FISH AND WILDLIFE CONSERVATION COMMISSION
RULE NO.:RULE TITLE:
68E-1.004General Permit Application Procedures, Requirements and Expiration
NOTICE OF CHANGE
Notice is hereby given that the following changes have been made to the proposed rule in accordance with subparagraph 120.54(3)(d)1., F.S., published in Vol. 42 No. 89, May 6, 2016 issue of the Florida Administrative Register.
A Notice of Change was published in Vol. 42 No. 123, June 24, 2016 issue and in Vol. 42, No. 184 September 21, 2016 issue of the Florida Administrative Register.
No changes to rule language are being made; all changes are to language in the Marine Turtle Conservation Handbook incorporated by reference in subsection 68E-1.004(14). Changes are being made to improve clarity, to remove all hyperlinks and any requirements to use techniques or forms not incorporated by reference in the rule and to specify that all required instructions, protocols or forms have been incorporated by reference in Rule 68E-1.004(14)(b).
Section 1, Monitoring for Coastal Construction Projects, paragraph 6, “other parts of the state” has been changed to “all other coastal counties”.
Section 2, Nesting Beach Surveys, has been changed to remove the requirement to dig into all nests to locate the eggs for the Nest Productivity Assessment (NPA) program; to reduce the number of nests required to be inventoried for NPA and the time to dig into leatherback nests with no signs of hatching from 90 to 80 days; to require submittal of all nest inventory data; and to specify the requirements for locations to hold hatchlings overnight or for methods to protect nests from mammalian predators and that requests for approval for both be submitted to mtp@myfwc.com.
Section 4, Holding Marine Turtles in Captivity, has been changed to add an option to release loggerhead turtles at smaller sizes in appropriate developmental habitat; to reduce necropsy requirements for captive marine turtles under certain situations and reporting requirements of captive marine turtle status; to increase acceptable salinity ranges in captive tanks; and to clarify requirements for veterinary licenses for Florida marine turtles held out of state.
Section 5, Tagging Turtles, language has been changed to remove references to technical documents and for clarification.
Appendix F, Nesting Information, has been changed to update Appendix F-2 for consistency with the revised Section 2 and to include instructions and protocols for reporting disorientations (F-6) and obstructed nesting attempts (F-7).
