[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 175 (Friday, September 10, 2010)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 55286-55288]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-22634]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
50 CFR Part 648
[Docket No. 0910051338-0403-04]
RIN 0648-AY29
Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Northeast
Multispecies Fishery; Adjustment to Fishing Year 2010 Georges Bank
Yellowtail Flounder Total Allowable Catch
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Temporary final rule; adjustment to specifications.
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SUMMARY: Final catch data for the 2009 fishing year (FY) (May 1, 2009-
April 30, 2010) indicate that the total catch of Georges Bank (GB)
yellowtail flounder was 1,770 mt, exceeding the 1,617 mt FY 2009 Total
Allowable Catch (TAC) by 153 mt. The regulations require that any
overage of the GB yellowtail flounder TAC specified for the common
pool, individual sectors, or the scallop fishery in one FY be
subtracted from the respective TACs in the following FY. Therefore,
NMFS hereby announces deductions to the FY 2010 GB yellowtail flounder
TAC, including how the deduction will be divided between the annual
catch limit (ACL) for common pool vessels (common pool sub-ACL), and
the ACL for sector vessels (sector sub-ACL).
DATES: Effective September 7, 2010 through April 30, 2011.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Douglas Potts, Fishery Policy Analyst,
(978) 281-9341.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The TACs for Eastern GB cod, Eastern GB
haddock, and GB yellowtail flounder in the U.S./Canada Management Area
were published in the Federal Register on April 9, 2010 (75 FR 18356)
as part of the Framework Adjustment 44 (FW 44) final rule. That action
established the FY 2010 U.S. TACs of GB cod, haddock, and yellowtail
flounder at 338 mt, 11,988 mt, and 1,200 mt, respectively, and
specified that, should an analysis of the catch by U.S. vessels
indicate that an overage occurred during FY 2009, the pertinent TAC
would be adjusted downward in order to be consistent with the FMP and
the U.S./Canada Resource Sharing Understanding (Understanding). The
regulations at Sec. 648.85(a)(2)(ii) require that ``any overages of
the GB cod and GB haddock TACs specified for either the common pool or
individual sectors, or any overages of the GB yellowtail flounder TAC
specified for the common pool, individual sectors, or the scallop
fishery * * * that occur in a given fishing year will be subtracted
from the respective TAC in the following fishing year.'' The final
annual catch analysis cannot be completed until about 1 month into the
following FY because of the need to include any late reports from
vessels and dealers. Therefore, any required TAC adjustment must be
made during the FY following the FY in which the overage occurred.
Based upon vessel reports, dealer reports, and other information
available as of June 8, 2010, the total estimated catch of GB
yellowtail flounder in the U.S./Canada Management Area during FY 2009
was 1,770 mt. This exceeds the overall FY 2009 GB yellowtail flounder
TAC of 1,617 mt by 153 mt. Therefore, an overage of 153 mt of GB
yellowtail flounder must be subtracted from the overall FY 2010 U.S./
Canada GB yellowtail flounder TAC through this action. This results in
an adjusted overall TAC of 1,047 mt for FY 2010 for GB yellowtail
flounder. The Eastern GB cod and haddock TACs were not exceeded in FY
2009. Therefore, these two TACs are not adjusted.
[[Page 55287]]
The current regulatory provision requires that the reduction in the
GB yellowtail flounder TAC be applied to the common pool, individual
sectors, and scallop TACs, based on any overages in the previous year's
TACs for each of these three components of the fishery. In FY 2009,
however, with the exception of a bycatch TAC allocation to the scallop
fishery, there was only an overall TAC allocated to the groundfish
fishery, with no specific allocation to the common pool or individual
sectors. Therefore, although there is a requirement to reduce this
year's GB yellowtail flounder TAC by last year's overall overage, there
is no specific regulatory provision describing how to allocate the
reduction among these three components in this FY. (This is relevant to
this FY only.) This action implements the required reduction and,
pursuant to the agency's general regulatory authority under section
305(d) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act
(16 U.S.C. 1855), creates an ad hoc method to prorate this reduction
between the common pool and individual sectors based on the percentages
of TAC allocated to the common pool and individual sectors for FY 2010.
The FW 44 final rule set the FY 2010 GB yellowtail flounder ACL
subcomponent for the scallop fishery to account for 100 percent of the
anticipated GB yellowtail flounder bycatch in that fishery. Therefore,
there is no rational basis to reduce scallop bycatch allocation this
year. Implementing this method for allocating the reduction in TAC
between the common pool and individual sectors is necessary to ensure
consistency with the intent of Amendment 16 and FW 44.
