[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 49 (Monday, March 15, 2010)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 12169-12170]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-5603]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
50 CFR Part 622
[Docket No. 100210083-0085-01]
RIN 0648-AY67
Fisheries of the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and South Atlantic;
Coastal Migratory Pelagic Resources of the Gulf of Mexico and South
Atlantic; Commercial King and Spanish Mackerel Fisheries of the Gulf of
Mexico; Control Date
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Advanced notice of proposed rulemaking; request for comments.
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SUMMARY: This notice announces that the Gulf of Mexico Fishery
Management Council (Council) is considering additional management
measures to further limit the number of participants or levels of
participation in the commercial king and Spanish mackerel components of
the coastal migratory pelagic fishery operating in the exclusive
economic zone (EEZ) of the Gulf of Mexico. If such management
[[Page 12170]]
measures are implemented, the Council is considering June 30, 2009, as
a possible control date for king mackerel and March 31, 2010, as a
possible control date for Spanish mackerel. These dates may serve to
determine eligibility of catch histories in the commercial king and
Spanish mackerel fisheries. NMFS invites comments on the revision of
these control dates.
DATES: Comments must be submitted by April 14, 2010.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by RIN 0648-AY67, by any
one of the following methods:
Electronic Submissions: Submit all electronic public
comments via the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal http://www.regulations.gov
Mail: Susan Gerhart, Southeast Regional Office, NMFS, 263
13th Avenue South, St. Petersburg, FL 33701
Instructions: No comments will be posted for public viewing until
after the comment period has closed. 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 (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.
Comments should apply to the control date as an eligibility requirement
for a catch share program, not the catch share program itself.
To submit comments through the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov, enter ``NOAA-NMFS-2010-0031'' in the keyword
search, then select ``Send a Comment or Submission.'' 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.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The commercial fishery for mackerel in the
Gulf of Mexico is managed under the Fishery Management Plan for the
Coastal Migratory Pelagic Resources of the Gulf of Mexico and South
Atlantic (FMP). The FMP was prepared jointly by the South Atlantic
Fishery Management Council and the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management
Council (Council), and implemented under the authority of the Magnuson-
Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act).
The Council anticipates that future action may be necessary to
further control effort or participation of Gulf of Mexico (Gulf) king
and Spanish mackerel through additional management actions. At its
February 2010 meeting, the Council approved a motion to revise control
dates for king and Spanish mackerel. Specifically, the Council may
consider creating additional restrictions to limit participation
including creating a catch share program. To discourage accelerated
effort to develop a catch history before the program is implemented,
the Council may establish eligibility criteria based on catch histories
from, and before, the most recent full fishing seasons. The proposed
control date for king mackerel would be June 30, 2009, and the proposed
control date for Spanish mackerel would be March 31, 2010. Thus,
landings of the respective species after these dates may not count
toward potential eligibility under a future management program. The
implementation of a future program to restrict access in the fishery
would require preparation of an amendment to the FMP and publication of
a notice of availability of the amendment with a comment period,
publication of a proposed rule with a public comment period, approval
of the amendment, and issuance of a final implementing rule.
The current control date for both king and Spanish mackerel is
October 16, 1995. This current notice proposes an adjustment of the
control dates for these fisheries to the end of the most recent fishing
year to allow incorporation of more recent as well as historical
fishing activity.
The revision of control dates for king and Spanish mackerel does
not commit the Council or NMFS to any particular management regime. The
Council may or may not make use of these control dates as part of the
qualifying criteria for participation in any potential future catch
share or fishery management program for Gulf group mackerel. Fishermen
are not guaranteed future participation in the fishery, regardless of
their entry date or intensity of participation in the fishery before or
after the control dates under consideration. Future determinations of
the Council may give variably weighted consideration to fishermen
active in the fishery before and after the control dates. Other
qualifying criteria, such as documentation of landings and sales, may
be applied for entry into the fishery. Additionally, the Council may
choose to take no further action to control entry or access to the
fishery, in which case the control dates may be rescinded.
This notification also gives the public notice that interested
participants should locate and preserve records that substantiate and
verify their participation in the commercial king and Spanish mackerel
fisheries in the Gulf EEZ.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: March 9, 2010.
Samuel D. Rauch III,
Deputy Assistant Administrator For Regulatory Programs, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2010-5603 Filed 3-12-10; 8:45 am]
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