[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 98 (Monday, May 21, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 29967-29969]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-12262]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
RIN 0648-XC021
Notice of Intent To Terminate the Existing Draft Environmental
Impact Statement and Prepare a New Environmental Impact Statement
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notice; request for comments.
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SUMMARY: We, NMFS, intend to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement
(EIS) pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), related
to the Makah Indian Tribe's (Tribe) request that we authorize treaty
right hunting of eastern North Pacific gray whales in usual and
accustomed fishing grounds off the coast of Washington State. This
notice briefly describes the background of the Makah Tribe's request
for waiver, terminates a prior draft EIS (DEIS), and identifies and
requests comments on a set of new potential alternatives currently
under consideration.
DATES: Comments and information regarding the proposed revisions must
be received (See ADDRESSES) no later than 5 p.m. Pacific Time on August
10, 2012.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by [NOAA-NMFS-2012-
0104], by any of the following methods:
Electronic Submissions: Submit all electronic public comments via
the Federal eRulemaking Portal http://www.regulations.gov.
Mail: Send comments to: Steve Stone, Protected Resources Division,
NMFS, 1201 NE Lloyd Blvd., Suite 1100, Portland, OR 97232.
Facsimile (fax) to: 503-230-5441.
Instructions: Comments will be posted for public viewing as soon as
possible during the comment period. All comments received are a part of
the public record and will generally be posted to http://www.regulations.gov without change. We may elect not to post comments
that contain obscene or threatening content. 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.
We will accept anonymous comments (enter N/A in the required
fields, if you wish to remain anonymous). You may submit attachments to
electronic comments in Microsoft Word, Excel, WordPerfect, or Adobe PDF
file formats only. If your submission is made via hardcopy that
includes personal identifying information, you may request at the top
of your document that we withhold this information from public review
to the extent consistent with applicable law. However, we cannot
guarantee that we will be able to do so.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Donna Darm, NMFS, Northwest Region,
206-526-6150; or Shannon Bettridge, NMFS, Office of Protected
Resources, 301-427-8402. References used in this notice and related
information are available via our Web site at http://www.nwr.noaa.gov/Marine-Mammals/Whales-Dolphins-Porpoise/Gray-Whales/Index.cfm.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
On February 14, 2005, we received the Makah Tribe's request for a
limited waiver of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) take
moratorium under Section 101(a)(3)(A) (16 U.S.C. 1371(a)(3)(A)),
including issuance of regulations and any necessary permits. The
waiver, regulations, and permit would allow the Tribe to continue
treaty right ceremonial and subsistence hunting of eastern North
Pacific (ENP) gray whales in its usual and accustomed fishing grounds
(U&A). The Tribe made the request following the Ninth Circuit Court's
decision in Anderson v. Evans, 371 F.3d 475, that the Tribe must comply
with the process prescribed in the MMPA for authorizing take of marine
mammals. On January 24, 2006, the Tribe requested that we also take any
other necessary actions, including under the Whaling Convention Act (16
U.S.C. 916 et seq.), associated with a tribal hunt.
The Tribe's waiver request proposes to conduct treaty ceremonial
and subsistence harvest in the Tribe's U&A of up to 20 gray whales from
the ENP stock in any 5-year period with a maximum of five whales per
year, corresponding with aboriginal subsistence whaling limits
established by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in response
to a joint request from the United States and Russia. In addition, the
waiver request states that tribal regulations would limit the number of
gray whales that may be struck to no more than seven in any calendar
year, and would limit the number of struck and lost whales to no more
than three in any calendar year.
