[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 211 (Tuesday, November 3, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 56805-56807]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-26223]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
RIN 0648-XS46
Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery; Intent To Prepare an
Environmental Impact Statement for the 2011-2012 Biennial Harvest
Specifications and Management Measures
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement
(EIS); request for written comments; notice of public scoping meetings.
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SUMMARY: NMFS and the Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council)
announce their intent to prepare an EIS in accordance with the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to analyze the impacts on the human,
biological, and physical environment of setting harvest specifications
and management measures for 2011 and 2012, pursuant to the Pacific
Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan.
DATES: Public scoping will be conducted through regular meetings of the
Pacific Fishery Management Council and its advisory bodies starting
with the October 31-November 5, 2009, Council meeting and continuing
through the June 12-17, 2010, meeting. Written comments will be
accepted through December 3, 2009 (see SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION).
Written, faxed or e-mailed comments must be received by 5 p.m. Pacific
Daylight time on December 3, 2009.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, on issues and alternatives,
identified by 0648-XS46 by any of the following methods:
E-mail: [email protected]. Include 0648-
XS46 and enter AScoping Comments@ in the subject line of the message.
Fax: 503-820-2299, attention: John DeVore.
Mail: Donald McIsaac, Pacific Fishery Management Council,
7700 NE Ambassador Pl., Suite 101, Portland, OR 97220, attention: John
DeVore.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. John DeVore, Pacific Fishery
Management Council, phone: 503-820-2280, fax: 503-820-2299 and e-mail:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Electronic Access
This Federal Register document is available on the Government
Printing Office's Web site at: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/index/html.
Background and Need for Agency Action
There are more than 90 species managed under the Pacific Coast
Groundfish Fishery Management Plan (groundfish FMP), seven of which
have been declared overfished. The groundfish stocks support an array
of commercial, recreational, and Indian tribal fishing interests in
state and Federal waters off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and
California. In addition, groundfish are also harvested incidentally in
non-groundfish fisheries, most notably, the non-groundfish trawl
fisheries for pink shrimp, ridgeback prawns, California halibut, and
sea cucumber.
The proposed action is needed to manage Pacific Coast groundfish
fisheries consistent with requirements of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery
Conservation and Management Act (MSA) including preventing overfishing
and ensuring that groundfish stocks are maintained at, or restored to,
sizes and structures that will produce the highest net benefit to the
nation, while balancing environmental and social values.
The Proposed Action
Using the ``best available science,'' the proposed action is to
establish harvest specifications consistent with an ``annual catch
limits framework'' for calendar years 2011 and 2012 for species and
species' complexes managed under the groundfish FMP and to establish
management measures that constrain total fishing mortality to these
specified Annual Catch Limits (ACLs). The specifications must be
consistent with requirements of the MSA including preventing
overfishing and, for stocks that have been declared overfished, setting
ACLs appropriately to return stock biomass to the maximum sustainable
yield (MSY) level or MSY proxy level. Because seven Pacific Coast
groundfish species are currently overfished and managed under
rebuilding plans, ACLs must be set consistent with the rebuilding plans
and the framework described in MSA section 304(e) and the groundfish
FMP, which requires overfished stocks to be rebuilt to the MSY biomass
in a time period that is as short as possible, taking into account the
status and biology of the overfished stocks, the needs of fishing
communities, and the interaction of the overfished stock within the
marine ecosystem. To address this mandate, changes to rebuilding plans
may be made as part of this biennial process. In addition, based on the
2009 stock assessment, the Secretary of Commerce may declare that
petrale sole (Eopsetta jordani) is overfished, in which case the
Council would develop a rebuilding plan for this stock and amend the
groundfish FMP accordingly. Petrale sole ACLs for 2011 and 2012 would
be set consistent with any adopted rebuilding plan. The scope of the
proposed action may also include adopting the rebuilding plan and
amending the groundfish FMP.
Annual catch limits (ACLs), or harvest specifications, must be
consistent with National Standard 1 of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery
Conservation and Management Act and pursuant to revised guidelines,
which were published by NMFS on January 16, 2009 (74 FR 3178). The
Council is concurrently developing an amendment to the groundfish FMP
(Amendment 23) to make the necessary revisions so that the groundfish
FMP's harvest management framework is consistent with these revised
guidelines. The 2011-2012 annual catch limits would be consistent with
the revised harvest management framework.
The Council adopted fixed allocations of catch opportunity between
the limited entry groundfish fishery and all other groundfish fishery
sectors for 25 groundfish stocks in Amendment 21 to the groundfish FMP,
which is pending submission for review by the Secretary of Commerce.
There are also existing fixed allocations for sablefish (Anaplopoma
fimbria) north of 36[deg] N. latitude and Pacific whiting (Merluccius
productus). Additional allocations may be determined as part of the
proposed
[[Page 56806]]
action in support of new management tools for the limited entry trawl
sector (see below).
The proposed action also establishes management measures designed
to maintain total catch at or below ACLs. Management measures may be
established for each year of the 2-year period or shorter periods, and
the types of measures usually differ among groundfish fishery sectors.
In 2009 the Council adopted Amendment 20 to the groundfish FMP, which
would change the types of management measures used for the groundfish
limited entry trawl sector. A single shorebased trawl sector would be
managed with individual fishing quotas (IFQ) while two at-sea Pacific
whiting sectors (catcher vessels delivering to mothership processors
and catcher-processors) would be managed under cooperatives. Amendment
20 to the groundfish FMP is pending submission to the agency for
review. If approved, NMFS intends that the amendment and pursuant
regulations would be implemented in time for use beginning in 2011.
