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Final Determination of Critical Habitat for the Alaska-Breeding Population of Steller’S Eider; Final Rule

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Final Determination of Critical Habitat for the Alaska-Breeding Population of Steller’S Eider; Final Rule Friday, February 2, 2001 Part II Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service 50 CFR Part 17 Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Final Determination of Critical Habitat for the Alaska-Breeding Population of Steller’s Eider; Final Rule VerDate 11<MAY>2000 12:15 Feb 01, 2001 Jkt 194001 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 4717 Sfmt 4717 E:\FR\FM\02FER2.SGM pfrm04 PsN: 02FER2 8850 Federal Register / Vol. 66, No. 23 / Friday, February 2, 2001 / Rules and Regulations DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR This genus is grouped with the other sea the autumn molt, winter, and spring ducks under the Tribe Mergini (eiders, migration staging periods, the listed Fish and Wildlife Service scoters, mergansers, and allies), Alaska-breeding population intermixes Subfamily Anatinae (ducks), and the with the more numerous and unlisted 50 CFR Part 17 Family Anatidae (swans, geese, and Russian Pacific population in marine RIN 1018–AF95 ducks). waters of southwest Alaska. During The Steller’s eider is the smallest of these times, it is unknown whether the Endangered and Threatened Wildlife four eider species; both sexes are Alaska-breeding population and Plants; Final Determination of approximately 45 centimeters (17–18 concentrates in distinct areas or Critical Habitat for the Alaska-Breeding inches) long (Bellrose 1980). The disperses throughout the species’ Population of the Steller’s Eider plumage of the breeding adult male is marine range. white, black, and chestnut. The head is The historical breeding range of the AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, white with black eye patches and light Alaska-breeding population of Steller’s Interior. green tinging on the forehead, lores eiders is not clear. The historical ACTION: Final rule. (space between bill and eye), and below breeding range may have extended the eye. The chin and throat are black, discontinuously from the eastern SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and separated from a broad black collar Aleutian Islands to the western and Wildlife Service (Service), designate around the lower neck by a white ring. northern Alaska coasts, possibly as far critical habitat for the Alaska-breeding The shoulders and back are also black east as the Canadian border. In more population of the Steller’s eider and each tertial (inner wing) feather is recent times, breeding occurred in two (Polysticta stelleri), a threatened species bicolored longitudinally, with the inner general areas, the Arctic Coastal Plain listed pursuant to the Endangered half being white and the outer half being on the North Slope, and western Alaska, Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). bluish-black, giving the back a striped primarily on the Y–K Delta. Currently, Critical habitat for the Alaska-breeding appearance when the wing is folded. Steller’s eiders breed on the western population of the Steller’s eider The speculum (patch of colored feathers Arctic Coastal Plain in northern Alaska, includes breeding habitat on the Yukon- on the wing) is dark blue and the breast from approximately Point Lay east to Kuskokwim Delta (Y–K Delta) and 4 and belly are chestnut shading to black Prudhoe Bay, and in extremely low units in the marine waters of southwest posteriorly. A black spot is present on numbers on the Y–K Delta. Alaska, including the Kuskokwim each side of the breast. The flanks, On the North Slope, anecdotal Shoals in northern Kuskokwim Bay, and rump, and under-tail feathers are black, historical records indicate that the Seal Islands, Nelson Lagoon, and and the wedge-shaped tail is dark species occurred from Wainwright east, Izembek Lagoon on the north side of the brown. Males in eclipse plumage (dull nearly to the Alaska-Canada border Alaska Peninsula. These areas total plumage assumed prior to molt) during (Anderson 1913; Brooks 1915). There approximately 7,333 square kilometers late summer and fall are entirely are very few nesting records from the (approximately 2,830 square miles (mi2); mottled brown except the wings are like eastern North Slope, however, so it is 733,300 hectares; 1,811,984 acres) and the adult breeding male’s and the upper unknown if the species commonly 1,363 km (852 miles (mi)) of shoreline. wing-coverts are white. Females and nested there or not. Currently, the Section 4 of the Act requires us to juveniles are mottled brown year-round, species predominantly breeds on the consider economic and other impacts of and the female adult has a blue western North Slope, in the northern specifying any particular area as critical speculum bordered in white. half of the National Petroleum Reserve—Alaska (NPR–A). The majority habitat. We solicited data and comments Geographic Range from the public on all aspects of the of sightings in the last