Other tribal regulations proposed in the waiver request include
measures to target migrating whales and avoid the intentional harvest
of whales that may be part of the Pacific Coast Feeding Aggregation (or
Pacific Coast Feeding Group--PCFG). This small group of gray whales
(approximately 200 animals) forages in waters from Northern California
to Northern British Columbia, including waters in and adjacent to the
Makah U&A during the summer. The measures include allowing hunting only
from December 1 through May 30 (avoiding the summer, when PCFG whales
predominate), restricting
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hunting to the coastal portion of the Tribe's U&A (avoiding the Strait
of Juan de Fuca, where PCFG whales predominate), and establishing an
allowable bycatch level for PCFG whales. The Makah Tribe's proposal
includes other standards for hunting, such as: (1) Monitoring and
adaptive management measures to ensure that any incidental harvest of
gray whales from the PCFG remains at or below the annual bycatch level,
(2) measures to ensure that hunting is conducted in the most humane
manner practicable, consistent with continued use of traditional
hunting methods, and (3) measures to protect public safety. The full
waiver request is posted online at http://www.nwr.noaa.gov/Marine-Mammals/Whales-Dolphins-Porpoise/Gray-Whales/Index.cfm.
On May 9, 2008, we released a draft environmental impact statement
(DEIS) that analyzed impacts to the human environment from the Makah
Tribe's request and five alternatives, including no action. The
alternatives varied the principal components of a hunt, including: The
time when whale hunting would occur; the area where whale hunting would
occur; the annual and 5-year limits on the number of whales harvested,
struck, and struck and lost; cessation of whale hunting if a
predetermined number of PCFG whales were harvested; and the method of
hunting.
We held three public meetings and received over 300 comments on the
DEIS during the 98-day comment period. In the fall of 2008 we began
developing responses to these comments and considering whether any new
alternative(s) might be needed to address some comments. A substantial
number of comments were concerned with potential hunting impacts on
PCFG whales.
Soon after releasing the DEIS, several substantive scientific
issues arose that required an extended period of consideration in our
NEPA analysis. First, NMFS scientists determined that population
estimates for ENP gray whales should be re-analyzed due to potential
biases in those estimates. That analysis was completed in December 2009
(Laake et al., 2009) and led to subsequent modeling work by Punt and
Wade (2010), who concluded that the ENP stock was within its ``optimum
sustainable population'' size. That conclusion was accepted by NMFS in
its stock assessment report for ENP gray whales (Allen and Angliss,
2010), and the papers by Laake (2009) and Punt and Wade (2010) were
also reviewed and endorsed by the IWC Scientific Committee. In
addition, in 2010 and 2011, researchers studying the genetics of ENP
and PCFG whales found evidence of population substructure indicating
that PCFG whales may warrant consideration as a separate management
unit (Frasier et al., 2011; Lang et al., 2011). More recently,
researchers tracking and sampling gray whales discovered that at least
some individuals from summer feeding grounds utilized by the endangered
western stock migrate across the Pacific and into areas used by ENP
gray whales (including the Makah U&A) (Lang et al., 2010; IWC, 2011;
Mate et al., 2011; Weller et al., 2011). We have made the studies cited
above and related information available on our Web site (see FOR
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT).
This information is central to our consideration of the Tribe's
request under the MMPA and to our NEPA analysis. Moreover, the
information is also under active consideration by the IWC as part of a
regular implementation review of ENP gray whales to assess whether
changes are needed in the international harvest scheme for these
whales. The IWC Scientific Committee is scheduled to meet this summer
and conclude its review of gray whales by June 23, 2012; the IWC will
consider that review at its annual meeting, which ends July 6, 2012.
Documents and reports are typically posted on the IWC Web site at
http://www.iwcoffice.org/meetings/reportsmain.htm. We encourage
interested parties to review these documents and reports as soon as
they become available during the public comment period on this notice.
Considerations
Pursuant to NEPA, NMFS must: (1) Take a hard look at the
environmental consequences of its proposed action to subsequently
develop an informed decision; (2) ensure that NEPA reviews provide high
quality environmental information via clear and concise documentation;
and (3) ensure that the high quality environmental information related
to the proposed action is available to the public before the agency
makes its decision (40 CFR 1500). In light of the substantial new
scientific information described above, and the amount of time that has
elapsed since the 2008 DEIS was published for comment, we conclude it
is appropriate to formally terminate that DEIS and to begin preparation
of a new EIS that is informed by the substantial new information,
upcoming IWC proceedings, and public input.
