[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 127 (Friday, July 2, 2010)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 38452-38453]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-16195]
[[Page 38452]]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
50 CFR Part 679
RIN 0648-AY42
Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Central Gulf
of Alaska License Limitation Program; Amendment 86
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notification of availability of fishery management plan
amendment; request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The North Pacific Fishery Management Council submitted
Amendment 86 to the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish of the Gulf
of Alaska (FMP) to NMFS for review. If approved, Amendment 86 would add
a Pacific cod endorsement on licenses issued under the license
limitation program (LLP) if those licenses have been used on vessels
that meet minimum recent landing requirements using non-trawl gear,
commonly known as fixed gear. This proposed action would exempt vessels
that use jig gear from the requirement to hold an LLP license, modify
the maximum length designation on a specific set of fixed gear LLP
licenses, and allow entities representing specific communities to
receive a limited number of fixed gear licenses with Pacific cod
endorsements for use on vessels designated by entities representing the
communities. This proposed action is intended to promote the goals and
objectives of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management
Act, the FMP, and other applicable law.
DATES: Comments on the amendment must be received on or before August
31, 2010.
ADDRESSES: Send comments to Sue Salveson, Assistant Regional
Administrator, Sustainable Fisheries Division, Alaska Region, NMFS,
Attn: Ellen Sebastian. You may submit comments, identified by ``RIN
0648-AY42,'' by any one of the following methods:
Electronic Submissions: Submit all electronic public
comments via the Federal eRulemaking Portal website at http://www.regulations.gov.
Mail: P. O. Box 21668, Juneau, AK 99802.
Fax: 907-586-7557.
Hand delivery to the Federal Building: 709 West 9th
Street, Room 420A, Juneau, AK.
All comments received are a part of the public record and will
generally be posted to http://www.regulations.gov without change. All
personal identifying information (e.g., name, address) 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 (enter N/A in the required
fields, if you wish to remain anonymous). Attachments to electronic
comments will be accepted in Microsoft Word, Excel, WordPerfect, or
Adobe portable document file (pdf) formats only.
Copies of Amendment 86 to the Fishery Management Plan for
Groundfish of the Gulf of Alaska, and the Environmental Assessment
(EA), Regulatory Impact Review (RIR), and Initial Regulatory
Flexibility Analysis (IRFA) prepared for Amendment 86 are available
from the NMFS Alaska website at http://www.alaskafisheries.noaa.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Glenn Merrill, 907-586-7228.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation
and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act) requires that each regional
fishery management council submit any fishery management plan amendment
it prepares to NMFS for review and approval, disapproval, or partial
approval by the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary). The Magnuson-Stevens
Act also requires that NMFS, upon receiving a fishery management plan
amendment, immediately publish a notice in the Federal Register
announcing that the amendment is available for public review and
comment. This notice announces that proposed Amendment 86 to the
Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish of the Gulf of Alaska (FMP) is
available for public review and comment.
The groundfish fisheries in the exclusive economic zone of the Gulf
of Alaska are managed under the FMP. The FMP was prepared by the North
Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) under the Magnuson-Stevens
Act.
The license limitation program (LLP) for Gulf of Alaska (GOA)
groundfish fisheries was recommended by the North Pacific Fishery
Management Council (Council) in June 1995 as Amendment 41 to the FMP.
NMFS published a final rule to implement the LLP on October 1, 1998 (63
FR 52642), and the LLP was implemented on January 1, 2000.
The LLP for groundfish established specific criteria that must be
met to allow a person to fish in federally managed groundfish
fisheries. Under the LLP, NMFS issued LLP licenses to vessel owners
based on the catch history of their vessels in federal groundfish
fisheries during the mid 1990s. LLP licenses: (1) endorse fishing
activities in specific regulatory areas in the GOA; (2) restrict the
length of the vessel, the maximum length overall (MLOA), on which the
LLP license may be used; (3) designate the fishing gear (trawl or non-
trawl gear) that may be used on a vessel; (4) designate the type of
vessel operation permitted (catcher vessel or catcher/processor); and
(5) are issued so that the endorsements for specific regulatory areas,
gear designations, or vessel operational types are non-severable from
the LLP license (i.e., once issued, the components of the LLP license
cannot be transferred independently). By creating LLP licenses with
these characteristics, the Council and NMFS limited the ability of a
person to transfer an LLP license that was derived from the historic
fishing activity of a vessel and use it on another vessel in a manner
that could expand fishing capacity.
In 2000, NMFS issued LLP licenses endorsed for trawl gear, and over
800 licenses for non-trawl gear for use in the GOA. Non-trawl gear is
commonly known as ``fixed gear'' which includes hook-and-line, pot, and
jig gear. A vessel owner received an LLP license endorsed for the
Southeast Outside District (SEO), Central Gulf of Alaska which includes
the West Yakutat District (CG), or Western Gulf of Alaska (WG)
regulatory area if that vessel met specific landing requirements in
that specific regulatory area. The minimum landing requirements
differed depending on the regulatory area, size of the vessel, and the
operational type of the vessel.
In late 2007, the Council began a process of reviewing the use of
LLP licenses endorsed for fixed gear in the GOA. This review was
initiated primarily at the request of active GOA fixed gear fishery
participants who were concerned that vessel owners holding fixed gear-
endorsed LLP licenses that had not been assigned to vessels actively
fishing could resume fishing under the licenses in the future and
adversely affect their fishing operations. Specifically, fixed gear
participants were concerned about the potential effects of additional
effort in the GOA Pacific cod fishery that could increase competition
and overcapacity in the
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fishery. This overcapacity could have adverse affects on management of
the fisheries if additional effort in the fishery made it more
difficult for NMFS to close fisheries in a timely manner, thereby
exceeding the total allowable catch for a fishery. Pacific cod is the
primary species targeted by vessels using fixed gear in the GOA. During
the process of developing this proposed action, the Council also
received input from the public requesting modification to the LLP to
establish minimum landing requirements that must be met to allow a
vessel to continue to participate in the Pacific cod fixed gear
fisheries in the GOA. In April 2009, after more than a year of review
and extensive public comment, the Council recommended modifications to
the LLP to revise eligibility criteria for fixed gear endorsements on
LLP licenses.
