Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 73 / Friday, April 17, 2009 / Notices 17819 

alternatives to establish new 

recordkeeping and reporting 

requirements. 

In accordance with NOAA’s 

Administrative Order NAO 216–6, 

Section 5.02(c), the Council and NMFS 

have identified this preliminary range of 

alternatives as a means to initiate 

discussion for scoping purposes only. 

This may not represent the full range of 

alternatives that eventually will be 

evaluated by the Council and NMFS. 

Once the Council and NMFS 

complete the DEIS associated with the 

Amendments to the FMP for the Queen 

Conch Fishery of Puerto Rico and the 

U.S. Virgin Islands and the FMP for the 

Reef Fish Fishery of Puerto Rico and the 

U.S. Virgin Islands, it must be approved 

by a majority of the voting members, 

present and voting, of the Council. After 

the Council approves this document, the 

DEIS and associated amendments will 

be submitted to NMFS for filing with 

the Environmental Protection Agency 

(EPA). The EPA will publish a notice of 

availability of the DEIS for public 

comment in the Federal Register. The 

DEIS will have a 45-day comment 

period. This procedure is pursuant to 

regulations issued by the Council on 

Environmental Quality (CEQ) for 

implementing the procedural provisions 

of the National Environmental Policy 

Act (NEPA; 40 CFR parts 1500–1508) 

and to NOAA’s Administrative Order 

216–6 regarding NOAA’s compliance 

with NEPA and the CEQ regulations. 

The Council and NMFS will consider 

public comments received on the DEIS 

in developing the final environmental 

impact statement (FEIS) and before 

adopting final management measures for 

the amendment. The Council will 

submit both the final joint amendment 

and the supporting FEIS to NMFS for 

review by the Secretary under the MSA. 

NMFS will announce, through a 

notice published in the Federal 

Register, the availability of the final 

joint amendment for public review 

during the Secretarial review period. 

During Secretarial review, NMFS will 

also file the FEIS with the EPA for a 

final 30-day public comment period. 

This comment period will be concurrent 

with the Secretarial review period and 

will end prior to final agency action to 

approve, disapprove, or partially 

approve the final joint amendment. 

NMFS will announce, through a 

notice published in the Federal 

Register, all public comment periods on 

the final joint amendment, its proposed 

implementing regulations, and its 

associated FEIS. NMFS will consider all 

public comments received during the 

Secretarial review period, whether they 

are on the final amendment, the 

proposed regulations, or the FEIS, prior 

to final agency action. 

Scoping Meeting Dates, Times, and 

Locations 

All scoping meetings are scheduled to 

be held from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. The 

meetings will be physically accessible to 

people with disabilities. Request for 

sign language interpretation or other 

auxiliary aids should be directed to the 

Council (see ADDRESSES). 

April 27–Doubletree by Hilton San 

Juan, De Diego Avenue, San Juan, 

Puerto Rico. 

April 28–Holiday Inn and Tropical 

Casino Ponce, 3315 Ponce By Pass, 

Ponce, Puerto Rico. 

April 29–Salon B, Centro de Usos 

Multiples, Doctor Lopez and Celis 

Aguilera Street, Fajardo, Puerto Rico. 

May 4–Mayaguez Resort and Casino, 

Road 104, Km. 0.3, Mayaguez, Puerto 

Rico. 

May 6–Community Center, 

Frenchtown, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin 

Islands. 

May 7–The Florence Williams Public 

Library, 1122 King Street, Christiansted, 

St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. 

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

Dated: April 10, 2009 

Kristen C. Koch, 

Acting Director, Office of Sustainable 

Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. E9–8888 Filed 4–16–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–S 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Institute of Standards and 

Technology 

Notice of Inventions Available for 

Licensing 

AGENCY: National Institute of Standards 

and Technology, Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice of inventions available 

for licensing. 

SUMMARY: The inventions listed below 

are owned in whole or in part by the 

U.S. Government, as represented by the 

Secretary of Commerce. The U.S. 

