Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Re-opening of Comment Period on the Sacramento Splittail Final Rule

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce the re-opening of the comment period for the final rule on the Sacramento splittail (Pogonichthys macrolepidotus). Comments previously submitted need not be resubmitted as they will be incorporated into the public record as part of this re-opened comment period, and will be fully considered in the final rule. We are re-opening the comment period to invite comments and to obtain peer review on the statistical analysis completed by us to re-analyze the available splittail abundance data. We are also inviting additional comments on the status of and factors affecting the species, as first solicited in the January 12, 2001 (66 FR 2828), comment period and re-solicited in the May 8, 2001 (66 FR 23181), and August 17, 2001 (66 FR 43145), re-openings of same.