We have identified the following preliminary alternatives for
public consideration and comment before the range of reasonable
alternatives is finalized. This set of alternatives differs somewhat
from those examined in the 2008 DEIS, reflecting public comments we
received on the 2008 DEIS and our current understanding of the new
scientific information described above. Preliminary alternatives
include:
Alternative 1: No Action--Under the No Action Alternative, we would
not waive the take moratorium under the MMPA, nor issue the regulations
or permits to authorize a tribal hunt.
Alternative 2: The Tribe's Proposed Action--We would waive the take
moratorium and issue regulations that would allow us to issue permits
to the Makah Tribe to hunt gray whales under the terms proposed in its
waiver request.
Alternative 3: Offshore Hunt--We would waive the take moratorium
and issue regulations that would allow us to issue permits to the Makah
Tribe to hunt gray whales under the terms proposed in its waiver
request, except hunting would be allowed only in offshore waters at
least three miles from shore.
Alternative 4: Summer-only Hunt--We would waive the take moratorium
and adopt regulations that would allow us to issue permits to the Makah
Tribe to hunt gray whales under the terms proposed in its waiver
request except hunting would only be allowed during the period June 1
through November 30, to minimize the potential for taking a gray whale
migrating to or from the western North Pacific.
Alternative 5: Adaptive Management Hunt--We would waive the take
moratorium and adopt regulations that would allow us to issue permits
to the Makah Tribe to hunt gray whales in the coastal portion of the
Tribe's U&A under an adaptive management scheme that would allow for
flexibility in: Permit terms; hunting seasons; allowable levels of
struck, struck and lost, and landed whales up to the levels proposed by
the Tribe; and methods of calculating an allowable bycatch level for
PCFG whales.
The EIS assessment will identify potentially significant direct,
indirect, and cumulative impacts on a variety of resources, including:
Marine Habitat and Species
Gray Whales
Other Wildlife Species
Economics
Environmental Justice
Social Environment
Cultural Resources
Ceremonial and Subsistence Resources
Noise
Aesthetics
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Transportation
Public Services
Public Safety
Human Health
National and International Regulatory Environment
For all potentially significant impacts, the EIS will identify
measures to avoid, minimize, and mitigate impacts, where feasible, to a
level below significance.
Request for Comments
We provide this notice to: (1) Advise other agencies and the public
of our intentions; (2) obtain suggestions and information on the scope
of issues to include in the EIS; and (3) terminate the prior notice of
intent to prepare an EIS published on May 9, 2008 (73 FR 26375). In
addition to considering the comments we receive in response to this
notice in developing a new DEIS, we will consider the comments received
on the 2008 DEIS. When we publish a new DEIS we will respond in writing
to comments received on the 2008 DEIS. We invite comments from all
interested parties to ensure that the full range of issues related to
the Makah Tribe's waiver request and all significant issues are
identified. We request that comments be as specific as possible. We
seek public input on all aspects of our NEPA analysis, including any
new information that we should take into consideration; the range of
reasonable alternatives; and associated impacts of any alternatives on
the human environment.
Comments concerning this environmental review process should be
directed to NMFS (see ADDRESSES). See FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT
for questions. All comments and material received, including names and
addresses, will become part of the administrative record and may be
released to the public.
Authority
The environmental review of continuation of the Makah Tribe's
subsistence gray whale hunting will be conducted under the authority
and in accordance with the requirements of NEPA, Council on
Environmental Quality Regulations (40 CFR parts 1500-1508), other
applicable Federal laws and regulations, and policies and procedures of
NMFS for compliance with those regulations. This notice is being
furnished in accordance with 40 CFR 1501.7 to obtain suggestions and
information from other agencies and the public on the scope of issues
and alternatives to be addressed in the EIS.
Dated: May 11, 2012.
Helen M. Golde,
Acting Director, Office of Protected Resources, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2012-12262 Filed 5-18-12; 8:45 am]
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