[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 46 (Wednesday, March 9, 2011)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 12884-12886]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-5369]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
50 CFR Part 679
[Docket No. 100413185-1155-02]
RIN 0648-AY84
Groundfish Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska;
American Fisheries Act; Recordkeeping and Reporting
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Final rule.
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SUMMARY: NMFS issues this rule to amend the American Fisheries Act
implementing regulations that previously required cooperatives
participating in the directed fishery for pollock in the Bering Sea to
prepare and submit preliminary annual reports to the North Pacific
Fishery Management Council (Council). The Council determined that the
requirement for cooperatives to submit a preliminary annual report is
no longer necessary, and this action eliminates that requirement. This
action does not eliminate the requirement for the cooperatives to
submit a single annual report to the Council. This action promotes the
goals and objectives of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and
Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act) and other applicable laws.
DATES: Effective April 8, 2011.
ADDRESSES: Electronic copies of this rule, the Regulatory Impact Review
(RIR), and the categorical exclusion memorandum may be obtained from
the Alaska Region Web site at http://alaskafisheries.noaa.gov.
Written comments regarding the burden-hour estimates or other
aspects of the collection-of-information requirements contained in this
final rule may be submitted by mail to NMFS, Alaska Region, P.O. Box
21668, Juneau, AK 99802-1668, Attn: Ellen Sebastian, Records Officer;
in person at NMFS, Alaska Region, 709 West 9th Street, Room 420A,
Juneau, Alaska; and by e-mail to [email protected], or by
fax to 202-395-7285.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Patsy A. Bearden, 907-586-7228.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NMFS manages the U.S. groundfish fisheries
in the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands
Management Area under the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish of the
Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area (FMP). The North
Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) prepared the FMP under the
Magnuson-Stevens Act. Regulations implementing the FMP appear at
subpart F of 50 CFR part 679. General regulations that pertain to U.S.
fisheries appear at subpart H of 50 CFR part 600.
Background
In October 1998, Congress enacted the American Fisheries Act (AFA),
16 U.S.C. 1851, which ``rationalized'' the Bering Sea pollock fishery
by identifying the vessels and processors eligible to participate in
the fishery and allocating pollock among those eligible participants.
The AFA allocates 10 percent of the Bering Sea pollock total allowable
catch to the Western Alaska Community Development Quota (CDQ) Program.
After subtracting the CDQ Program allocation, and an amount set aside
for the catch of pollock in other Bering Sea fisheries, the AFA
allocates the remaining available pollock quota (the ``directed fishing
allowance'') among the AFA inshore sector (50 percent), the AFA
catcher/processor sector (40 percent), and the AFA mothership sector
(10 percent).
The AFA allowed for development of pollock fishing cooperatives in
the non-CDQ sectors. Thirteen cooperatives were developed under the
AFA: Ten inshore catcher vessel cooperatives, two offshore catcher/
processor cooperatives, and one mothership cooperative. After NMFS
allocates pollock quota to each of the inshore catcher vessel
cooperatives, the cooperatives further subdivide each cooperative's
pollock allocation among vessel owners in the cooperative through
private contractual agreements. The cooperatives manage these
allocations to optimize their harvest and to ensure that individual
vessels and companies do not harvest more than their agreed upon share
of pollock. The cooperatives also enforce contract
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provisions and participate in a cooperative agreement to reduce salmon
bycatch by the directed pollock fishery.
The regulations establishing the AFA cooperative reporting
requirements were published on December 30, 2002 (67 FR 79692). These
regulations required that each cooperative prepare preliminary and
final annual reports describing the cooperative's harvest of pollock,
prohibited species, and non-pollock groundfish, including species for
which NMFS establishes annual sideboards that limit incidental catch by
AFA participants. The purpose of the annual reports was ``to assist the
Council and NMFS in meeting the requirements of paragraph 210(a)(1) of
the AFA, which requires that NMFS make such information available to
the public in a manner that NMFS and the Council decide is
appropriate'' (67 FR 79692). Another purpose of the AFA cooperative
annual report was to provide the Council information upon which it
could make decisions on cooperative allocations and sideboard
protection measures.
Prior to this action, all AFA cooperatives were required to submit
both preliminary and final annual written reports on directed pollock
fishing activity to the Council. The preliminary report was due on
December 1, one month after the pollock fishery's closure on November
1, while the final report was due on April 1 of the following year. The
two reports resulted from the Council's recognition that one month
following the fishery's closure may not be enough time for the AFA
cooperative representatives to compile all of the required information
for the annual report. Requiring cooperatives to file a second report
also allowed cooperatives to update catch and bycatch data after the
end of the year.
In recent years, the Council has found that the preliminary AFA
cooperative report is no longer necessary to develop recommendations on
final groundfish specifications or on cooperative allocations and
sideboard protection measures. The Council instead uses the Stock
Assessment and Fishery Evaluation (SAFE) Reports provided by the
Council's Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area Groundfish
Plan Team, and the total allowable catch (TAC) recommendations provided
at the December Council meeting to develop these recommendations. The
data in the SAFE Reports are more encompassing than the data found in
the preliminary AFA cooperative reports.
The SAFE Reports for the groundfish fisheries managed by the
Council are compiled by the respective Plan Teams from chapters
contributed by scientists at the NMFS Alaska Fisheries Science Center
and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. These SAFE Reports include
separate stock assessment and fishery evaluation sections. The stock
assessment section includes recommended acceptable biological catch
(ABC) levels for each stock and stock complex managed under the FMP.
