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Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 173 / Thursday, September 8, 2022 / Proposed Rules
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 50 CFR Part 223 [Docket No. 220830–0177; RTID 0648– XR071]
Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants: Proposed Rule to List the Queen Conch as Threatened Under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce. ACTION: Proposed rule; request for comments. AGENCY:
We, NMFS, announce a proposed rule to list the queen conch (Aliger gigas, previously known as Strombus gigas) as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). We have completed a comprehensive status review for the queen conch. After considering the status review report, and after taking into account efforts being made to protect the species, we have determined that the queen conch is likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future throughout its range. Therefore, we propose to list the queen conch as a threatened species under the ESA. Any protective regulations determined to be necessary and advisable for the conservation of the queen conch under ESA would be proposed in a subsequent Federal Register announcement. We solicit information to assist this listing determination, the development of proposed protective regulations, and designation of critical habitat within U.S jurisdiction. DATES: Information and comments on this proposed rule must be received by November 7, 2022. Public hearing requests must be requested by October 24, 2022. ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, information, or data on this document, identified by the code NOAA–NMFS– 2019–0141 by any of the following methods: • Electronic Submissions: Submit all electronic comments via the Federal eRulemaking Portal. Go to www.regulations.gov and enter NOAA– NMFS–2019–0141 in the Search box. Click on the ‘‘Comment’’ icon, complete the required fields, and enter or attach your comments. • Mail: NMFS, Southeast Regional Office, 263 13th Avenue South, St. Petersburg, FL 33701;
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• Instructions: Comments sent by any other method, to any other address or individual, or received after the end of the comment period, might not be considered by NMFS. All comments received are a part of the public record and will generally be posted for public viewing on www.regulations.gov without change. All personal identifying information (e.g., name, address, etc.), confidential business information, or otherwise sensitive information submitted voluntarily by the sender will be publicly accessible. NMFS will accept anonymous comments (enter ‘‘N/ A’’ in the required fields if you wish to remain anonymous). You can find the petition, status review report, Federal Register notices, and the list of references electronically on our website at https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/ species/queen-conch FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Calusa Horn, NMFS Southeast Regional Office, 727–551–5782 or Calusa.Horn@ noaa.gov, or Maggie Miller, NMFS Office of Protected Resources, 301–427– 8457 or Margaret.H.Miller@noaa.gov. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background On February 27, 2012, we received a petition from WildEarth Guardians to list the queen conch as threatened or endangered throughout all or a significant portion of its range under the ESA. We determined that the petitioned action may be warranted and published a positive 90-day finding in the Federal Register (77 FR 51763; August 27, 2012). After conducting a status review, we determined that listing queen conch as threatened or endangered under the ESA was not warranted and published our determination in the Federal Register (79 FR 65628; November 5, 2014). In making that determination, we first concluded that the queen conch was not presently in danger of extinction, nor was it likely to become so in the foreseeable future. We also evaluated whether there was a portion of the queen conch’s range that was ‘‘significant,’’ applying the definition of that term from the joint U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/NMFS Policy on Interpretation of the Phrase ‘‘Significant Portion of Its Range’’ (SPR Policy; 79 FR 37580, July 1, 2014). We concluded that available information did not indicate any ‘‘portion’s contribution to the viability of the species is so important that, without the members in that portion, the species would be in danger of extinction, or likely to become so in the foreseeable future, throughout all of its range.’’
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WildEarth Guardians and Friends of Animals filed suit on July 27, 2016, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, challenging our decision not to list queen conch as threatened or endangered under the ESA. On August 26, 2019, the court vacated our determination that listing queen conch under the ESA was not warranted and remanded the determination back to the NMFS based on our reliance on the SPR Policy’s particular threshold for defining ‘‘significant,’’ which was vacated nationwide in 2018 (though other aspects of the policy remain in effect). See Desert Survivors v. U.S. Dep’t of Interior, 321 F. Supp. 3d 1011 (N.D. Cal. 2018). Following the 2019 ruling of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, we announced the initiation of a new status review of queen conch and requested scientific and commercial information from the public (84 FR 66885, December 6, 2019). We received 12 public comments in response to this request. We also provided notice and requested information from jurisdictions through the Western Central Atlantic Fishery Commission (WECAFC), Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM), and the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Authorities. All relevant, new information was incorporated as appropriate in the status review report and in this proposed rule. In particular, new information considered in the status review report includes: (1) fisheries landings data (1950–2018) from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO); (2) reconstructed landing histories (1950– 2016) from the Sea Around Us (SAU) project; (3) results from recent genetic studies; and (4) the results from regional hydrodynamics and population connectivity modeling. Listing Determinations Under the ESA We are responsible for determining whether species are threatened or endangered under the ESA (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.). To make this determination, we first consider whether a group of organisms constitutes a ‘‘species’’ under section 3 of the ESA, then whether the status of the species qualifies it for listing as either threatened or endangered. Section 3 of the ESA defines species to include ‘‘any subspecies of fish or wildlife or plants, and any distinct population segment of any species of vertebrate fish or wildlife which interbreeds when mature.’’ Because the queen conch is an invertebrate, we do not have the authority to list individual populations as distinct population segments.
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