Notice is hereby given that the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife have submitted five Hatchery and Genetic Management Plans, to be considered jointly, to NMFS pursuant to the limitation on take prohibitions for actions conducted under Limit 6 of the 4(d) Rule for salmon and steelhead promulgated under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The plans specify the propagation of five species of salmon and steelhead in the Elwha River of Washington state. This document serves to notify the public of the availability for comment of the proposed evaluation of the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary) as to whether implementation of the joint plan will appreciably reduce the likelihood of survival and recovery of Puget Sound Chinook salmon and Puget Sound steelhead.

Part I: Assembly Bill 2402 (Huffman)

On September 25, 2012, Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 2402 and Senate Bill 1148, which make a number of changes to the Fish and Game Code, into law.  AB 2402 was sponsored by Assemblyman Jared Huffman and SB 1148 by Senator Pavely and these bills will implement a number of recommendations that emerged from a Strategic Vision process for the Department of Fish and Game and the Fish and Game Commission that took place during 2011 and 2012.  SB 1148 will be discussed in Part II of this update. 

The Pacific Council and its advisory entities will meet November 2-7, 2012. The Pacific Council meeting will begin on Saturday, November 3, 2012 at 8 a.m., reconvening each day through Wednesday, November 7, 2012. All meetings are open to the public, except a closed session will be held at the end of business on Saturday, November 3, 2012 to address litigation and personnel matters. The Pacific Council will meet as late as necessary each day to complete its scheduled business.

NOAA Fisheries announces 7 inseason actions in the ocean salmon fisheries. These inseason actions modified the commercial and recreational fisheries in the area from the U.S./Canada Border to Cape Falcon, Oregon.

The effective dates for the inseason action are set out in this document under the heading Inseason Actions. Comments will be accepted through October 26, 2012.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council will convene a meeting of the Salmon Advisory Subpanel by telephone conference that is open to the public. The SAS will meet on Monday, October 29, 2012 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., or when business for the call is completed.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council's Salmon Technical Team (STT), Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) Salmon Subcommittee, and Model Evaluation Workgroup (MEW) will review proposed salmon methodology changes in a joint work session, which is open to the public.

The purpose of the work session is to discuss and review proposed changes to analytical methods used in salmon management. Potential topics for the work session include but are not limited to; bias-correction methods for mark-selective coho fisheries, size limit evaluation methods for Chinook fisheries, and a preliminary assessment of abundance-based management of California Coastal Chinook. The final list of topics for the work session is scheduled to be adopted by the Council at their September 13-18, 2012 meeting in Boise, ID.

Lyndal Johnson a fisheries biologist and toxicologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and her team of scientists were sampling English sole, a flatfish common to the sound’s Elliott Bay, when they noticed something. “These fish in Elliott Bay, when all the other fish had completed spawning, ready to go home, it’s all over for them, the Elliott Bay were still ripe and still had eggs that they had not yet spawned.”

The Puget Sound Marine Waters workgroup of the Puget Sound Environmental Monitoring Program, part of the collaborative effort of the Puget Sound Partnership, released the first annual report on marine water conditions in Puget Sound. The report combines a wealth of data from comprehensive monitoring programs and provides a concise summary of what was happening in Puget Sound’s marine waters during 2011. It covers areas such as climate and weather, river inputs, seawater temperature, salinity, nutrients, dissolved oxygen, ocean acidification, phytoplankton, biotoxins, bacteria and pathogens, shellfish resources, and more.

On May 16, 2012, NMFS published a notice announcing the Proposed Lower Columbia Recovery Plan and it was available for public review and comment (77 FR 28855). Comments were due by July 16, 2012. On June 22, 2012, we received a letter from the Pacific Fisheries Management Council (Council) requesting an extension of the public comment period. The Council noted that the comment period precluded the opportunity for their advisory bodies and staff to review the Proposed Plan and develop comments for approval at the September 2012 Council meeting. The Council is a valued partner in planning and implementing recovery for West Coast salmon and steelhead. To afford the Council sufficient opportunity to review the Proposed Plan and provide comments through their typical processes, we are reopening the comment period for 30 days. New comments will be due by October 9, 2012.

We, NMFS, announce a 90-day finding on a petition to delist the Southern Oregon/Northern California Coast (SONCC) Evolutionarily Significant Unit (ESU) of coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). We find that the petition does not present substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that the petitioned action may be warranted.