decade have proposed rule and economic analysis. Three breeding populations of occurred east of the mouth of the Section 7 of the Act prohibits Steller’s eiders are recognized, two in Utukok River, west of the Colville River, destruction or adverse modification of Arctic Russia and one in Alaska. The and within 90 km (56 mi) of the coast. critical habitat by any activity funded, majority of Steller’s eiders breed in Within this extensive area, Steller’s authorized, or carried out by any Russia and are identified by separate eiders generally breed at very low Federal agency. breeding and wintering distributions densities. (Nygard et al. 1995). The Russian The Steller’s eider was considered a DATES: The effective date of this rule is Atlantic population nests west of the locally ‘‘common’’ breeder in the March 5, 2001. Khatanga River and winters in the intertidal, central Y–K Delta by FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ted Barents and Baltic seas. The Russian naturalists early in the 1900s (Murie Swem, Northern Alaska Ecological Pacific population nests east from the 1924; Conover 1926; Gillham 1941; Services, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, mouth of the Khatanga River and Brandt 1943), but the bird was reported 101 12th Ave., Rm 110, Fairbanks, AK winters in the southern Bering Sea and to breed in only a few locations. By the 99701 (telephone 907/456–0203; northern Pacific Ocean, where it 1960s or 70s, the species had become facsimile 907/456–0208). presumably intermixes with the Alaska- extremely rare on the Y–K Delta, and SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: breeding population. Neither Russia- only six nests have been found in the breeding population is listed as 1990s (Flint and Herzog 1999). Given Background threatened or endangered; only Steller’s the paucity of early recorded The Steller’s eider was first described eiders that nest in Alaska are listed as observations, only subjective estimates by Peter Simon Pallas in 1769, and threatened under the Act. can be made of the Steller’s eider’s given the scientific name Anas stelleri This rule for critical habitat addresses historical abundance or distribution on Pallas. After seven name changes, it was the Alaska-breeding population of the Y–K Delta. grouped with other eiders as Somateria Steller’s eiders, the only population A few Steller’s eiders were reportedly stelleri. It is now considered distinct listed under the Act, but individuals found nesting in other locations in from the other eiders, and is the only from the Alaska-breeding population are western Alaska, including the Aleutian species in the genus Polysticta visually indistinguishable from unlisted Islands in the 1870s and 80s (Gabrielson (American Ornithologists’ Union 1983). Russia-breeding Steller’s eiders. During and Lincoln 1959), Alaska Peninsula in VerDate 11<MAY>2000 12:15 Feb 01, 2001 Jkt 194001 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 E:\FR\FM\02FER2.SGM pfrm04 PsN: 02FER2 Federal Register / Vol. 66, No. 23 / Friday, February 2, 2001 / Rules and Regulations 8851 the 1880s or 90s (Murie and Scheffer lagoons or near reefs (C. Dau, pers. Population Status 1959), Seward Peninsula in the 1870s comm. 1999; D. Zwiefelhofer, Service, Determining population trends for (Portenko 1989), and on Saint Lawrence pers. comm. 1999). An unknown Steller’s eiders is difficult; however, the Island as recently as the 1950s (Fay and number of Steller’s eiders winter along Steller’s eider’s breeding range in Cade 1959). It is unknown how the Russian and Japanese coasts. They Alaska appears to have contracted, with regularly these areas were used or have been reported from the Anadyr the species disappearing from much of whether the species ever nested in Gulf (Konyukhov 1990), Komandor its historical range in western Alaska intervening areas. (Commander) and Kuril islands in (Kertell 1991) and possibly a portion of After breeding, Steller’s eiders move Russia (Kistchinski 1973; Palmer 1976), its range on the North Slope. In areas to marine waters where they undergo a and near Hokkaido Island in northern where the species still occurs in Alaska, flightless molt for about 3 weeks. The Japan (Brazil 1991). the frequency of occurrence (the majority are thought to molt in four Prior to spring migration, thousands proportion of years in which the species areas along the Alaska Peninsula: to tens of thousands of Steller’s eiders is present) and the frequency of Izembek Lagoon (Metzner 1993; Dau stage at a series of locations along the breeding (the proportion of years in 1999a; Laubhan and Metzner 1999), north side of the Alaska Peninsula, which the species attempts to nest) have Nelson Lagoon, Herendeen Bay, and including several areas used during both apparently declined in recent Port Moller (Gill et al. 1981; Petersen molt and winter such as Port Heiden, 1981; Dau 1999a). Additionally, smaller decades (Quakenbush et al. 1999). Port Moller, Nelson Lagoon, and We do not know whether the species’ numbers are known or thought to molt Izembek Lagoon (Larned et al.
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