To understand how the reduction is to be prorated it is necessary
to describe how the allocation of TACs among the various components of
the fishery is done. For transboundary managed stocks, the Acceptable
Biological Catch (ABC) is equivalent to the U.S. portion of the TAC
negotiated under the Understanding. The total ACL (or TAC) is set lower
than the ABC to account for management uncertainty. For yellowtail
flounder, the total ACL (or TAC) is subdivided into sub-ACLs (or TACs)
for the groundfish fishery (sectors and common pool) and other ACL
subcomponents, including an allocation to account for bycatch in the
scallop fishery, and bycatch in other fisheries. The sector sub-ACL is
further divided into Annual Catch Entitlement (ACE) values (or TACs)
for each of the 17 NE multispecies sectors. The 17 sector ACEs that
constitute the sector sub-ACL for FY 2010 were initially published on
April 9, 2010 (75 FR 18113), in the sector final rule. These common
pool and sector allocations were subsequently modified by a rule
published on May 26, 2010 (75 FR 29459), to adjust for final sector
membership rosters. The percentage allocations of TACs to these sub-
ACLs and ACEs form the basis for prorating the reduction dictated by
the 2009 FY's overage.
Table 1 contains the new values for the ABC, ACL, sub-ACLs, and ACL
subcomponents for GB yellowtail flounder implemented by this action.
Table 2 contains details of the adjustments to each of the 17 sector's
ACEs for GB yellowtail flounder as a result of this action.
Table 1--GB Yellowtail Flounder ABC, ACL, sub-ACL, and ACL Subcomponents
for FY 2010 (mt)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Previous
value New value
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ABC............................................... 1,200 1,047
Total ACL......................................... 1,170 1,021
Scallop Fishery ACL Subcomponent.................. 146 146
Other ACL Subcomponents........................... 60 52
Groundfish Total ACL.............................. 964 823
Sector Sub-ACL*................................... 941 803
Common Pool Sub-ACL............................... 23 20
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*All sub-ACL values for sectors assume that each sector MRI has a valid
permit for FY 2010.
Table 2--GB Yellowtail Flounder ACE for Each Sector for FY 2010 (mt)*
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Previous New ACE
Sector name ACE (mt) (mt)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
FGS............................................... 0 0
NCCS.............................................. 8 7
NEFS 2............................................ 16 14
NEFS 3............................................ 0 0
NEFS 4............................................ 21 18
NEFS 5............................................ 92 79
NEFS 6............................................ 13 11
NEFS 7............................................ 156 133
NEFS 8............................................ 154 131
NEFS 9............................................ 183 156
NEFS 10........................................... 0 0
NEFS 11........................................... 0 0
NEFS 12........................................... 0 0
NEFS 13........................................... 149 127
PCCGS............................................. 0 0
SHS............................................... 79 68
TSS............................................... 70 60
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* All ACE values for sectors outlined in Table 1 assume that each sector
MRI has a valid permit for FY 2010.
George Bank Cod Fixed Gear Sector (FGS), Northeast Coastal Communities
Sector (NCCS), Northeast Fishery Sectors (NEFS), Port Clyde Community
Groundfish Sector (PCCGS), Sustainable Harvest Sector (SHS), and Tri-
State Sector (TSS).
FW 44 specified an incidental catch TAC for the Regular B Days-at
Sea (DAS) Program, equivalent to 2 percent of the GB yellowtail
flounder common pool sub-ACL. As a result of the adjustment to the
common pool sub-ACL, this incidental catch TAC is reduced from 0.47 mt
to 0.40 mt.
Classification
This action is required by 50 CFR part 648 and is exempt from
review under Executive Order 12866.
Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B) and (d)(3), the Assistant
Administrator finds good cause to waive prior notice and opportunity
for public comment, as well as the delayed effectiveness for this
action, because notice, comment, and a delayed effectiveness would be
unnecessary, impractical, and contrary to the public interest. Any
delay in this action to allow for prior public comment could result in
overharvest of the new GB yellowtail flounder allocation by a sector or
the common pool. Such an overage would result in closure of the Eastern
U.S./Canada Area, and zero possession of GB yellowtail flounder for the
affected group and, therefore, loss of opportunities to fish for other
stocks. Further, the regulations at Sec. 648.85(a)(2)(ii), which were
subject to prior public comment, require that any overage of the TAC
for GB yellowtail flounder be deducted from the TAC in the following
FY. Accordingly, the action being taken by this temporary rule is non-
discretionary. Since this is a non-discretionary action, based on
numerous records solely in the possession of NMFS, public comment would
not serve to inform the agency calculation of the overage and its
deduction from the appropriate TAC.
The rate of harvest of GB yellowtail flounder by groundfish vessels
and scallop vessels fishing in the Scallop Access Areas in the U.S./
Canada Management Area, as reported from Vessel Monitoring Systems, is
updated weekly on the Internet at http://www.nero.noaa.gov.
Accordingly, the public is able to obtain information that would
provide at least some advance notice of a potential action as a result
of a GB yellowtail flounder TAC being exceeded during FY 2009. Further,
the potential that one or more of the FY 2009 TACs for the U.S./Canada
stocks could be exceeded, and therefore reduce the FY 2010 TAC, was
considered and
[[Page 55288]]
open to public comment during the proposed rule stage of FW44.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: September 3, 2010.
Eric C. Schwaab,
Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries
Service.
[FR Doc. 2010-22634 Filed 9-7-10; 4:15 pm]
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