[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 51 (Wednesday, March 16, 2011)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 14367-14368]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-6151]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
50 CFR Part 665
RIN 0648-AY93
Fisheries in the Western Pacific; Mechanism for Specifying Annual
Catch Limits and Accountability Measures
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of availability of fishery ecosystem plan amendments;
request for comments.
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SUMMARY: NMFS announces that the Western Pacific Fishery Management
Council (Council) proposes to amend its five fishery ecosystem plans
(FEPs) to establish a mechanism for specifying annual catch limits
(ACLs) and accountability measures (AMs), adopt the ecosystem component
species classification described in the NMFS advisory guidelines for
National Standard 1, and identify management unit species that have
statutory exceptions to the ACL and AM requirements. The intent of the
amendment is end and prevent overfishing, rebuild overfished stocks,
and achieve optimum yield.
DATES: Comments on the amendment must be received by May 16, 2011.
ADDRESSES: Comments on the amendment, identified by 0648-AX93, may be
sent to either of the following addresses:
Electronic Submission: Submit all electronic public
comments via the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal http://www.regulations.gov; or
[[Page 14368]]
Mail: Mail written comments to Michael D. Tosatto,
Regional Administrator, NMFS, Pacific Islands Region (PIR), 1601
Kapiolani Blvd, Suite 1110, Honolulu, HI 96814-4700.
Instructions: Comments must be submitted to one of these two
addresses to ensure that the comments are received, documented, and
considered by NMFS. Comments sent to any other address or individual,
or received after the end of the comment period, may not be considered.
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, etc.) submitted
voluntarily 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 or Excel,
WordPerfect, or Adobe PDF file formats only.
Copies of the amendment (Amendment 2 to the American Samoa FEP,
Amendment 3 to the Hawaii FEP, Amendment 2 to the Mariana Archipelago
FEP, Amendment 1 to the Pacific Remote Islands Areas FEP, and Amendment
4 to the western Pacific Pelagic fisheries FEP are identical),
including an environmental assessment and background information on the
action, are available from http://www.regulations.gov and from the
Council, 1164 Bishop St., Suite 1400, Honolulu, HI 96813, tel 808-522-
8220, fax 808-522-8226, or http://www.wpcouncil.org.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jarad Makaiau, NMFS PIR Sustainable
Fisheries, 808-944-2108.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In 2006, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery
Conservation and Management Act was amended to include new provisions
that facilitate preventing and ending overfishing, and rebuilding
overfished stocks. Specifically, each council's fishery management plan
must include a mechanism for specifying ACLs so that overfishing does
not occur. AMs are also required to prevent ACLs from being exceeded,
and to correct or mitigate any overages of the ACL. The ACL and AM
mechanism would be applied to all fisheries, except species that are
subject to an international fishery agreement in which the U.S.
participates, or have a life cycle of approximately one year or less.
The National Standard 1 guidelines, published by NMFS on January 16,
2009 (74 FR 3178), provides guidance for establishing ACLs and AMs, and
exceptions to the requirements.
This amendment would establish a mechanism for specifying ACLs and
AMs in each of the five western Pacific FEPs. They would include a tier
of control rules which the Council's Scientific and Statistical
Committee would apply to determine an acceptable biological catch
limit. These control rules would account for scientific uncertainty in
the estimate of a fishery's overfishing limit, and the probability of
overfishing. The mechanism would also include qualitative methods for
determining the probability of overfishing and for setting ACLs, and
describe a suite of AMs to prevent ACLs from being exceeded or to
mitigate overages of an ACL, including use of annual catch targets.
This amendment would also identify species that have statutory
exceptions to the ACL and AM requirements; at present, these are all
western Pacific pelagic management unit species. Finally, the amendment
incorporates existing status determination criteria, as described in
the five western Pacific FEPs. The Council would continue to use the
SDC in determining the overfishing and overfished status of western
Pacific fisheries, whereby exceeding the maximum fishing mortality
threshold for a period of one year or more constitutes overfishing, and
a stock is considered overfished if its biomass falls below the minimum
stock size threshold. The amendment also describes the Council's intent
to use the ``ecosystem component'' classification defined in the
National Standard 1 guidelines. Specifying ecosystem component species
is not part of this amendment; it would be done in future amendments to
the appropriate FEP(s).
Public comments on the proposed amendment must be received by May
16, 2011 to be considered by NMFS in the decision to approve, partially
approve, or disapprove the amendment. NMFS soon expects to publish and
request public comment on a proposed rule that would implement the ACL
mechanism.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: March 11, 2011.
Margo Schulze-Haugen,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2011-6151 Filed 3-15-11; 8:45 am]
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