[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 135 (Tuesday, July 15, 1997)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 37741-37743]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-18462]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 648

[Docket No. 961210346-7035-02; I.D. 070397G]


Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Summer Flounder 
Fishery; Adjustments to the 1997 State Quotas; Commercial Quota 
Harvested for North Carolina

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

ACTION: Commercial quota adjustment, notice of commercial quota 
harvest.

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SUMMARY: NMFS issues this notification announcing adjustments to the 
commercial state quotas for the 1997 summer flounder fishery. This 
action complies with regulations implementing the Fishery Management 
Plan for the Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea

[[Page 37742]]

Bass Fisheries (FMP), which require that landings in excess of a 
state's annual summer flounder commercial quota be deducted from that 
state's quota the following year. The public is advised that quota 
adjustments have been made, and is informed of the revised quotas for 
the affected states. As a consequence of this action, NMFS further 
announces that no commercial quota is available for landing summer 
flounder in North Carolina for the remainder of the 1997 calendar year.

DATES: Effective July 9, 1997, through December 31, 1997.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Regina L. Spallone, Fishery Policy 
Analyst, 508-281-9221.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Regulations implementing summer flounder 
management measures are found at 50 CFR part 648, subparts A and G. The 
regulations require annual specification of a commercial quota that is 
apportioned among the Atlantic coastal states from North Carolina 
through Maine. The process to set the annual commercial quota and the 
percent allocated to each state is described in Sec. 648.100. The final 
specifications for the 1997 summer flounder fishery, adopted to ensure 
achievement of a fishing mortality rate of 0.3 for 1997, set a 
coastwide commercial quota equal to 11,111,298 lb (5.0 million kg) 
(March 7, 1997, 62 FR 10473).
    Section 648.100(d)(2) provides that all landings for sale in a 
state shall be applied against that state's annual commercial quota. 
Any landings in excess of the state's quota must be deducted from that 
state's annual quota for the following year. NMFS published all 
available 1996 landings data as part of the final specifications for 
1997, and made associated adjustments to several states' 1997 quotas as 
a result of 1996 overages. Quota adjustments were made to the 1997 
commercial quotas for the States of Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, 
Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, and North 
Carolina. At the time of publication of the final specifications, the 
remaining states of New Hampshire and Maryland did not appear to have 
exceeded their quotas.
    When these data were presented to the principal state official with 
marine fishery management responsibility in each constituent state, 
data were noted as final, with the exception of Virginia inshore 
landings of summer flounder, which were preliminary. However, it was 
noted that if additional data were received that would alter the 
figures, an adjustment would be necessary. Since the final 
specifications were published, additional landings from 1996 have been 
reported by several states. These late reports came from either 
federally permitted dealers or state statistical agencies.
    Weekly dealer reports must be received or postmarked, if mailed, 
within 3 days after the end of each reporting week. If a dealer is 
delinquent in submitting its reports, a permit will not be issued in 
the following year until all delinquent reports are received. Since 
dealers must renew permits annually, some dealers have recently 
submitted delinquent 1996 reports in order to comply with the 
regulations and receive a 1997 permit. NMFS recognizes the problems 
that chronic late dealer reporting poses to accurate quota monitoring. 
As such, present compliance monitoring includes monthly checks of 
weekly dealer reports (for quota managed species) versus monthly dealer 
weighouts (for all species), to eliminate concerns of a dealer's 
continued chronic late or misreporting on weekly reports. If chronic 
problems are noted, dealers are referred to law enforcement for further 
action.
    Additionally, some states have inshore fisheries that are not 
covered by the Federal reporting system. These landings data are 
collected by the respective state agencies and submitted to NMFS as 
they become available. As a result of these late and/or additional 
reports, in this case from the States of Maryland, Virginia, and North 
Carolina, additional 1996 landings data have recently become available. 
In the case of North Carolina, the state-collected data were not 
provided to NMFS until May 28, 1997. While other state data were 
received prior to that date, all of the adjustments are made in this 
notice.
    Based on dealer reports and other available information, NMFS has 
determined that the States of Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, 
Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and 
North Carolina exceeded their 1996 quotas. The remaining State of New 
Hampshire did not exceed its 1996 quota. The revised 1996 landings and 
resulting overages for all states are given in Table 1. The adjusted 
1997 commercial quota for each state is given in Table 2.

