[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 105 (Monday, June 2, 1997)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 29694-29695]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-14217]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 648

[I.D. 052097C]


Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Petition for 
Rulemaking for Redistribution of the Summer Flounder Quota

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of receipt of petition for rulemaking; request for 
comments.

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SUMMARY: NMFS announces receipt of, and requests public comment on, a 
petition for rulemaking on the distribution to the states of the annual 
commercial quota for summer flounder. The State of Connecticut, 
Commissioner of Environmental Protection, has petitioned the Secretary 
of Commerce (Secretary) to adopt a commercial allocation of either 2 
winter coastwide periods and a state-by-state summer period or a 
coastwide allocation system for all three periods (two winter periods 
and a summer period).

DATES: Comments on the petition are requested on or before August 1, 
1997.

ADDRESSES: Copies of the petition for rulemaking are available upon 
request from Gary C. Matlock, Ph.D., Director, Office of Sustainable 
Fisheries, NMFS, 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910. 
Comments on the petition should be directed to Dr. Gary C. Matlock at 
the above address. Please mark the outside of the envelope ``State of 
Connecticut Petition for Rulemaking.''

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mark R. Millikin, 301-713-2341.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The fishery affected by this petition for 
rulemaking is the summer flounder fishery, which is managed under the 
Fishery Management Plan for the Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea 
Bass Fisheries. The Secretary has management authority for this species 
group under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management 
Act. The management unit for this fishery is summer flounder 
(Paralichthys dentatus) in U.S. waters of the Atlantic Ocean from the 
southern border of North Carolina northward to the U.S.-Canada border. 
Implementing regulations for the fishery are found at 50 CFR part 648, 
subparts A and G.
    The current method of allocating the annual commercial quota for 
summer flounder is on a state-by-state basis. The quota is apportioned 
among the states based on historical commercial landings averaged over 
the period 1980-89. The quota applies throughout the management unit; 
that is, all commercial landings in a state are attributed to that 
state's quota for a given year, regardless of where the summer flounder 
are harvested. The proportion of the coastwide quota that an individual 
state receives is the same each year, but the total amount varies from 
year to year, as the coastwide quota varies. Overages in a state's 
quota allocation in the prior year are deducted from that state's 
allocation in the following year.
    The Connecticut petition proposes that the current state-specific 
allocation of the commercial quota for summer flounder be eliminated 
and that a

[[Page 29695]]

``Coastal Commercial Quota System'' be adopted. One proposed system 
would establish a system similar to that approved recently for the scup 
fishery under a regulatory amendment for that fishery (62 FR 27978, May 
22, 1997). That system would allocate the commercial quota into three 
unequal periods--two winter coastwide periods (January-April and 
November-December) and a state-by-state summer period (May-October). 
The second proposed system would allocate the annual quota into the 
same three unequal periods (January-April, May-October, and November-
December); however, a coastwide system would be implemented for all 
three periods in conjunction with a system of coastwide landing limits.
    Connecticut's petition states that either of these two coastwide 
systems would be acceptable. However, Connecticut's petition prefers 
the commercial quota system that combines two coastwide winter periods 
with a state-by-state summer period. Connecticut further petitions that 
any regulation adopting a state-by-state allocation system have the 
percent shares for each state based upon landings data for the period 
1990 through 1992.
    NMFS requests interested persons to submit comments on the petition 
for rulemaking submitted by Connecticut. NMFS will consider this 
information in determining whether to proceed with the development of 
regulations suggested by the petition.

    Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.

    Dated: May 27, 1997.
Gary C. Matlock,
Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries 
Service.
[FR Doc. 97-14217 Filed 5-30-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-F