Government’s interest in these 

inventions is available for licensing in 

accordance with 35 U.S.C. 207 and 37 

CFR part 404 to achieve expeditious 

commercialization of results of federally 

funded research and development. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Technical and licensing information on 

these inventions may be obtained by 

writing to: National Institute of 

Standards and Technology, Office of 

Technology Partnerships, Attn: Mary 

Clague, Building 222, Room A240, 

Gaithersburg, MD 20899. Information is 

also available via telephone: 301–975– 

4188, fax 301–975–3482, or e-mail: 

mary.clague@nist.gov. Any request for 

information should include the NIST 

Docket number and title for the 

invention as indicated below. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NIST may 

enter into a Cooperative Research and 

Development Agreement (‘‘CRADA’’) 

with the licensee to perform further 

research on the invention for purposes 

of commercialization. The inventions 

available for licensing are: 

[NIST Docket Number: 06–003] 

Title: Zeroeth Order Imaging. 

Abstract: The invention provides a 

method of imaging critical dimensions 

by measuring the zeroeth order of 

diffracted light. The method involves 

providing a target, directing light onto 

the target so as to cause the target to 

diffract the light. The zeroeth order of 

the diffracted light is collected and 

analyzed to determine structural 

features of the target. The target can be 

an article of manufacture, such as a 

semiconductor device, or a separate 

target that is provided or fabricated on 

an article of manufacture. One of at least 

the wavelength and the angle at which 

the light is directed onto the target can 

be scanned. The target can fill all or 

only a portion of the field of view. 

[NIST Docket Number: 08–013] 

Title: The Microfluidic Palette: 

Generation of Multiple Chemical 

Gradients Within a Microfluidic 

Chamber. 

Abstract: This invention is jointly 

owned with KT Consulting, Inc. The 

invention is a microfluidic device, 

capable of generating multiple spatial 

chemical gradients simultaneously 

inside a microfluidic chamber. The 

chemical gradients are generated by 

diffusion, without convection, and can 

either be maintained constant over long 

time periods, or modified dynamically. 

A representative device is described 

with a circular chamber in which 

diffusion occurs, with three access ports 

for the delivery and removal of solutes. 

A gradient typically forms in minutes, 

and can be maintained constant 

indefinitely. The device can also be 

used to evaluate chemotactic responses 

of bacteria or other microorganisms in 

the absence of convective flow. 

[NIST Docket Number: 08–033] 

Title: A New Technique for 

Combinational Circuit Optimization and 

a New Circuit for the S-box of AES. 

Abstract: This invention is jointly 

owned with the University of Southern 

Denmark. The invention provides a new 

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17820 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 73 / Friday, April 17, 2009 / Notices 

technique for combinational circuit 

optimization. The technique is a twostep process. In the first step, the nonlinearity of the circuit—as measured by 

the number of nonlinear gates it 

contains—is reduced. The second step 

reduces the number of gates in the 

linear components of the circuit. The 

technique can be applied to arbitrary 

circuits, and seems to yield 

improvements even on circuits that 

have already been optimized by 

standard methods. The technique is 

applied to the S-box of the Advanced 

Encryption Standard (AES). The result 

is, as far as we know, the smallest 

circuit yet constructed for this function. 

Dated: April 7, 2009. 

Patrick Gallagher, 

Deputy Director. 

[FR Doc. E9–8873 Filed 4–16–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–13–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

RIN 0648–XO55 

Magnuson–Stevens Act Provisions; 

General Provisions for Domestic 

Fisheries; Application for Exempted 

Fishing Permits 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice; request for comments. 

SUMMARY: The Assistant Regional 

Administrator for Sustainable Fisheries, 

Northeast Region, NMFS (Assistant 

Regional Administrator), has made a 

preliminary determination that an 

Exempted Fishing Permit (EFP) 

application contains all of the required 

information and warrants further 

consideration. The Assistant Regional 

Administrator has made a preliminary 

determination that the activities 

authorized under this EFP would be 

consistent with the goals and objectives 

of the Monkfish Fishery Management 

Plan (FMP). However, further review 

and consultation may be necessary 

before a final determination is made to 

issue an EFP. Therefore, NMFS 

announces that the Assistant Regional 

Administrator proposes to recommend 

that an EFP be issued that would allow 

eight commercial fishing vessels to 

conduct research and compensation 

fishing operations that are otherwise 

restricted by the regulations governing 

the fisheries of the Northeastern United 

States. This EFP, which would enable 

vessels to harvest monkfish granted 

through the Monkfish Research Set– 

Aside (RSA) Program, would grant 

exemptions from restrictions of the Gulf 

of Maine (GOM) Rolling Closure Areas 

(RCA) I and II and from the monkfish 

days–at–sea (DAS) possession limits in 

the Southern and Northern Fishery 

Management Areas. 

