[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 186 (Monday, September 27, 2010)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 59204-59205]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-24185]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
50 CFR Part 648
[Docket No. 100818375-0379-02]
RIN 0648-XX84
Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Northeast (NE)
Multispecies Fishery; Reopening of a Proposed Rule Comment Period
Through October 1, 2010
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Proposed rule, reopening and extension of comment period.
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SUMMARY: NMFS is reopening the comment period for the proposed rule to
Implement Addenda to 17 Fishing Year (FY) 2010 Northeast Multispecies
Sector Operations Plans and Contracts. The comment period is being
reopened and extended to provide additional opportunity for public
comment.
DATES: Written comments must be received by 5 p.m., local time on
October 1, 2010.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by 0648-XX84, by any one
of the following methods:
Electronic Submissions: Submit all electronic public
comments via the Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.
Fax: (978) 281-9135, Attn: Melissa Vasquez.
Mail: 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 2010 Sector Exemption Rule.''
[[Page 59205]]
Instructions: All comments received are part of the public
record and will generally be posted to http://www.regulations.gov
without change. No comments will be posted for public viewing until
after the comment period has closed. 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 (enter 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 requests for addenda to the FY 2010 sector
operations plans and contracts, and the supplemental environmental
assessment (EA), are available from the NMFS NE Regional Office at the
mailing address specified above.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Melissa Vasquez, Fishery Policy
Analyst, phone (978) 281-9166, fax (978) 281-9135.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: A final rule published April 9, 2010 (75 FR
18113), approved FY 2010 sector operations plans and contracts and
allocations of annual catch entitlement (ACE) for 17 NE multispecies
sectors. Through this final rule, the Regional Administrator also
approved exemptions for sector vessels from certain Federal fishing
regulations for those sectors that requested them, in addition to the
universal exemptions already approved for all sectors through Amendment
16 to the NE Multispecies Fishery Management Plan (FMP).
A proposed rule published on September 2, 2010 (75 FR 53939),
proposes to implement addenda to FY 2010 NE multispecies sector
operations plans and contracts that would add certain exemptions from
Federal fishing regulations for FY 2010 sectors. The proposed rule
considers expanding exemptions already approved for some sectors to all
those that request them to maximize flexibility and improve
profitability for sector vessels. It also proposes approving two new
exemption requests: The Gulf of Maine (GOM) Sink Gillnet exemption and
the discarding exemption for unmarketable fish. The GOM Sink Gillnet
exemption is based on a program originally considered and disapproved
for the common pool fishery in Amendment 16 to the NE Multispecies FMP,
and would allow sector vessels to use 6-inch (15.24-cm) mesh gillnets
in the GOM Regulated Mesh Area January through April 2011, to target
haddock. This action also proposes a partial exemption from the
prohibition on discarding of legal-size allocated stocks to allow
sector vessels to discard unmarketable fish at sea, to improve safety
conditions and operational flexibility for sector vessels.
The proposed rule published in the Federal Register with a 15-day
comment period that closed on September 17, 2010. The New England
Fishery Management Council (Council) will be discussing a number of
important sector exemption requests from the proposed rule at their
September 28-30, 2010, meeting. Reopening and extending the comment
period to overlap with the Council meeting is necessary to provide
additional time for the Council and any other interested parties to
provide comment, after this proposed action is discussed at the Council
meeting. Thus, NMFS is reopening and extending the comment period on
the proposed rule through October 1, 2010.
Dated: September 22, 2010.
Eric C. Schwaab,
Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries
Service.
[FR Doc. 2010-24185 Filed 9-22-10; 4:15 pm]
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