[Federal Register: October 23, 2009 (Volume 74, Number 204)]
[
Proposed Rules]
[Page 54773-54775]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr23oc09-16]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
50 CFR Part 648
RIN 0648-AW72
Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act
Provisions; Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Northeast (NE)
Multispecies Fishery; Amendment 16
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of availability of a fishery management plan amendment;
request for comments.
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SUMMARY: NMFS announces that the New England Fishery Management Council
(Council) has submitted Amdnement 16 to the NE Multispecies Fishery
Management Plan (FMP) and its associated draft Final Environmental
Impact Statement (FEIS) for Secretarial review and is requesting
comments from the public. Amendment 16 was developed by the Council as
part of the biennial adjustment process in the FMP to update status
determination criteria for all regulated NE multispecies or ocean pout
stocks; to adopt rebuilding programs for NE multispecies stocks newly
classified as being overfished and subject to overfishing; and to
revise management measures, including significant revisions to the
Sector management and allocation measures, necessary to end
overfishing, rebuild overfished regulated NE multispecies or ocean pout
stocks, and mitigate the adverse economic impacts of increased effort
controls. Amendment 16 would also implement new requirements for
establishing allowable biological catch (ABC), annual catch limits
(ACLs), and accountability measures (AMs) for each stock managed by the
FMP, pursuant to the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and
Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act). Finally, this action would add
Atlantic wolffish to the list of species managed by the FMP. This
action is necessary to address the results of the most recent stock
assessment, which indicate that several additional NE multispecies
regulated species are overfished and subject to overfishing and that
some stocks currently classified as overfished require additional
reductions in fishing mortality to rebuild by the end of their
rebuilding periods.
[[Page 54774]]
DATES: Comments must be received on or before December 22, 2009.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by 0648-AW72, by any of
the following methods:
Email: MultsA16FEIS@noaa.gov. Include in the subject line
RIN or text that identifies the subject Federal Register document open
for comment.
Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.
Fax: (978) 281-9135, Attn: Douglas Christel.
Mail or hand-delivery: Paper, disk, or CD-ROM comments
should be sent to Patricia A. Kurkul, Regional Administrator, National
Marine Fisheries Service, 55 Great Republic Drive, Gloucester, MA
01930. Mark the outside of the envelope, ``Comments on the NE
Multispecies Amendment 16 FEIS.''
Instructions: All comments received are part of the public record
and will generally be posted to http://regulations.gov without change.
All Personal Identifying Information (for example, name, address, etc.)
voluntarily submitted by the commenter may be publicly accessible. Do
not submit Confidential Business Information or otherwise sensitive or
protected information.
NMFS will accept anonymous comments (either N/A in the required
fields, if you wish to remain anonymous). You may submit attachments to
electronic comments in Microsoft Word, Excel, WordPerfect, or Adobe PDF
file formats only.
Copies of Amendment 16, its Regulatory Impact Review (RIR), and the
draft of the FEIS are available from Paul J. Howard, Executive
Director, New England Fishery Management Council, 50 Water Street, Mill
2, Newburyport, MA 01950. Copies of the Initial Regulatory Flexibility
Analysis (IRFA) are available from the Regional Administrator at the
address above. The EIS/RIR/IRFA is also accessible via the Internet at
http://www.nefmc.org/nemulti/index.html.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Douglas Christel, Fishery Policy
Analyst, phone: 978-281-9141, fax: 978-281-9135.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Amendment 13 to the FMP, which became
effective May 1, 2004 (April 27, 2004; 69 FR 22906), established two
different strategies for rebuilding (an adaptive strategy and a phased
rebuilding strategy), and a rebuilding plan for each overfished stock
was developed in accordance with one of the two strategies. Under the
``adaptive'' rebuilding strategy, the fishing mortality rate (F) is
held at a level that would produce maximum sustainable yield
(FMSY) from 2004 through 2008, and then is subsequently
reduced to the level required to rebuild by the selected end-date of
the rebuilding period. In contrast, under the ``phased'' rebuilding
strategy, F was allowed to remain above FMSY at the start of
the rebuilding period in 2004, and then was reduced sequentially in
2006 and 2009. Eight stocks (Gulf of Maine (GOM) cod, Georges Bank (GB)
haddock, GOM haddock, Southern New England (SNE)/Mid-Atlantic (MA)
winter flounder, GB yellowtail flounder, redfish, windowpane flounder
(southern stock), and ocean pout) are managed under the adaptive
rebuilding strategy, while five stocks (GB cod, Cape Cod (CC)/GOM
yellowtail flounder, SNE/MA yellowtail flounder, American plaice, and
white hake) are managed under the phased rebuilding strategy.
