Notice2024-30702
Notice of Cashes Ledge Site Added to the Inventory of Areas for Possible Designation as National Marine Sanctuaries
Primary source
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Published
January 6, 2025
Issuing agencies
Commerce DepartmentNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Abstract
On June 13, 2014, NOAA published a final rule establishing the Sanctuary Nomination Process, allowing communities to submit nominations to NOAA for consideration as new national marine sanctuaries. The rule outlined the review process, national significance criteria, and management considerations that NOAA uses to evaluate nominations for inclusion in the inventory of areas that could eventually be considered for designation. The rule also states that NOAA will publish a Federal Register notice when areas have been added to the inventory of successful nominations. This notice announces that NOAA has added the Cashes Ledge area to the inventory; the agency is not moving forward with a designation at this time.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 3 (Monday, January 6, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 3 (Monday, January 6, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 606-607]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2024-30702]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Notice of Cashes Ledge Site Added to the Inventory of Areas for
Possible Designation as National Marine Sanctuaries
AGENCY: Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS), National Ocean
Service (NOS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
Department of Commerce.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: On June 13, 2014, NOAA published a final rule establishing the
Sanctuary Nomination Process, allowing communities to submit
nominations to NOAA for consideration as new national marine
sanctuaries. The rule outlined the review process, national
significance criteria, and management considerations that NOAA uses to
evaluate nominations for inclusion in the inventory of areas that could
eventually be considered for designation. The rule also states that
NOAA will publish a Federal Register notice when areas have been added
to the inventory of successful nominations. This notice announces that
NOAA has added the Cashes Ledge area to the inventory; the agency is
not moving forward with a designation at this time.
DATES: Applicable January 3, 2025.
ADDRESSES: Matt Brookhart, Eastern Regional Director, NOAA Office of
National Marine Sanctuaries, 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring,
Maryland 20910, and at <a href="https://nominate.noaa.gov/nominations/">https://nominate.noaa.gov/nominations/</a>.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Matt Brookhart, Eastern Regional
Director, NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries,
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#325f5346461c50405d5d595a534046725c5d53531c555d44"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="c3aea2b7b7eda1b1acaca8aba2b1b783adaca2a2eda4acb5">[email protected]</span></a>, or at 301-452-4177.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The National Marine Sanctuaries Act (NMSA) (16 U.S.C. 1431 et seq.)
authorizes the Secretary of Commerce to identify and designate as
national marine sanctuaries areas of the marine environment, including
the Great Lakes, which are of special national significance; to manage
these areas as the National Marine Sanctuary System; and to provide for
the comprehensive and coordinated conservation and management of these
areas and the activities affecting them in a manner which complements
existing regulatory authorities. Section 303 of the NMSA, 16 U.S.C.
1433, provides national marine sanctuary designation standards and
factors required in determining whether an area qualifies for
consideration as a potential national marine sanctuary, and section
304, 16 U.S.C. 1434, establishes procedures for national marine
sanctuary designation and implementation. Regulations implementing the
NMSA and each national marine sanctuary are codified in part 922 of
title 15 of the Code of Federal Regulations.
On June 13, 2014, NOAA issued a final rule that established the
Sanctuary Nomination Process and finalized the national significance
criteria and management considerations it will use to review new
national marine sanctuary nominations (79 FR 33851). If NOAA determines
a nomination adequately meets the final criteria and considerations, it
may place that nomination in an inventory of areas to consider for
designation as a national marine sanctuary. NOAA also stated that it
would send a letter of notification to the nominator and publish a
Federal Register notice identifying areas that have been added to the
inventory of successful nominations. This notice documents that NOAA is
adding the Cashes Ledge area to the inventory.
NOAA is not designating any new national marine sanctuaries with
this action. Any proposed designations of areas on the inventory would
be conducted by NOAA as a separate process under the NMSA,
Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. Subchapter II), National
Environmental Policy Act (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), and other applicable
authorities.
II. Cashes Ledge Sanctuary Nomination Added to the Inventory
Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) nominated the Cashes Ledge area
to be considered for designation as a national marine sanctuary on July
29, 2024. CLF identified a 766 mi\2\ area around Cashes
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Ledge, which is located 90 miles east of Portsmouth, New Hampshire in
the Gulf of Maine. This area includes not just Cashes Ledge, but also
Parker Ridge and Sigsbee Ridge, which collectively form a 32 mile long
granite ridge that rises sharply from the sea floor and runs parallel
to the coastline. CLF nominated the Cashes Ledge area for consideration
as a national marine sanctuary to protect its nationally significant
ecological resources. These include dense kelp forests, habitat for
species such as cod, Atlantic wolffish, halibut, and flounder, and
globally significant populations of marine mammals, such as North
Atlantic right whales, and seabirds, such as Atlantic puffins. CLF also
nominated the Cashes Ledge area for consideration in order to better
protect the Gulf of Maine ecosystem, which New England's coastal
communities depend on economically for tourism, shipping, offshore
energy, and recreational and commercial fishing.
Based on information included in the nomination, including the
comment letters submitted with the nomination, as well as NOAA's
internal analysis, NOAA has determined that the nomination is
responsive to the 11 national significance criteria and management
considerations it uses to review nominations. Therefore, this notice
serves to inform the public of the agency's decision to add the Cashes
Ledge area to the inventory of successful nominations.
At this time, NOAA is not initiating a sanctuary designation
process. In adding the Cashes Ledge area to the inventory, NOAA does
not endorse or imply endorsement of any specific boundaries,
regulations or management measures in the Cashes Ledge nomination.
Should NOAA decide to initiate a sanctuary designation process for
Cashes Ledge in the future, it would establish a highly public, multi-
year process for exploring possibilities for sanctuary boundaries,
regulations and programs in partnership with other Federal agencies,
Tribal Nations, State governments, stakeholders and the public.
III. Classification
A. National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
NOAA has concluded that the action of adding the Cashes Ledge area
to the inventory of successful nominations will not have a significant
effect, individually or cumulatively, on the human environment because
this action is administrative in nature and does not designate or
propose to designate any new national marine sanctuaries. NOAA has
further determined that this action is not connected to a larger
action, and does not involve extraordinary circumstances precluding the
use of a categorical exclusion in accordance with NEPA (42 U.S.C. 4321
et seq.). Therefore, this action is categorically excluded from the
requirement to prepare an environmental assessment or environmental
impact statement, in accordance with NOAA Administrative Order 216-6A
Environmental Review Procedures, and the NOAA NEPA Companion Manual. As
defined in the NOAA NEPA Companion Manual, Appendix E, categorical
exclusion category G7, the proposed action is a notice of
administrative and procedural nature and for which any environmental
effects are too broad and speculative to lend themselves to meaningful
analysis at this time and will be subject later to the NEPA process, as
applicable. Should NOAA decide to propose the designation of a national
marine sanctuary, each individual national marine sanctuary designation
process will be subject to case-by-case analysis, as required under
NEPA and as outlined in section 304(a)(2)(A) of the NMSA.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1431 et seq.
John Armor,
Director, Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, National Ocean
Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
[FR Doc. 2024-30702 Filed 1-3-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-NK-P
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