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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 11 / Tuesday, January 19, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
Collectively, these new areas capture a greater diversity of habitats and biological resources than currently protected by FGBNMS. Inclusion of these areas within the sanctuary system will provide additional regulatory protection, additional management actions and initiatives, and improved public awareness of their natural resource values. Detailed maps of these boundary changes are available on the FGBNMS website.6
Under this action, NOAA is expanding the boundaries of the sanctuary by 104.2 square miles from 56.2 square miles to 160.4 square miles as follows:
a. Stetson Bankincrease of area by 0.6
square miles from 0.8 square miles to 1.4 square miles b. West Flower Garden Bankincrease of area by 7.22 square miles from 29.94 square miles to 37.16 square miles c. East Flower Garden Bankincrease of area by 2.4 square miles from 25.4
square miles to 27.8 square miles d. Horseshoe Bank28.7 square miles e. MacNeil Bank2.7 square miles f. Rankin/28 Fathom Banks5.6 square miles g. Bright Bank7.7 square miles h. Geyer Bank11.5 square miles i. Elvers Bank4.6 square miles j. McGrail Bank4.7 square miles k. Sonnier Bank3.1 square miles l. Bouma Bank7.7 square miles m. Rezak Bank3.7 square miles n. Sidner Bank2.0 square miles o. Alderdice Bank5.0 square miles p. Parker Bank7.0 square miles
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2. Apply the Existing Sanctuary Regulations and Management Action to the Expanded Area NOAA will apply the existing sanctuary regulations including regulatory prohibitions set forth in 922.122 and the existing management plan 7 to the expanded sanctuary boundary in order to provide for more comprehensive management and protection of sensitive underwater features and marine habitats associated with continental shelf-edge reefs and banks in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico. Accordingly, 15 CFR 922.122e will be updated to reflect the effective date of the sanctuary expansion, and no further amendments of the regulatory text in 15 CFR part 922 are necessary to implement this action.
6 https flowergarden.noaa.gov/management/
sanctuaryexpansion.html.
7 https flowergarden.noaa.gov/management/
2012mgmtplan.html.

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3. Department of Defense Activities NOAAs decision to amend the effective date in 922.122e addresses concerns raised by the Department of the Navy DON during coordination in development of this final rule. In the final rule, NOAA clarifies that the prohibitions in 922.122a2 through 11 do not apply to the activities being carried out by the Department of Defense as of the date of sanctuary expansion.
4. Terms of Designation Section 304a4 of the NMSA
requires that the terms of designation include the geographic area of the sanctuary; the characteristics of the area that give it conservation, recreational, ecological, historical, research, educational, or aesthetic value; and the types of activities that will be subject to regulation by the Secretary of Commerce to protect these characteristics. Section 304a4 also specifies that the terms of designation may be modified only by the same procedures by which the original designation was made.
The terms of designation for FGBNMS
was first published in 1991 56 FR
63637, and became effective in 1994
58 FR 65664. The terms of designation were not incorporated into the Code of Federal Regulations, and, whenever there was a proposed regulatory change, NOAA and the general public had to refer to the preamble of the 1991 final rule to understand the nature and scope of the terms of designation. With this final rule, NOAA is making the terms of designation more readily available to the general public by amending the FGBNMS regulations at 15 CFR part 922, subpart L, to incorporate the terms of designation as a new appendix B to the FGBNMS regulations. NOAA is amending Article II. Description of the Area to include Stetson Bank added by Congress in 1996 pursuant to Pub. L.
104283 and the additional reefs and banks included in this expansion, add a new section relating to the U.S.
Department of Defense DoD
exemption, and revising the Consistency with International Law section of the terms of designation in order to address comments raised by the U.S. Department of State during interagency consultation.
5. No Exemptions for Spearfishing and Pelagic Longline Fishing in the Expanded Sanctuary Based on the public comments received on the proposed rule, NOAA
has decided not to provide exemptions for spearfishing or pelagic longline fishing. The rationale for the decisions
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not to provide exemptions for spearfishing or pelagic longline fishing are addressed below in section IV.
Responses to Comments.
IV. Response to Comments NOAA received 1,421 individual 8,491 campaigns and petitions public comments on the DEIS and 485
individual 36,111 including campaigns and petitions public comments on the proposed rule. The majority of comments expressed general support for sanctuary expansion, others expressed concerns about the reduced size of the boundaries, and few comments were received opposing the expansion of FGBNMS. Of the comments received during this action, approximately one third supported the revised preferred alternative in the proposed rule which is identified as NOAAs Final Preferred Alternative in the FEIS. Public comments identified specific geographic locations of concern that were not included in the revised preferred alternative. Comments raised concerns about boundary enforcement, essential fish habitat, preservation of biodiversity, connectivity between bank areas, mesophotic/deepwater coral ecosystems, mobula rays, whale sharks, sea turtles, sharks, marine mammals, and commercial and recreationally important fish. Many of the comments supportive of the proposed expansion referred to industrial, environmental, and global impacts.
In response to NOAAs request for public comment on fishery exemptions for pelagic longline fishing and spearfishing with sanctuary expansion, 25,641 comments opposed an exemption for pelagic longline fishing, 23,353 opposed an exemption for spearfishing, 2 comments supported allowing pelagic longline fishing, and 8
comments indicated conditional support for spearfishing. Conditional support for spearfishing included an exemption for breath-hold only spearfishing, establishing an initial limited capacity fishery that could be assessed at a reduced number of banks, and an exemption for lionfish only.
NOAA analyzed comments received during this process and considered them in preparation of this FEIS, as well as developed agency responses. NOAAs responses to the public comments are included in Appendix A of the FEIS and in this document Part IV.
NOAA has consolidated public comments from the DEIS and proposed rule and collectively responds to those comments here and in Appendix A of the FEIS.

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