Amendment 13 also established a biennial adjustment process whereby
the Council reviews the FMP and makes any changes to management
measures necessary to achieve the goals and objectives of the FMP. This
adjustment process provides an update of the scientific information
regarding the status of the stocks and an evaluation of the
effectiveness of the regulations. The biennial review scheduled to
occur in 2008, with necessary changes to the FMP implemented in 2009,
included a peer-reviewed benchmark assessment and a review of the
biological reference points (stock status determination criteria) for
each stock. This planned assessment of the biological reference points
(Groundfish Assessment Review Meeting, (GARM III)) was also part of the
adaptive rebuilding strategy described above, which sought to evaluate
the more fundamental scientific information mid-way through the
rebuilding period for most stocks. GARM III, completed in August 2008,
included a series of meetings over the course of one year. GARM III
evaluated the underlying data and models utilized for assessment of the
groundfish stocks, evaluated the biological reference points,
established new reference points, assessed the biomass and fishing
mortality status of the groundfish stocks in 2007, and provided
examples of the Fs that would be expected to rebuild overfished stocks.
GARM III concluded that 11 stocks were still subject to overfishing
(i.e., fishing above the FMSY) and that 12 stocks were
overfished (i.e., biomass levels were less than one half of the biomass
at MSY (BMSY)), with 10 stocks classified as both
overfished and subject to overfishing. A final determination on the
status of pollock could not be made until the fall 2008 survey data
made available, as the status of this species is based on the 3-year
centered average of the fall biomass indices. Such data became
available in January 2009, and indicated that pollock is overfished.
The Council began development of Amendment 16 in 2006, with the
intent of implementing any necessary revisions to management measures
by the start of fishing year (FY) 2009 on May 1, 2009. On November 6,
2006, a notice of intent to prepare a supplemental EIS and hold scoping
meetings designed to solicit public input on any revisions to
management measures necessary to continue rebuilding overfished
groundfish stocks was published in the Federal Register (71 FR 64941).
The Council continued to develop Amendment 16 for implementation in FY
2009 until a presentation by the Northeast Fisheries Science Center
NMFS (NEFSC) regarding preliminary estimates of 2006 stock size and F
at the June 2008 Council meeting indicated that draft effort control
measures under development for Amendment 16 were not targeting the
correct stocks. Based on this information, the Council decided to wait
until the receipt of the final GARM III assessment results in September
2008 to continue the development of appropriate management measures
under Amendment 16. The Council subsequently developed a revised
schedule of development for Amendment 16, which postponed
implementation of Amendment 16 until the start of FY 2010 on May 1,
2010. In addition, the Council voted on September 4, 2008, to request
that NMFS implement an interim action for the duration of FY 2009 (May
1, 2009-April 30, 2010), and recommended a specific suite of management
measures for the interim action. A proposed rule to implement interim
management measures published on January 16, 2009 (74 FR 2959), with
final interim measures published on April 13, 2009 (74 FR 17030) and
effective on May 1, 2009.
Based upon the final results of GARM III, the Council adopted draft
management measures and an associated draft EIS (DEIS) at its February
2009 meeting. A notice of availability for the DEIS, which analyzed the
impacts of all of the measures under consideration in Amendment 16, was
published on April 24, 2009 (74 FR 18705), with public comments
accepted through June 8, 2009. Final measures under Amendment 16 were
adopted by the
[[Page 54775]]
Council at its June 2009 meeting. In addition to the implementing
management measures to reduce F for overfished stocks, Amendment 16
contains changes to status determination criteria and other aspects of
the management program, such as an ABC control rule and potential
sector contributions, that are not reflected in regulations. The
proposed measures include: Revisions to biological reference points for
most stocks; incorporation of Atlantic wolffish into the list of NE
multispecies managed by the FMP; new reporting measures to increase
timeliness and accuracy of catch data; changes in the allocation of
days-at-sea (DAS) between Category A DAS and Category B DAS; changes to
the way NE multispecies DAS are allocated and counted; gear restricted
areas; modifications to the DAS Leasing and Transfer Programs; changes
in minimum fish size for two stocks; revisions to special access
programs (SAPs); modifications to existing trip limits, including
increased trip limits for some stocks and landings prohibitions for
other stocks; changes to Sector allocation procedures; modifications to
Sector eligibility requirements; revisions to Sector operation plan
requirements, including new and revised monitoring and reporting
requirements and allowable exemptions; approval of 17 new Sectors;
revisions to recreational gear, seasonal, and possession restrictions;
establishment of a process to set and distribute ABCs and ACLs for all
managed stocks among fishery subcomponents; and AMs for both commercial
and recreational fisheries.
A proposed rule that would implement Amendment 16, if approved,
will be published in the Federal Register for public comment, following
NMFS's evaluation of the proposed rule under the procedures of the
Magnuson-Stevens Act. Public comments on the proposed rule must be
received by the end of the comment period on Amendment 16 to be
considered in the approval/disapproval decision on the amendment. All
comments received by December 22, 2009, whether specifically directed
to Amendment 16 or the proposed rule, will be considered in the
approval/disapproval decision on the amendment. Any comments on the
proposed rule received after that date will not be considered in the
decision to approve or disapprove Amendment 16. To be considered,
comments must be received by the close of business on the last day of
the comment period; that does not mean postmarked or otherwise
transmitted by that date.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: October 19, 2009.
Emily H. Menashes,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine
Fisheries Service
[FR Doc. E9-25546 Filed 10-22-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-S