[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 27 (Tuesday, February 10, 1998)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 6699-6701]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-3333]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
50 CFR Part 648
[I.D. 012898B]
Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Northeast
Multispecies Fishery; Reopening of Scoping Process for Hake
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare a supplemental environmental impact
statement (SEIS) and notice of reopening the scoping process for silver
hake, offshore hake, and red hake; request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The New England Fishery Management Council (Council) announces
its intent to prepare an amendment to the Northeast Multispecies
Fishery Management Plan (FMP) to conserve silver hake (whiting,
Merluccius bilinearis), offshore hake (Merluccius albidus), and red
hake (Urophycis chuss) stocks, and to prepare an SEIS to analyze the
impacts of any proposed management measures. The Council also formally
announces the reinitiation of a public process to determine the scope
of issues to be addressed in the environmental impact analysis. The
purpose of this notice is to alert the interested public of the
reopening of the scoping process and to provide for public
participation in compliance with environmental documentation
requirements.
DATES: Written comments on the scope of the SEIS may be submitted until
March 17, 1998. See SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION for specific dates and
times of scheduled scoping meetings.
ADDRESSES: Written comments and requests for copies of the scoping
document should be sent to Paul J. Howard, Executive Director, New
[[Page 6700]]
England Fishery Management Council, 5 Broadway, Saugus, MA 01906.
Scoping meetings will be held in New Jersey, New York, Rhode
Island, and Massachusetts. See SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION for locations
of the meetings.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Paul J. Howard, Executive Director,
(781)-231-0422.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
Silver hake and red hake became components of the multispecies
fishery management unit in Amendment 4 to the FMP (56 FR 24724, May 31,
1991). At that time, a proposed 2.5-inch (6.35-cm) minimum mesh size
for whiting was considered but not approved, because NMFS determined
that it would do little to prevent overfishing. Also, the economic
analysis failed to demonstrate a net benefit over a 10-year period, and
members of the fishing industry in the Mid-Atlantic area commented that
the mesh size increase would result in a disproportionate economic cost
to them. Consequently, other than the measures adopted for the
Cultivator Shoal whiting fishery, no regulations controlling fishing
for either whiting or red hake have been developed following their
incorporation into the multispecies management unit.
Fishing for whiting, offshore hake, and red hake is currently
allowed without restriction in the Mid-Atlantic Regulatory Mesh Area,
and in the Southern New England and Gulf of Maine/Georges Bank
Regulated Mesh Areas, in times and areas where the regulatory bycatch
of groundfish commonly referred to as ``regulated species'' has been
determined to be less than 5 percent. This exemption applies year-round
in Southern New England and in Small Mesh Area 1 and Small Mesh Area 2
in the Gulf of Maine. Experimental fisheries have also been undertaken
to evaluate gear modifications, such as a separator grate or a raised
footrope trawl, in reducing regulated species bycatch below the maximum
acceptable level.
In 1993, whiting fishers brought concerns to the Council about the
emergence of an export market for juvenile whiting. The Council's
Groundfish Committee (Committee) formed a Whiting Subcommittee and an
industry advisory panel that outlined some objectives and measures for
a whiting management plan. The Committee held scoping meetings,
including two in the Mid-Atlantic area in early 1994 (March 7 in Wall,
New Jersey, and March 8 in Montauk, New York). At that time, the
Council staff prepared a draft public hearing document, but the Council
suspended plan development efforts while it worked on Amendment 7 to
the FMP.
The Whiting Subcommittee reconvened in June 1996. According to
advisors, in the period between 1993 and 1996 the juvenile whiting
fishery expanded significantly, raising concerns for the health of the
resource. On the recommendation of advisors and the Committee, the
Council established a control date of September 9, 1996, for whiting
(September 9, 1996, 61 FR 47473) and announced that it is considering
limiting future access to anyone not in possession of a multispecies
limited access permit as of that date.