For purposes of determining TACs, the data provided in these reports is
a sufficient substitute for that which has been provided by the
preliminary reports on the pollock fishery from the cooperatives. The
Council considers the ABC recommendations, together with social and
economic factors, in determining TACs and other management strategies
for the fisheries.
At its June 2010 meeting, the Council determined that, combined
with the SAFE Report and TAC recommendations, a single annual report
from each AFA cooperative, renamed the ``annual AFA cooperative
report,'' will provide sufficient information to the Council, the
industry, and the public about the directed fisheries for pollock in
the Bering Sea. Under this rule, the cooperatives will be required to
submit one report containing the same information previously contained
in two reports.
Each AFA cooperative annual report will continue to be required to
provide the following information:
How the cooperative allocated pollock, other groundfish
species, and prohibited species catch among the vessels in the
cooperative;
The catch and discard of these species by area for each
vessel in the cooperative;
How the cooperative monitored fisheries in which its
members participate;
A description of any actions taken by the cooperative in
response to any vessel that exceeded the allocations made to the vessel
by the cooperative;
The total weight of pollock landed outside the State of
Alaska on a vessel-by-vessel basis; and
The number of salmon taken by species and season, and list
each vessel's number of appearances on the weekly dirty 20 lists for
non-Chinook salmon.
This action does not result in a substantial change in the
reporting requirements. Some decrease in miscellaneous costs might
occur due to postage cost differences. It is also possible that the
burden will decrease due to planning and writing of one report instead
of two reports, one revising the other.
NMFS published the proposed rule for this action in the Federal
Register on December 20, 2010 (75 FR 79330), with a public comment
period that closed January 4, 2011. No comments were received during
this comment period.
NMFS made the following change from the proposed rule to the final
rule. In the final rule, NMFS changes the proposed report submittal
language at Sec. 679.61(f)(1) to maintain the regulatory language
currently in use. The proposed rule stated ``Annual reports must be
postmarked or received by the submission deadline.'' This text is
revised to read ``Annual reports must be postmarked by the submission
deadline or received by a private courier service by the submission
deadline.''
This change gives equal treatment to cooperatives that send the
annual report via postal service and those that send the report via
private courier. As compared to the proposed rule, the final rule
allows a cooperative that uses a private courier service a small amount
of additional time to complete and send the report; however, this
change does not necessarily delay the Council's receipt of the report
or its availability to the public.
Classification
The NMFS Assistant Administrator for Fisheries has determined that
this rule is necessary for the conservation and management of the
Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands groundfish fisheries and that it is
consistent with the FMP, the national standards, and other provisions
of the Magnuson-Stevens Act and other applicable laws.
This final rule has been determined to be not significant for
purposes of Executive Order 12866.
The Chief Counsel for Regulation of the Department of Commerce
certified to the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Business
Administration during the proposed rule stage that this action will not
have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small
entities. The factual basis for the certification was published in the
proposed rule and is not repeated here.
No comments were received regarding this certification, and no
changes have been made from the proposed rule. As a result, a
regulatory flexibility analysis was not required and none was prepared.
This action will not increase recordkeeping and reporting costs.
Collection-of-Information Requirements
This rule contains collection-of-information requirements subject
to the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), and which have been approved by
the Office
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of Management and Budget (OMB) under OMB Control Number 0648-0401.
Public reporting burden per response is estimated to average 8
hours for an AFA preliminary annual report and 4 hours for an AFA final
annual report under old requirements. This rule removes the AFA
preliminary annual report and renames the AFA final annual report as
the AFA cooperative annual report, which is estimated to average 8
hours per response. This rule reduces the reporting burden without
imposing any new, additional reporting burden.
These estimates of public reporting burden include the time for
reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and
maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the
collection-of-information.
Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of
this data collection, including suggestions for reducing the burden, to
NMFS (see ADDRESSES); e-mail to [email protected] or fax to
202-395-7285.
Notwithstanding any other provision of the law, no person is
required to respond to, and no person shall be subject to penalty for
failure to comply with, a collection of information subject to the
requirements of the PRA, unless that collection of information displays
a currently valid OMB control number.
List of Subjects in 50 CFR Part 679
Alaska, Fisheries, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.
Dated: March 4, 2011.
Samuel D. Rauch III,
Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Programs, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
For the reasons set out in the preamble, 50 CFR part 679 is amended
as follows:
PART 679--FISHERIES OF THE EXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONE OFF ALASKA
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1. The authority citation for part 679 continues to read as follows:
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 773 et seq.; 1801 et seq.; 3631 et seq.;
Pub. L. 108-447.
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2. In Sec. 679.61, revise paragraph (f) introductory text, paragraph
(f)(1), and paragraph (f)(2) introductory text to read as follows:
Sec. 679.61 Formation and operation of fishery cooperatives.
* * * * *
(f) Annual reporting requirement. Any fishery cooperative governed
by this section must submit an annual written report on fishing
activity to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, 605 West 4th
Avenue, Suite 306, Anchorage, AK 99501. The Council will make copies of
each report available to the public upon request.
(1) What is the submission deadline? The cooperative must submit
the annual report by April 1 of each year. Annual reports must be
postmarked by the submission deadline or received by a private courier
service by the submission deadline.
(2) What information must be included? The annual report must
contain, at a minimum:
* * * * *
[FR Doc. 2011-5369 Filed 3-8-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P