Gulf of America Name Change

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE <SUBAGY>National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>15 CFR Parts 921, 922, and 923</CFR> <CFR>50 CFR Parts 217, 218, 222, 223, 224, 226, 229, 300, 600, 622, 635, and 697</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. 250731-0134]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 0648-BN94</RIN> <SUBJECT>Gulf of America Name Change</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and National Ocean Service (NOS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Department of Commerce (DOC). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> NMFS and NOS are amending their regulations to change the name of the “Gulf of Mexico” to the “Gulf of America,” consistent with a Presidential directive issued through Executive Order. The intended effect of this rule is to ensure consistency with the Executive Order and to provide clarity for the regulated and general public moving forward regarding the Gulf of America name change. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This final rule is effective August 7, 2025. </EFFDATE> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> For information about this document, call or email Ms. Jenni Wallace, NOAA Fisheries; telephone (301) 427-8544, email <E T="03">jenni.wallace@noaa.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> President Donald J. Trump issued Executive Order (E.O.) 14172, titled “Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness” (90 FR 8629) on January 20, 2025. E.O. 14172 directed that the area formerly known as the Gulf of Mexico be renamed as the Gulf of America. The purpose of this rule is to update the NMFS and NOS regulations in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) to reflect the renaming. Specifically, this rule changes all “Gulf of Mexico” references to “Gulf of America” and makes other consistency edits in existing regulations promulgated under the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) (15 CFR parts 921, 923), National Marine Sanctuaries Act (15 CFR part 922), Marine Mammal Protection Act (50 CFR parts 217, 218, 229), Endangered Species Act (50 CFR parts 222-224, 226), Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) (50 CFR parts 300, 600, 622, 635), and Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act (50 CFR part 697). The text of some statutes, such as the MSA and CZMA, contains explicit references to the “Gulf of Mexico.” In those cases, “Gulf of America” references in agency regulations mean the same geographic area as the “Gulf of Mexico,” as that term is used in the relevant statute. Note that the agency can make nomenclature changes in its regulations consistent with law, but cannot modify the text of statutes enacted by Congress. This rule replaces the term “Gulf of Mexico” with “Gulf of America” where it appears in the above-referenced regulations. This change is consistent with E.O. 14172, and the name used by the Geographic Names Information System, which maintains standardized geographic names for Federal use. Under this rule, the name change in NMFS and NOS regulations does not result in any changes to, and has no effect on, the applicability or enforceability of the regulations. This rule will have no cost or substantive impact on the public, but will make consistent regulatory references to reflect the renamed Gulf of America. In addition, for streamlining purposes, this rule removes 15 CFR part 922, subpart L, Appendix B, “Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary-Terms of Designation.” The terms of designation for a national marine sanctuary are not required to be in the CFR, and removal of the appendix does not change the terms of designation for Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Classification</HD> NOAA is issuing this rule pursuant to 16 U.S.C. 1855(d) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA), 16 U.S.C. 1382(a) of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), 16 U.S.C. 1540(f) of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), 16 U.S.C. 5103(b) of the Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act (ACA), 16 U.S.C. 1439 of the National Marine Sanctuaries Act (NMSA), and 16 U.S.C. 1463 of the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA). The reason for using these general rulemaking authorities is that the rule makes nomenclature changes and related edits and does not substantively change regulations previously issued under the MSA, MMPA, ESA, ACA, NMSA, and CZMA. The Chief of Staff, exercising the Delegated Authority of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator, has determined that this final rule is consistent with the MSA, MMPA, ESA, ACA, NMSA, and CZMA, regulations issued pursuant to those statutes, and other applicable law. This final rule has been determined to be not significant for purposes of Executive Order 