[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 240 (Monday, December 15, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Page 65693]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-32646]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[FRL-5935-1]
Shrimp Virus Workshop
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice of meeting.
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SUMMARY: This document announces a workshop sponsored by the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in cooperation with the Joint
Subcommittee on Aquaculture (JSA; Office of Science and Technology
Policy). The JSA includes representatives from Federal organizations
including the National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Department of
Agriculture, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency. The purpose of the workshop is to develop a
qualitative ecological risk assessment of the potential impacts of
shrimp viruses on cultured shrimp and on wild shrimp populations in the
Gulf of Mexico and southeastern U.S. Atlantic coastal waters. The
workshop will also develop recommendations for conducting a future,
more comprehensive risk assessment.
DATES: The workshop will begin on Wednesday, January 7, 1998, at 8:30
a.m. and end on Thursday, January 8, 1998, at 5 p.m. Members of the
public may attend as observers.
ADDRESSES: The workshop will be held at the Crystal Gateway Marriott
Hotel, 1700 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, VA. To make hotel
reservations, please call the hotel directly at 703-920-3230 by
December 29, 1997. Reference the EPA shrimp virus workshop to receive
the group rate. Eastern Research Group, Inc. (ERG), an EPA contractor,
is providing logistical support for the workshop. To attend the
workshop as an observer, register by calling the ERG conference
registration line at (781) 674-7374 by December 31, 1997, and reference
the shrimp virus workshop. There is no charge for attending the
workshop; however, seating is limited.
Background information provided to workshop panelists includes a
document containing a report on the shrimp virus problem and the
minutes of several public meetings at which the report was reviewed.
Printed copies will available on or about January 31, 1998. To obtain a
single copy of this document, interested parties should contact the
Center for Environmental Research Information, U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, 26 West Martin Luther King Drive, Cincinnati, OH
45268, Tel: (513) 569-7562, FAX: (513) 569-7566. Please provide your
name and mailing address, and request the document by the EPA number
(EPA/600/R-97/136) and title, Minutes of the Stakeholder Meetings on
the Report of the JSA Shrimp Virus Work Group. In addition, portions of
this report are available on the internet, at http://www.epa.gov/ncea/
svra.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For technical information, contact Dr.
Thomas McIlwain, Chairperson of the JSA Shrimp Virus Work Group,
National Marine Fisheries Service, 3209 Frederick Street, Pascagoula,
MS 39567, (601) 762-4591. For workshop information, contact Dr. Bill
van der Schalie, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (8623), 401 M
Street, SW, Washington, DC 20460, Telephone (202) 260-4191; FAX: 202-
260-6370; e-mail: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Evidence suggests that exotic shrimp viruses
may be inadvertently introduced into U.S. coastal regions. If
established, these introduced viruses have the potential to infect both
wild shrimp stocks and shrimp in aquaculture. To address this problem
the JSA has been developing an ecological risk assessment. In support
of information exchange and education, and to determine any necessary
course of action to avert the introduction of pathogenic viruses, the
JSA tasked a Federal interagency work group (Shrimp Virus Work Group;
SVWG) with preparing a report that summarizes readily-available risk-
relevant information on shrimp viruses (see 62 FR 31790-31791 (June 11,
1997)). This SVWG report was approved by the JSA and was reviewed at
several stakeholder meetings in July 1997. The minutes of these
meetings, the SVWG report, and additional stakeholder comments received
in conjunction with the release of the report and the stakeholder
meetings are the starting points for a peer-review workshop being
conducted under contract to the EPA's National Center for Environmental
Assessment, in cooperation with the JSA. The goals of this workshop are
to develop a qualitative ecological risk assessment of the potential
impacts of shrimp viruses on cultured shrimp and on wild shrimp
populations in the Gulf of Mexico and southeastern U.S. Atlantic
coastal waters and to develop recommendations for conducting a future,
more comprehensive risk assessment. Workshop results will provide one
source of information for a proposed JSA-sponsored risk management
workshop on the shrimp virus problem and may be useful in supporting
environmental decisionmaking.
Dated: December 9, 1997.
William H. Farland,
Director, National Center for Environmental Assessment.
[FR Doc. 97-32646 Filed 12-12-97; 8:45 am]
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