Regulations under the Magnuson– 

Stevens Fishery Conservation and 

Management Act require publication of 

this notification to provide interested 

parties the opportunity to comment on 

applications for proposed EFPs. 

DATES: Comments must be received on 

or before May 4, 2009. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit written 

comments by any of the following 

methods: 

• Email: DA8–057@noaa.gov. Include 

in the subject line ‘‘Comments on UMES 

Monkfish RSA EFP.’’ 

• Mail: Patricia A. Kurkul, Regional 

Administrator, NMFS, NE Regional 

Office, 1 Blackburn Drive, Gloucester, 

MA 01930. Mark the outside of the 

envelope ‘‘Comments on UMES 

monkfish RSA EFP, DA8–057.’’ 

• Fax: (978) 281–9135. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Emily Bryant, Fishery Management 

Specialist, 978–281–9244. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: An 

application for an EFP was submitted by 

the University of Maryland Eastern 

Shore (UMES) on March 11, 2009, for a 

project selected under the New England 

and Mid–Atlantic Fishery Management 

Councils’ Monkfish RSA Program. The 

purpose of the project is to investigate 

the influence of temperature on 

monkfish distribution and abundance. 

This EFP would grant an exemption 

from monkfish possession limits to eight 

vessels for the purpose of research and 

RSA harvest to fund this research 

project (i.e., compensation fishing). 

While conducting RSA compensation 

trips, the vessels would use gillnets that 

are 12–inch (30–cm) stretch mesh with 

a 3.5–inch (9–cm) diameter gauge web 

that is 12 meshes deep. The nets do not 

exceed 300 ft (91 m) in length. Average 

soak times differ between vessels, with 

a range of 36 to 120 hours. Each vessel 

would receive two temperature and 

depth loggers to attach to gillnets during 

RSA fishing trips. The loggers would 

collect temperature and depth at 

intervals of 1 hour, and will be 

downloaded approximately every two 

months. Catch data (number and size of 

monkfish) from panels with probes 

would be recorded by collaborating 

fishermen, along with information on 

location, depth fished, water currents, 

and lunar cycle. UMES plans to collect 

histological samples on board the 

fishing vessels from a subset of trips for 

analysis of reproductive condition. 

Length measurements would be taken 

each trip from a minimum of 25 

randomly selected monkfish from the 

nets with attached temperature probes 

to gain information about fish 

distribution. The smallest samples 

would measure 17 inches (43 cm) in 

length. Additional catch, within 

applicable size and possession limits, 

would be sold to help offset the costs of 

the research. 

Compensation fishing for this 

research would occur from May 2009 

through April 2010. The eight fishing 

industry collaborators would have 

access to 105 monkfish DAS that will be 

awarded to the project through the 

Monkfish RSA Program. In order to 

achieve the target catch to fund the 

project, these fishing activities would 

require an exemption from monkfish 

DAS possession limits at 50 CFR 

648.94(b)(2). This exemption would 

provide these eight vessels with the 

flexibility they need to generate 

sufficient income to meet projected 

costs of the research activity, while 

minimizing operating expenses. Based 

on the preliminary award of 105 DAS, 

this would require a total catch of 

340,046 lb (154,242 kg) of whole 

monkfish (102,424 lb (46,459 kg) tail 

weight). Operating under this total 

landings cap, compensation fishing 

would continue until the required goal 

of 340,046 lb (154,242 kg) of whole 

monkfish is met, or until the awarded 

DAS have been fully utilized, whichever 

occurs first. Aside from this exemption, 

fishing activity would be conducted 

under normal commercial practices. 

In addition, this EFP would also allow 

five of the eight vessels to fish for 

monkfish using gillnets inside the GOM 

and would require exemption from the 

restrictions of RCAs I and II that will be 

in effect during April 2009 and March 

2010. It is expected that these locations, 

within the rolling closure areas, would 

provide access to large monkfish and 

would avoid gear interactions between 

the research gillnet gear and trawl gear. 

These locations also coordinate with the 

locations from previous years’ research. 

The applicant may request minor 

modifications and extensions to the EFP 

throughout the year. EFP modifications 

and extensions may be granted without 

further notice if they are deemed 

essential to facilitate completion of the 

proposed research and have minimal 

impacts that do not change the scope or 

impact of the initially approved EFP 

request. Any fishing activity conducted 

outside the scope of the exempted 

fishing activity would be prohibited. If 

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