Special Local Regulation; Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic City, NJ

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY <SUBAGY>Coast Guard</SUBAGY> <CFR>33 CFR Part 100</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket Number USCG-2025-0325]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1625-AA08</RIN> <SUBJECT>Special Local Regulation; Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic City, NJ</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Coast Guard, DHS. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Temporary final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The Coast Guard is establishing a temporary special local regulation for the navigable waters of the Atlantic Ocean, near Atlantic City, NJ. This action is needed to provide for the safety of life on these navigable waters during an offshore boat race on June 8, 2025. This rule prohibits persons and vessels from being in the regulated area during the enforcement periods unless authorized entry by the Captain of the Port, Sector Delaware Bay, or a designated representative. </SUM> <DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This rule is effective from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. on June 8, 2025. </DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> To view documents mentioned in this preamble as being available in the docket, go to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov,</E> type USCG-2025-0325 in the search box and click “Search.” Next, in the Document Type column, select “Supporting & Related Material.” <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> If you have questions about this rule, call or email MST1 Dylan Caikowski, Waterways Management Division, Sector Delaware Bay, U.S. Coast Guard; telephone (206) 815-6688, option 3; email <E T="03">SecDelBayWWM@uscg.mil.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Table of Abbreviations</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">CFR Code of Federal Regulations</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">COTP Captain of the Port, Sector Delaware Bay</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">DHS Department of Homeland Security</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">FR Federal Register</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">NPRM Notice of proposed rulemaking</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">PATCOM Patrol Commander</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">§ Section </FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">U.S.C. United States Code</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Background Information and Regulatory History</HD> The sponsor of an organized water event which is conducted according to a prearranged schedule and which, by its nature, circumstances or location, will introduce extra or unusual hazards to the safety of life on the navigable waters of the United States must submit an application for a permit to the Coast Guard. 33 CFR 100.15. A Captain of the Port, after approving plans for the holding of such a marine event within his or her district or zone, is authorized to promulgate such special local regulations as he or she deems necessary to ensure the safety of life on the navigable waters immediately prior to, during and immediately after the approved event. 33 CFR 100.35. The Captain of the Port, Sector Delaware Bay (COTP) has received an application under 33 CFR 100.15 for a permit to host an offshore boat race on June 8, 2025. The event will have 40 participating vessels and approximately 25 spectating vessels. The Coast Guard is issuing this temporary rule under the authority in 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B). This statutory provision authorizes an agency to issue a rule without prior notice and opportunity to comment when the agency for good cause finds that those procedures are “impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest.” The Coast Guard finds that good cause exists for not publishing a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) with respect to this rule because it is impracticable to do so. There is insufficient time to notice the rule, allow for a reasonable comment period, and publish a rule, given that the rule must be in force by June 8, 2025, to serve its purpose. In addition, and on the basis of impracticability for lack of time as well, the Coast Guard finds that good cause exists under 5 U.S.C. 553(d)(3) for making this rule effective less than 30 days after publication in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> . <HD SOURCE="HD1">III. Legal Authority and Need for Rule</HD> The Coast Guard is issuing this rule under authority in 46 U.S.C. 70041. The COTP has determined that the offshore boat race could pose a risk to participants or waterway users if normal vessel traffic were allowed to interfere with the event. Possible hazards include risks of participant injury or death from near or actual collisions with non-participant vessels traversing through the regulated area. <HD SOURCE="HD1">IV. Discussion of the Rule</HD> This rule establishes a special local regulation from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. on June 8, 2025, to protect non-participants and participants in an offshore boat race. The regulated area covers all navigable waters of Atlantic Ocean near Atlantic City, NJ, within a polygon bounded by the following: originating on the shore line at approximate position latitude 39°21′51″ N longitude 074°24′26″ W; thence southeast to approximate position 39°20′43″ N longitude 074°24′04″ W; thence southwest to approximate position to latitude 39°20′03″ N, longitude 074°26′29″ W; thence northwest to the shoreline at approximate position latitude 39°20′49″ N, longitude 074°27′05″ W; thence northeast along the shoreline to the point of origin. Inside of the regulated area detailed above there is a spectator area reserved for non-participant vessels to watch the event. The spectator area is within a polygon bounded by the following: beginning at approximate position latitude 39°20′45″ N, longitude 074°25′33″ W; thence northeast to approximate position latitude 39°21′00″ N, longitude 074°24′44″ W; thence southeast to approximate position latitude 39°20′50″ N, longitude 074°24′39″ W; thence southwest to approximate position latitude 39°20′35″ N, longitude 074°25′28″ W; thence northwest to the point of origin. The duration of the zone is intended to ensure the safety of participants and other waterway users before, during, and after the scheduled offshore boat race. No vessel or person will be permitted to enter the regulated area without obtaining permission from the COTP or a designated representative. <HD SOURCE="HD1">V. Regulatory Analyses</HD> We developed this rule after considering numerous statutes and Executive orders related to rulemaking. Below we summarize our analyses based on a number of these statutes and Executive orders. <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Regulatory Planning and Review</HD> Executive Orders 12866 and 13563 direct agencies to assess the costs and benefits of available regulatory alternatives and, if regulation is necessary, to select regulatory approaches that maximize net benefits. This rule has not been designated a “significant regulatory action,” under section 3(f) of Executive Order 12866. Accordingly, this rule has not been reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). This regulatory action determination is based on the size and duration of the regulated area, which would impact a small, designated area of the Atlantic Ocean. Vessels will be able to safely transit around the regulated area during the enforcement period. The Coast Guard will provide advance notification of the special local regulation to the local maritime community by Local Notice to Mariners and Broadcast Notice to Mariners. <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. Impact on Small Entities</HD> The regulatory flexibility analysis provisions of the Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980, 5 U.S.C. 601-612, as amended, do not apply this rule. They do not apply because this rule fits a 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B) good-cause exception for notice-and-comment rulemaking. Therefore, we were not required to publish a notice of proposed rulemaking. Under section 213(a) of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996 (Pub. L. 104-121), we want to assist small entities in understanding this rule. If the rule would affect your small business, organization, or governmental jurisdiction and you have questions concerning its provisions or options for compliance, please call or email the person listed in the <E T="02">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT</E> section. Small businesses may send comments on the actions of Federal employees who enforce, or otherwise determine compliance with, Federal regulations to the Small Business and Agriculture Regulatory Enforcement Ombudsman and the Regional Small Business Regulatory Fairness Boards. The Ombudsman evaluates these actions annually and rates each agency's responsiveness to small business. If you wish to comment on actions by employees of the Coast Guard, call 1-888-REG-FAIR (1-888-734-3247). The Coast Guard will not retaliate against small entities that question or complain about this rule or any policy or action of the Coast Guard. <HD SOURCE="HD2">C. Collection of Information</HD> This rule will not call for a new collection of information under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520). <HD SOURCE="HD2">D. Federalism and Indian Tribal Governments</HD> A rule has implications for federalism under Executive Order 13132, Federalism, if it has a substantial direct effect on the States, on the relationship between the National Government and the States, or on the distribution of power and responsibilities among the various levels of government. We have analyzed this rule under that Order and have determined that it is consistent with the fundamental federalism principles and preemption requirements described in Executive Order 13132. Also, this rule does not have tribal implications under Executive Order 13175, Consultation and Coordination with Indian Tribal Governments, because it does not have a substantial direct effect on one or more Indian Tribes, on the relationship between the Federal Government and Indian Tribes, or on the distribution of power and responsibilities between the Federal Government and Indian Tri ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 19k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━