Emergency Rule: Establishment of an Additional Manatee Protection Area in Lee County, FLorida

We, the Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), as required by regulation, hereby provide notice of the termination of the emergency establishment of the Pine Island-Estero Bay Refuge, which was created when a rule was published in the Federal Register on April 7, 2004, and will expire effective August 5, 2004. We are publishing a proposed rule to establish these areas as the Pine Island-Estero Bay Manatee Refuge by standard rulemaking elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register. In order to provide for continued protection of this area during the rulemaking process, while allowing adequate time for public hearings and comments on the proposed designation, we are hereby using our emergency authority to re-establish the temporary Pine Island-Estero Bay Refuge, effective August 6, 2004. The area established by this rule will be a manatee refuge and watercraft will be required to proceed at either "slow speed" or at not more than 25 miles per hour, on an annual or seasonal basis, as marked. While adjacent property owners must comply with the speed restrictions, the designation will not preclude ingress and egress to private property. This action is authorized under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (ESA), and the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, as amended (MMPA), based on our determination that there is substantial evidence of imminent danger of taking one or more manatees and the emergency designation of a manatee refuge is necessary to prevent such taking. In evaluating the need for emergency designation of this manatee protection area, we considered the biological needs of the manatee, the level of take at these sites, and the likelihood of additional take of manatees due to human activity. We anticipate making a final determination on these sites in a final rule within the 120-day effective period of this emergency designation, unless State or local governments implement measures at these sites that would, in our view, make such establishment unnecessary to prevent the taking of one or more manatees.