12866. This final rule is not an Executive Order 14192 regulatory action because this action is not significant under Executive Order 12866. This final rule contains no new information collection requirements under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B), there is good cause to waive prior notice and an opportunity for public comment on this action, as notice and comment are unnecessary. Consistent with E.O. 14172, this final rule updates the name of Gulf of America in NMFS and NOS regulations and makes other related edits. This rule does not substantively change existing regulations and has no effect on the applicability or enforceability of the regulations. In addition, for streamlining purposes, this rule removes an appendix containing terms of designation for a national marine sanctuary. The terms of designation are not changed and are not required to be in the CFR. For the same reasons described above, there is good cause under 5 U.S.C. 553(d)(3) to waive the 30-day delay in effective date. It is unnecessary to provide time for the regulated community to adjust to this rule, as the rule makes no substantive changes to regulations with which they must already comply. Because prior notice and opportunity for public comment are not required for this rule by 5 U.S.C. 553, or any other law, the analytical requirements of the Regulatory Flexibility Act, 5 U.S.C. 601 <E T="03">et seq.,</E> are inapplicable. NOAA has determined that this action would 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 Tribes; therefore, consultation with Tribal officials under E.O. 13175 is not required, and the requirements of sections (5)(b) and (5)(c) of E.O. 13175 also do not apply. A tribal summary impact statement under section (5)(b)(2)(B) and section (5)(c)(2)(B) of E.O. 13175 is not required and has not been prepared. <LSTSUB> <HD SOURCE="HED">List of Subjects</HD> <CFR>15 CFR Parts 921, 922, and 923</CFR> Coastal zone, Marine resources, Navigation (water), Recreation and recreation areas, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements, Research, Wildlife. <CFR>50 CFR Parts 217, 218, 222, 223, 224, 226, 229, 300, 600, 622, 635, and 697</CFR> Endangered and threatened species, Fisheries, Gulf, Gulf of America, Marine mammals. </LSTSUB> <SIG> <DATED>Dated: August 1, 2025.</DATED> <NAME>Laura Grimm,</NAME> Chief of Staff, Exercising the Delegated Authority of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator, Department of Commerce. </SIG> For the reasons set out in the preamble, NMFS amends 15 CFR parts 921, 922 and 923, and 50 CFR parts 217, 218, 222, 223, 224, 226, 229, 300, 600, 622, 635, and 697 as follows: <HD SOURCE="HD1">TITLE 15—COMMERCE AND FOREIGN TRADE</HD> <HD SOURCE="HED">PART 921—NATIONAL ESTUARINE RESEARCH RESERVE SYSTEM REGULATIONS</HD> <REGTEXT TITLE="15" PART="921"> 1. The authority citation for part 921 continues to read as follows: <HD SOURCE="HED">Authority:</HD> Section 315 of the Coastal Zone Management Act, as amended (16 U.S.C. 1461). </REGTEXT> <SECTION> <SECTNO>§ 921.2</SECTNO> <SUBJECT>[Amended]</SUBJECT> </SECTION> <REGTEXT TITLE="15" PART="921"> 2. Amend § 921.2(c) by removing the words “Gulf of Mexico” and add, in their place, the words “Gulf of America”. </REGTEXT> <HD SOURCE="HED">PART 922—NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY PROGRAM REGULATIONS</HD> <REGTEXT TITLE="15" PART="922"> 3. The authority citation for part 922 continues to read as follows: <HD SOURCE="HED">Authority:</HD> 16 U.S.C. 1431 <E T="03">et seq.</E> </REGTEXT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Appendix B to Subpart L—[Removed]</HD> <REGTEXT TITLE="15" PART="922"> 4. Remove appendix B to subpart L of part 922. </REGTEXT> <SECTION> <SECTNO>§ § 922.120, 922.121, 922.122, and 922.162</SECTNO> <SUBJECT>[Amended]</SUBJECT> </SECTION> <REGTEXT TITLE="15" PART="922"> 5. Amend 15 CFR part 922 by removing the words “Gulf of Mexico” and add, in their place, the words “Gulf of America” in the following places: a. Section 922.120; b. Section 922.121; c. Section 922.122(a)(2)(iii); and d. Section 922.162(a). </REGTEXT> <HD SOURCE="HED">PART 923—COASTAL ZONE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM REGULATIONS</HD> <REGTEXT TITLE="15" PART="923"> 6. The authority citation for part 923 continues to read as follows: <HD SOURCE="HED">Authority:</HD> 16 U.S.C. 1451 <E T="03">et seq.;</E> 31 U.S.C. 6506; 42 U.S.C. 3334; Sections 923.92 and 923.94 are also issued under E.O. 12372, July 14, 1982, 3 CFR 1982 Comp. p. 197, as amended by E.O. 12416, April 8, 1983, 3 CFR 1983 Comp. p. 186. </REGTEXT> <SECTION> <SECTNO>§ § 923.2 and 923.32</SECTNO> <SUBJECT>[Amended]</SUBJECT> </SECTION> <REGTEXT TITLE="15" PART="923"> 7. Amend 15 CFR part 923 by removing the words “Gulf of Mexico” and add, in their place, the words “Gulf o ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 26k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━