The whiting advisors raised the issue of offshore hake, which they
reported was often mixed with silver hake, but historically has not
been separated at the docks for the sake of landings data. They also
asked about the impact of proposed management measures for silver hake
on offshore hake fishing. In response, the Council obtained a
scientific report from the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in
October 1996. The report summarized available information and noted
that very little is known about the offshore hake species. However, the
Council agreed to include offshore hake in the FMP amendment addressing
whiting.
In December 1996, the Whiting Subcommittee and advisors outlined a
plan for whiting management. The Subcommittee agreed that, for
management purposes, the whiting resource should be divided into two
stocks: A northern stock in the Georges Bank/Gulf of Maine Regulated
Mesh Area, and a southern stock in the Southern New England and Mid-
Atlantic Regulated Mesh Areas. The Subcommittee recommended that, for
management purposes, offshore hake be treated as a component of the
southern stock of silver hake and that the Cultivator Shoal whiting
fishery be managed separately.
Recently, the Council designated the Whiting Subcommittee as a full
standing committee, tasked with developing an amendment to the FMP to
conserve whiting stocks. According to the ``Report on the Status of
Fisheries of the United States,'' prepared by NMFS in September 1997,
both red hake and the southern stock of silver hake are overfished, and
the northern silver hake stock is approaching an overfished condition.
Consequently, according to the Sustainable Fisheries Act (SFA)
amendments to the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management
Act, the Council must develop measures to end overfishing and rebuild
these overfished stocks by September 30, 1998.
Status of the Stocks
The last stock assessment for whiting was presented to the Council
in February 1994. This assessment was hampered by several problems,
particularly by uncertainty about stock boundary definitions and
discarding of juveniles, and by insufficient biological sampling to
determine the length and age composition of the catch. More recently,
recognition that a separate species (offshore hake) has been mixed with
catches of silver hake compounds the difficulty of establishing an age-
based assessment.
Based on analysis of landings and trawl survey data, the last
assessment concluded that the Gulf of Maine/Northern Georges Bank stock
was fully exploited and at a low level of abundance, although abundance
appeared to be increasing. The assessment also concluded that the
Southern Georges Bank/Middle Atlantic stock is overexploited and at a
low level of abundance and that abundance continues to decline.
The impact of the juvenile (whiting) fishery over the past 5 years
on stock status has not been measured. Given the truncated age-
structure of the population of both silver hake stocks, the juvenile
fishery may be detrimental to the resource.
To date, the status of the offshore hake stock has not been
formally assessed, and no overfishing definition has been developed.
Offshore hake is almost indistinguishable from, and often caught in
combination with, silver hake. Therefore, conservation and management
measures for silver hake should also address offshore hake. The scoping
process will help the Council by providing input about appropriate
management measures to conserve offshore hake.
The last stock assessment for red hake was conducted in 1990 (Stock
Assessment Workshop/Stock Assessment Review Committee 11). Questions
still remain regarding both the boundaries and the age structures of
red hake stocks. While the available data are incomplete, precautionary
steps can be taken to protect the resource and allow for a balanced and
sustainable fishery. Additionally, in order to comply with the mandates
of the SFA, the Council must address overfishing of red hake and work
to rebuild the resource to a level capable of achieving optimum yield.
[[Page 6701]]
Purpose
The purpose of the proposed amendment is to end and prevent
overfishing on silver hake and red hake stocks, to provide basic
protection for offshore hake, and to rebuild and maintain healthy
spawning stocks in order to allow for a balanced, sustainable fishery
that maximizes economic benefits without compromising the health of the
resources.
Management Options
Moratorium on Permits--Limited Access
The Whiting Committee recommends that, in order to land whiting, a
vessel without a current limited access multispecies permit must meet
the following criteria: (1) That it held an open access, nonregulated
multispecies permit as of the control date (September 9, 1996), and (2)
that it had landed at least one pound of whiting prior to the control
date. All vessels with a current limited access multispecies permit
would retain access to the whiting fishery.