                                Table 1.--Revised 1996 State Commercial Landings                                
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                                    Original 1996 landings 1    Revised 1996 landings          Difference       
               State               -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                         lb         (kg) 2         lb          (kg)          lb          (kg)   
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ME................................        8,226        3,731        8,226        3,731            0            0
NH................................            0            0            0            0            0            0
MA................................      780,297      353,940      800,704      363,193       20,407        9,256
RI................................    1,663,520      754,560    1,766,482      801,263      102,962       46,703
CT................................      278,776      126,451      278,776      126,451            0            0
NY................................      927,763      420,826      940,313      426,519       12,550        5,693
NJ................................    2,345,460    1,063,883    2,369,134    1,074,621       23,674       10,738
DE................................        7,153        3,245        7,917        3,591          764          347
MD................................      225,051      102,081      264,886      120,150       39,835       18,069
VA................................    2,280,457    1,034,398    2,274,457    1,031,676   (6,000)\3\      (2,722)
NC................................    3,688,217    1,672,947    4,227,052    1,917,359      538,835      244,411
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    Total.........................   12,204,920    5,536,059   12,937,947    5,868,554      733,027      332,495
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\1\ Original 1996 landings data, as published March 7, 1997.                                                    
\2\ Kilograms are as converted from pounds, and may not necessarily add due to rounding.                        
\3\ Parentheses indicate a negative number.                                                                     


[[Page 37743]]


            Table 2.--1997 Readjusted State Commercial Quotas, as Adjusted for Revised 1996 Overages            
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                                                            Adjusted 1997 quota \1\      Readjusted 1997 quota  
                          State                          -------------------------------------------------------
                                                               lb         (Kg) \2\         lb           (Kg)    
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ME......................................................         2,342         1,062         2,342         1,062
NH......................................................            51            23            51            23
MA......................................................       729,636       330,957       709,229       321,701
RI......................................................     1,699,405       770,837     1,596,443       724,134
CT......................................................       222,806       101,063       222,806       101,063
NY......................................................       766,893       347,857       754,343       342,164
NJ......................................................     1,371,266       621,996     1,347,592       611,257
DE......................................................   \3\ (4,898)       (2,222)   \3\ (5,662)       (2,568)
MD......................................................       226,570       102,770       186,735        84,702
VA......................................................     2,288,793     1,038,179     2,294,793     1,040,901
NC......................................................     1,812,440       882,109     1,273,605       577,698
                                                         -------------------------------------------------------
    Total...............................................     9,115,304     4,134,632     8,382,277     3,802,137
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\1\ Adjusted 1997 quotas, as published March 7, 1997.                                                           
\2\ Kilograms are as converted from pounds, and may not necessarily add due to rounding.                        
\3\ Number in parentheses are negative.                                                                         

    Section 648.101(b) requires the Administrator, Northeast Region, 
NMFS, (Regional Administrator) to monitor state commercial quotas and 
to determine when a state commercial quota is harvested. NMFS is 
required to publish a notice in the Federal Register advising a state 
and notifying Federal vessel and dealer permit holders that, effective 
upon a specific date, the state's commercial quota has been harvested 
and no commercial quota is available for landing summer flounder in 
that state.
    Since this adjustment reduces the adjusted 1997 North Carolina 
commercial quota allocation from 1,812,440 lb (882,109 kg), to 
1,273,605 pounds (577,698 kg), and landings for 1997 to date in that 
State are in excess of the adjusted quota, this notice also serves to 
announce that the summer flounder quota available to North Carolina has 
been harvested. As a result, no commercial quota is available for 
landing summer flounder in that State for the remainder of the 1997 
calendar year.
    The regulations at Sec. 648.4(b) provide that Federal permit 
holders agree, as a condition of the permit, not to land summer 
flounder in any state that the Regional Administrator has determined no 
longer has commercial quota available. Therefore, effective 0001 hours 
July 9, 1997, until 2400 hours, December 31, 1997, landings of summer 
flounder in North Carolina by vessels holding commercial Federal 
fisheries permits are prohibited unless additional quota becomes 
available through a transfer and is announced in the Federal Register. 
Federally permitted dealers are also advised that they may not purchase 
summer flounder from federally permitted vessels that land in North 
Carolina for the remainder of the calendar year, or until additional 
quota becomes available through a transfer.

Classification

    This action is required by 50 CFR part 648 and is exempt from 
review under E.O. 12866.

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

    Dated: July 9, 1997.
Gary C. Matlock,
Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries 
Service.
[FR Doc. 97-18462 Filed 7-9-97; 4:44 pm]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P