However, under the proposed action current catch control tools (2-month
cumulative trip limits, seasons, and quotas) will be evaluated for the
limited entry trawl sector as an alternative in the event Amendment 20
is not approved and implemented by 2011.
These harvest specifications include fish caught in state ocean
waters (zero to three nautical miles [nm] offshore) as well as fish
caught in the U.S. exclusive economic zone (3 to 200 nm offshore).
Regulations implementing management measures consistent with the
harvest specifications would need to be in place by January 1, 2011, as
the next 2-year period begins on January 1, 2011. In the unlikely event
that new harvest specifications and management measures are not
approved by the end of 2010 and effective on January 1, 2011, the
harvest specifications and management measures in place for 2010 would
remain in place until the effective date of the new harvest
specifications and management measures. The EIS analysis described in
this document would consider a similar scenario in the unlikely event
that the effective date of the harvest specifications and management
measures for 2011-2012 are delayed beyond January 1, 2013.
Alternatives
NEPA requires that agencies evaluate reasonable alternatives to the
proposed action in an EIS, which address the purpose and need for
agency action. A preliminary set of alternatives will be developed
during the October 31-November 5, 2009, Council meeting. Alternatives
are structured around a range of ABCs/ACLs for fishery management units
(stocks or stock complexes). This range of ABCs/ACLs will be consistent
with the annual catch limit specification framework adopted under
Amendment 23, discussed above.
Based on the range of ABCs/ACLs alternatives adopted at the
November 2009, Council meeting, the Council is scheduled to choose a
preliminary preferred ABCs/ACLs alternative at their April 10-15, 2010,
meeting; a range of alternative management measures would also be
identified at that time, which would maintain total harvest mortality
(across all fisheries intercepting groundfish) to within the preferred
ACLs. The Council is then scheduled to take final action to choose a
preferred alternative that includes ABCs/ACLs and associated management
measures at their June 12-17, 2010, meeting.
Restrictive management measures intended to rebuild overfished
species have been adopted and implemented over the past several years
for most commercial and recreational fishing sectors. Management
measures intended to control the rate at which different groundfish
species or species groups are taken in the fisheries include trip
limits, bag limits, size limits, time/area closures, and gear
restrictions. Large area closures, called Groundfish Conservation Areas
(GCAs) or Rockfish Conservation Areas (RCAs), intended to reduce
bycatch of overfished species, were first implemented in late 2002. A
second important type of measure used to manage groundfish is the
cumulative landing limit. Cumulative landing limits restrict the total
weight of fish by species or species group that any one vessel may land
during the limit period, which is normally 2 months. Different
cumulative landing limits are established for areas north and south of
40*10' N. latitude (near Cape Mendocino, California) and for limited
entry trawl, limited entry fixed gear, and open access fishery
participants. As discussed above, under Amendment 20 Individual Fishing
Quotas would replace cumulative trip limits as the primary catch
control tool to manage a single sector that includes both limited entry
trawl vessels targeting Pacific whiting and vessels targeting other
groundfish species and delivered to shoreside processors. Under the
amendment catcher vessels targeting Pacific whiting and delivering at-
sea to mothership processors would be managed under a system of
cooperatives where NMFS will establish new permits and endorsements,
review and approve co-op agreements, and allocate a percent of this
sector's harvest allocation to each co-op. The Pacific whiting catcher-
processor sector currently operates as a voluntary co-op; Amendment 20
would create a permit endorsement to limit participation in this
sector. These new catch control measures will be evaluated as part of
the proposed action along with current measures. Final determination of
which types of measures will apply in 2011 and 2012 will depend on
whether Amendment 20 is approved and implemented by January 1, 2011.
Preliminary Identification of Environmental Issues
A principal objective of the scoping and public input process is to
identify potentially significant impacts to the human environment that
should be analyzed in depth in the EIS.
Public scoping will occur throughout the Council's decision-making
process. All decisions during the Council process benefit from written
and oral public comments delivered prior to or during the Council
meeting. These public comments are considered integral to scoping for
developing this EIS. A preliminary range of 2011 and 2012 annual catch
limits and management measures will be decided at the October 31-
November 5, 2009, Council meeting in Costa Mesa, California, at the
Hilton Orange County/Costa Mesa, 3050 Bristol St., Costa Mesa, CA
92626(714-540-7000). The Council is expected to adopt preliminary
preferred ABCs/ACLs alternatives and refine the range of management
measures at their April 10-15, 2010, meeting in Portland, Oregon, at
the Sheraton Portland Airport Hotel, 8235 NE Airport Way Portland, OR
97220 (503-281-2500). The Council is expected to decide final 2011 and
2012 annual catch limits, further refine the range of management
measures, and decide their final preferred alternative at their June
12-17, 2010, meeting at the Crowne Plaza Mid Peninsula, 1221 Chess
Drive, Foster City, CA 94404 (800-227-6963 or 650-570-5700). Public
comment may be made under the agenda items when the Council will
consider these proposed actions. The agendas for these meetings will be
available from the Council Web site or by request from the Council
office in advance of the meeting (see ADDRESSES). Written comments on
the scope of issues and alternatives may also be submitted as described
under ADDRESSES.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
[[Page 56807]]
Dated: October 27, 2009.
Alan D. Risenhoover,
Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries
Service.
[FR Doc. E9-26223 Filed 11-2-09; 8:45 am]
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