[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 79 (Monday, April 25, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 22875-22876]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-9944]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
RIN 0648-XA355
Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act Provisions;
General Provisions for Domestic Fisheries; Application for Exempted
Fishing Permits
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notice; request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The Assistant Regional Administrator for Sustainable
Fisheries, Northeast Region, NMFS (Assistant Regional Administrator),
has made a preliminary determination that an Exempted Fishing Permit
(EFP) application contains all of the required information and warrants
further consideration. This EFP application would exempt commercial
fishing vessels from the following Federal American lobster
regulations: Trap escape vent requirements to allow 12 federally
permitted commercial fishing vessels to utilize a maximum of 500
ventless traps to collect scientific information on American lobsters,
including juveniles, in Lobster Conservation Management Areas (LCMAs)
3, 4, and 5 from June through
[[Page 22876]]
November 2011. This proposed project would be conducted by the New
Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife (NJ DFW) in conjunction with the
already present New Jersey At-Sea Lobster Observer Program and New
Jersey commercial fishermen.
Regulations under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and
Management Act require publication of this notification to provide
interested parties the opportunity to comment on applications for
proposed EFPs.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before May 10, 2011.
ADDRESSES: Comments on this notice may be submitted by e-mail. The
mailbox address for providing e-mail comments is [email protected].
Include in the subject line ``Comments on NJ DFW Lobster EFP.'' Written
comments should be sent to Patricia A. Kurkul, Regional Administrator,
NMFS, NE Regional Office, 55 Great Republic Drive, Gloucester, MA
01930. Mark the outside of the envelop ``Comments on NJ DFW Lobster
EFP.''
Fax: (978) 281-9135.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Carol Sh[eacute], Fishery Policy
Analyst, 978-282-8464, [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NJ DFW submitted a complete application for
an EFP on March 21, 2011, to conduct commercial fishing activities that
the regulations would otherwise restrict. This EFP application would
exempt commercial fishing vessels from the following Federal
regulations: Lobster trap escape vent requirements specified under 50
CFR 697.21(c)(2) and (c)(4). The EFP would authorize 12 federally
permitted vessels to be exempted from parts of the Federal lobster
regulations to allow the participating vessels to fish modified lobster
traps to attain an accurate characterization of abundance for juvenile
and adult lobsters in waters off the coast of New Jersey and to
determine several variables in the stock dynamics, e.g., whether there
has been a significant decline in juvenile and adult abundance, and/or
whether this decline is occurring throughout the range of the Southern
New England (SNE) stock.
NJ DFW would work in conjunction with the already present New
Jersey At-Sea Lobster Observer Program to record: Number of lobsters
caught; number of traps hauled; set-over-days; trap and bait type;
carapace length (to the nearest millimeter); sex; shell hardness; culls
and shell damage; external gross pathology (including shell disease
symptoms); mortality; and presence of extruded ova on females through
its Ventless Trap Survey. The Ventless Trap Survey project is designed
to generate robust estimates of lobster abundance off the coast of New
Jersey, from 0-60 nautical miles (0-97 kilometers), offshore, in the
northern range of the SNE stock area and would be funded largely by the
participating fishers through supply of gear, crew, and vessel time.
The scientific personnel would be funded through the New Jersey
Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics Program (NJ ACCSP),
particularly the NJ ACCSP At-Sea Lobster Observer Program for Fishing
Year 2011.
The resulting data would be utilized by NJ DFW staff, Atlantic
States Marine Fisheries Commission Technical Committees, and Stock
Assessment Sub-Committees. Also, comparisons would be made of results
from data collected in LCMAs 1, 2, and 6 with data collected in LCMAs
3, 4, and 5. Finally, an index of lobster stock biomass in waters off
New Jersey, in relation to overall commercial landings of lobster in
New Jersey, would be made through the use of catch per unit effort of
sublegal and legal size lobsters taken during observer trips in New
Jersey.
Each vessel would fish approximately 20-50 ventless traps within
their strings of existing lobster traps. With exception of the waiver
of the trap escape vent requirement, trap gear would be compliant with
all Federal lobster regulations, including the Large Whale Take
Reduction Plan gear configuration requirements.
This EFP would not authorize the deployment of additional lobster
traps in the waters off New Jersey. All traps, including ventless
traps, would be included under each vessel's existing maximum LCMA-
specific trap allocation as determined by NMFS. Each ventless trap
would be placed randomly on already existing strings of vented pots of
the same dimensions and be randomly selected throughout the range of
the survey area. All scientific ventless sampling gear would be
identified with a state issued scientific trap tag provided by NJ DFW,
and be affixed with both the proper state scientific tags and Federal
trap tags. Records of latitude and longitude of trap/string location
would be provided to the NJ DFW Bureau of Law Enforcement upon request.
Trap deployment, maintenance, and hauling would be completed by
participating commercial lobstermen. The NJ ACCSP staff would record
environmental data when present on at-sea observer trips including:
Depth; dissolved oxygen; conductivity; salinity; and temperature
profile from the surface to bottom.
Sampling would be conducted over five different depth zones from a
minimum of 60 ft (18 ms) to a maximum of 220 ft (67 ms) running the
length of the New Jersey Mudhole, Glory Hole, and Chicken Canyon, and
other historic lobster fishing areas located within LCMAs 3 and 4 and
over various lobster grounds such as the 17 Fathom Bank in LCMA 5.
This project would not authorize the deployment of any additional
trap gear; therefore, minimal environmental impacts would be
anticipated by this EFP above those already occurring as part of a
commercial lobster trap trawl deployed under usual industry conditions.
Impacts to the lobster resource would be negligible. Any sublegal
lobsters caught would briefly be retained on-board only for the
purposes of recording their size, sex, and presence of shell disease,
before being promptly released back into the ocean, as would those
lobsters that do not fall within the minimum and maximum legal gauge
sizes. There would be minimal to no impacts to bycatch species, as all
bycatch species hauled from modified gear would be returned promptly to
the ocean. Additionally, minimal to no impacts would occur on benthic
habitat over that which occurs under existing lobster trap fishing
activities. Finally, the gear would be compliant with the Atlantic
Large Whale Take Reduction Plan, and would be deployed under usual
industry conditions; therefore, impacts to protected resources would
fall within those impacts already analyzed as part of the October 29,
2010, Biological Opinion for the American lobster fishery.
If approved, the applicant may request minor modifications and
extensions to the EFP throughout the year. EFP modifications and
extensions may be granted without further notice if they are deemed
essential to facilitate completion of the proposed research and have
minimal impacts that do not change the scope or impact of the initially
approved EFP request. Any fishing activity conducted outside the scope
of the exempted fishing activity would be prohibited.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: April 20, 2011.
Margo Schulze-Haugen,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2011-9944 Filed 4-22-11; 8:45 am]
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