Southern Stock
Management of the southern stock is complicated by the diversity of
the fisheries where whiting is caught; specifically, the squid/whiting
fishery uses a 1.88-inch (4.78-cm) mesh, and the other mixed-trawl
fisheries use meshes of 2-2.5 inches (5-6.35 cm). The Council is
considering requiring a vessel retaining whiting to use a codend of 2.5
inches (6.35 cm) or larger and to prohibit the retention of whiting on
vessels using smaller mesh from June 1 to September 1 of each year.
Vessels retaining whiting from September 1 through May 31 would be
required to switch to a 2.5-inch (6.35-cm) mesh upon reaching a
specific threshold amount of whiting on board. The minimum mesh size
for retaining whiting from September 1 to May 31 would be the minimum
mesh size for Loligo squid as determined by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery
Management Council.
The Whiting Committee is also considering several options for a
whiting trip limit, including a sliding scale trip limit based on
overall vessel length. A trip limit may be imposed year-round or
seasonally.
Northern Stock
Scientific information indicates that the northern stock may be
able to sustain a fishery utilizing both small and large whiting,
provided the catch is limited or controlled. The Whiting Committee
intends to consider results from experimental fisheries that have
evaluated grate/mesh size management strategies. The Whiting Committee
recommends requiring a vessel retaining whiting to use a codend of 2.5
inches (6.35 cm) or larger if the vessel is not in an approved fishery
requiring a separator grate. The Whiting Committee is also considering
the same trip limit options for the northern stock as for the southern
stock.
Other Measures Under Consideration
The Council is also considering and will take comments on other
management options, including (1) a minimum fish size for whiting of 11
inches (27.94 cm) with a 20-percent tolerance for undersized fish, with
or without a minimum mesh size; (2) minimum mesh sizes up to 3 inches
(7.62 cm), with or without a minimum fish size; (3) a square-mesh panel
in the net and other gear modifications; (4) a raised footrope trawl
design; (5) spawning area closures; and (6) a provision to utilize
additional management tools from the FMP to manage these stocks in the
future.
Scoping Process
The Council discussed and took scoping comments at a previous
meeting on March 12 and 13, 1997. A notice of intent to prepare an SEIS
and notice of scoping process for silver hake and offshore hake stocks
was published in the Federal Register on March 19, 1997 (62 FR 12983).
Because both red hake and silver hake have recently been listed as
overfished, the Whiting Committee felt that reopening the scoping
process was necessary to receive further comments about managing silver
hake, offshore hake, and red hake. Therefore, the Council will accept
public comments about the scope of whiting, offshore hake, and red hake
management at its next meeting on February 25, 1998, in Portsmouth, New
Hampshire. Additional scoping meetings are scheduled as follows (a
notice will be published in the Federal Register at a later date giving
complete addresses for the meetings):
1. March 3, 1998, 7 p.m.--Holiday Inn, Toms River, NJ.
2. March 4, 1998, 7 p.m.--Holiday Inn at MacArthur Airport,
Ronkonkoma, NY.
3. March 5, 1998, 4 p.m.--Holiday Inn at the Crossings, Warwick,
RI.
4. March 9, 1998, 2 p.m.--Town Hall, Provincetown, MA.
Additional meetings of the Council, Whiting Committee, or Advisory
Panel during the scoping period will provide opportunities for public
comments on specific issues identified in the respective agendas.
All persons affected by, or otherwise interested in, whiting and
red hake fisheries management are invited to participate in determining
the scope and significance of issues to be analyzed by submitting
written comments (see ADDRESSES). Scope consists of the range of
actions, alternatives, and impacts to be considered. Alternatives
include not developing a management plan, developing amendments to
existing plans, or other reasonable courses of action. Impacts may be
direct, indirect, individual, or cumulative. The scoping process will
also identify and eliminate from detailed study issues that are not
significant. Once a draft FMP amendment and an SEIS or Environmental
Assessment are developed, the Council will hold public hearings to
receive comments on them.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: February 4, 1998.
Bruce C. Morehead,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 98-3333 Filed 2-9-98; 8:45 am]
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