Proposed Amendment 86 would implement four distinct actions. First,
a Pacific cod fishery endorsement would be added to LLP licenses based
on landings in the directed Pacific cod fishery in the GOA from 2002
through December 8, 2008. NMFS would assign Pacific cod endorsements
that are designated for (1) pot, hook-and-line, and jig gear; (2)
specific GOA regulatory areas (i.e., CG and WG); (3) specific
operational types (i.e., catcher vessels or catcher/processors); and
(4) specific landing requirements based on the MLOA designated on the
LLP license (e.g., different landing requirements would need to be met
for LLP licenses with an MLOA of under 60 feet than those equal to or
greater than 60 feet). This proposed action does not include
modifications to SEO endorsed licenses because fishing in this
regulatory area is currently limited and the risk of additional effort
in the fishery from latent fixed gear LLP license holders was deemed to
be unlikely by the Council. The landing criteria selected would
represent a minimal, but sufficient, amount of participation in the
Pacific cod fishery to indicate some level of dependence on the
fishery. An exemption from catcher/processor landing requirements would
be provided only for LLP licenses that met the following criteria: (1)
they have a catcher/processor endorsement; (2) they were assigned to
vessels that did not meet minimum landing requirements to qualify for a
Pacific cod endorsement for catcher/processors using hook-and-line gear
in either regulatory area where those LLP licenses are endorsed; and
(3) they were assigned to vessels that participated in industry efforts
to reduce halibut prohibited species catch (PSC) in the directed
Pacific cod fishery in the GOA during 2006, 2007, or 2008. This
exemption would allow LLP license holders to receive a Pacific cod
endorsement if they chose not to use their vessels in the GOA during
2006, 2007, or 2008 to minimize halibut PSC through voluntary private
contractual arrangements.
Second, Amendment 86 would exempt vessels using jig gear from the
requirement to be assigned an LLP license provided those vessels did
not use more than five jigging machines, more than one line per
machine, and more than 30 hooks on any one line. This exemption from
the requirements of the LLP is intended to provide a limited
opportunity for entry level vessel operators to participate in the
federal fisheries without incurring the obligations and costs of the
LLP. Pacific cod is the species most frequently caught by jig gear
vessels, and it represents a small portion of the overall TAC, and few
of the vessels using jig gear fish in federal waters.
Third, Amendment 86 would modify the MLOA of an LLP license if it
is assigned a Pacific cod endorsement. The first modification would
reduce the MLOA of LLP licenses that are greater than 60 feet in
length, but that have been consistently assigned to a vessel under 60
feet in length overall from 2002 through December 8, 2008; and (2) the
vessel to which that LLP license was assigned did not meet the landing
thresholds applicable for an LLP license with an MLOA greater than or
equal to 60 feet, but did meet the landing thresholds applicable to LLP
licenses with an MLOA under 60 feet. The second modification would
allow a small increase in MLOA up to 50 feet for a limited number of
LLP licenses that had been assigned to smaller sized vessels during the
qualifying period for the proposed action. These modifications would
allow owners of smaller vessels to continue to use LLP licenses
historically associated with their vessels and would not substantially
increase fishing capacity in the fishery.
Fourth, Amendment 86 would allow entities representing specific
communities in the WG and CG to request a limited number of non-
transferrable Pacific cod endorsed LLP licenses to be endorsed for
hook-and-line or pot gear with an MLOA of less than 60 feet. Once the
community entity receives an LLP license, the community entity may
assign that LLP license for use on a vessel designated by the entity.
The number of LLP licenses and the specific gear type of those licenses
would be limited for each community to ensure that approximately the
same number of LLP licenses known to be held by community residents
would be eligible for a Pacific cod endorsement. LLP licenses issued to
a community would have an MLOA of 60 feet to limit the potential that
communities could assign those LLP licenses to large vessels with
potentially greater harvest capacity than the vessels traditionally
used by residents of these communities.
The RIR/IRFA prepared for this action describes the costs and
benefits of the proposed amendment (see ADDRESSES for availability).
All of the directly regulated entities would be expected to benefit
from this action relative to the status quo because the proposed
amendment would limit the potential for participants without historic
or recent participation to enter the Central and Western GOA Pacific
cod fisheries.
Public comments are being solicited on proposed Amendment 86 to the
GOA FMP through the end of the comment period (see DATES). NMFS intends
to publish in the Federal Register and seek public comment on a
proposed rule that would implement Amendment 86, following NMFS'
evaluation of the proposed rule under the Magnuson-Stevens Act. Public
comments on the proposed rule must be received by the end of the
comment period on Amendment 86 to be considered in the approval/
disapproval decision on Amendment 86. All comments received by the end
of the comment period on Amendment 86, whether specifically directed to
the GOA FMP amendment or the proposed rule, will be considered in the
FMP approval/disapproval decision. Comments received after that date
will not be considered in the approval/disapproval decision on the
amendment. To be considered, comments must be received, not just
postmarked or otherwise transmitted, by the close of business on the
last day of the comment period.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: June 29, 2010.
Carrie Selberg,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2010-16195 Filed 7-1-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-S