009 Bluefish Specifications.’’ 

Instructions: All comments received 

are part of the public record and will 

generally be posted to http:// 

www.regulations.gov without change. 

All Personal Identifying Information (for 

example, name, address, etc.) 

voluntarily submitted by the commenter 

may be publicly accessible. Do not 

submit Confidential Business 

Information or otherwise sensitive or 

protected information. 

NMFS will accept anonymous 

comments. Attachments to electronic 

comments will be accepted in Microsoft 

Word, Excel, WordPerfect, or Adobe 

PDF file formats only. 

Copies of the specifications 

document, including the Environmental 

Assessment and Initial Regulatory 

Flexibility Analysis (EA/IRFA) and 

other supporting documents for the 

specifications, are available from Daniel 

Furlong, Executive Director, MidAtlantic Fishery Management Council, 

Room 2115, Federal Building, 300 South 

Street, Dover, DE 19901–6790. The 

specifications document is also 

accessible via the Internet at http:// 

www.nero.noaa.gov. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Tobey Curtis, Fishery Policy Analyst, 

(978) 281–9273. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

The regulations implementing the 

FMP are prepared by the Mid-Atlantic 

Fishery Management Council (Council) 

and appear at 50 CFR part 648, subparts 

A and J. Regulations requiring annual 

specifications are found at § 648.160. 

The management unit for bluefish 

(Pomatomus saltatrix) is U.S. waters of 

the western Atlantic Ocean. 

The FMP requires that the Council 

recommend, on an annual basis, total 

allowable landings (TAL) for the fishery, 

consisting of a commercial quota and 

recreational harvest limit (RHL). A 

research set aside (RSA) quota is 

deducted from the bluefish TAL (after 

any applicable transfer) in an amount 

proportional to the percentage of the 

overall TAL as allocated to the 

commercial and recreational sectors. 

The annual review process for bluefish 

requires that the Council’s Bluefish 

Monitoring Committee (Monitoring 

Committee) and Scientific and 

Statistical Committee (SSC) review and 

make recommendations based on the 

best available data, including, but not 

limited to, commercial and recreational 

catch/landing statistics, current 

estimates of fishing mortality, stock 

abundance, discards for the recreational 

fishery, and juvenile recruitment. Based 

on the recommendations of the 

Monitoring Committee and SSC, the 

Council makes a recommendation to the 

Northeast Regional Administrator (RA). 

This FMP is a joint plan with the 

Atlantic States Marine Fisheries 

Commission (Commission); therefore, 

the Commission meets during the 

annual specification process to adopt 

complementary measures. 

The Council’s recommendations must 

include supporting documentation 

concerning the environmental, 

economic, and social impacts of the 

recommendations. NMFS is responsible 

for reviewing these recommendations to 

assure they achieve the FMP objectives, 

and may modify them if they do not. 

NMFS then publishes proposed 

specifications in the Federal Register. 

After considering public comment, 

NMFS will publish final specifications 

in the Federal Register. 

In July 2008, the Monitoring 

Committee and SSC met to discuss the 

updated estimates of bluefish stock 

biomass and project fishery yields for 

2009. In August 2008, the Council 

approved the SSC and Monitoring 

Committee’s recommendations and the 

Commission’s Bluefish Board (Board) 

adopted complementary management 

measures. 

Proposed Specifications 

Updated Model Estimates 

According to Amendment 1 to the 

FMP (Amendment 1), overfishing for 

bluefish occurs when F exceeds the 

fishing mortality rate that allows 

maximum sustainable yield (FMSY), or 

the maximum F threshold to be 

achieved. The stock is considered 

overfished if the biomass (B) falls below 

the minimum biomass threshold, which 

is defined as 1/2 BMSY. Amendment 1 

also established that the long-term target 

F is 90 percent of FMSY (FMSY = 0.19, 

therefore Ftarget = 90 percent of FMSY = 

0.17), and the long-term target B is BMSY

= 324 million lb (146,964 mt). The 

rebuilding plan established through 

Amendment 1 stipulates that the target 

fishing mortality rate (Ftarget) in 2009 be 

set at F = 0.31 (based upon earlier 

estimates ofFMSY, which was updated by 

the 41st Stock Assessment Review 

Committee (SARC–41) in 2005), or the 

status quo fishing mortality rate (F2007), 

whichever is less. 

An age-structured assessment 

program (ASAP) model for bluefish was 

approved by SARC–41 in 2005 to 


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