[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 139 (Tuesday, July 21, 1998)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 39065-39067]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-19334]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 679

[Docket No. 980702167-8167-01; I.D. 051898A]
RIN 0648-AK73


Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Stand Down 
Requirements for Trawl Catcher Vessels Transiting Between the Bering 
Sea and Gulf of Alaska

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

ACTION: Proposed rule; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: NMFS proposes regulations to implement a stand down 
requirement for trawl catcher vessels transiting between the Bering Sea 
and Aleutian Islands Management Area (BSAI) and Gulf of Alaska (GOA). 
This action is necessary to prevent unexpected shifts of fishing effort 
between BSAI and GOA fisheries that cause management problems and can 
lead to overharvests of total allowable catch (TAC) in the Western and 
Central (W/C) Regulatory Areas of the GOA. This action is intended to 
further the goals and objectives of the Fishery Management Plan for 
Groundfish of the Gulf of Alaska and the Fishery Management Plan for 
the Groundfish Fishery of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Area 
(FMPs).

DATES: Comments on the proposed rule must be received no later than 
August 20, 1998.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be sent to Sue Salveson, Assistant Regional 
Administrator for Sustainable Fisheries, Alaska Region, NMFS, P.O. Box 
21668, Juneau, AK 99802, Attn: Lori J. Gravel, or delivered to the 
Federal Building, 709 West 9th Street, Juneau, AK. Copies of the 
Environmental Assessment/Regulatory Impact Review/Initial Regulatory 
Flexibility Analysis (EA/RIR/IRFA) prepared for this action are 
available from NMFS at the same address, or by calling the Alaska 
Region, NMFS, at 907-586-7228.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kent Lind, 907-586-7228 or 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The groundfish fisheries off Alaska are 
managed by NMFS under the FMPs. The FMPs were prepared by the North 
Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) under the Magnuson-Stevens 
Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act). Federal 
regulations governing the groundfish fisheries appear at 50 CFR parts 
600 and 679.

Background and Need for Action

    In recent years, management of the inshore pollock and Pacific cod 
fisheries of the W/C Regulatory Areas of the GOA has become 
increasingly difficult and the risk of harvest overruns has grown due 
to TAC amounts that are small relative to the potential fishing effort. 
The problem has been most acute in the Western Regulatory Area of the 
GOA due to the constant potential that numerous large catcher vessels 
based in the Bering Sea could cross into the GOA

[[Page 39066]]

to participate in pollock and Pacific cod openings that have relatively 
small TACs. NMFS currently lacks a preseason vessel registration 
program that could gauge potential effort in these fisheries prior to 
openings, and inseason catch information in these fisheries is neither 
timely nor accurate enough to allow adequate management.
    The difficulty of managing the pollock fishery in the Western 
Regulatory Area was demonstrated in 1997 during the September 1 third 
season opening. On September 4, 1997, NMFS announced a closure of the 
fishery effective September 7, 1997, based on the observed level of 
effort in the Western Regulatory Area. Once the closure date was 
announced, a large number of Bering Sea-based vessels entered the GOA 
to participate in the final 2 days of the fishery. NMFS inseason 
managers did not anticipate this increase in effort because the Bering 
Sea pollock fishery was still open at that time and NMFS expected that 
Bering Sea-based vessels would continue to fish in the Bering Sea. 
Nevertheless, these Bering Sea-based vessels harvested approximately 
7,000 mt of pollock from the Western Regulatory Area in the final 2 
days of the fishery. As a consequence of this unanticipated effort, the 
1997 annual TAC of 18,600 mt for this area was exceeded by 8,017 mt or 
43 percent of the total.
    In response to the difficulties associated with managing the 
pollock and Pacific cod fisheries of the W/C Regulatory Areas, the 
Council has developed two distinct management solutions. The first 
program, adopted by the Council at its February 1998 meeting and 
contained in this proposed rule, is a stand down requirement for 
inshore trawl catcher vessels transiting between the BSAI and GOA. The 
second management program, currently under development by NMFS and the 
Council, is a vessel registration program that would require vessels to 
register with NMFS in advance of entering certain critical fisheries. 
Both of these programs are described in detail in the EA/RIR prepared 
for this action.

Elements of the Proposed Rule

    This proposed rule would impose a stand down requirement for all 
trawl catcher vessels transiting between the BSAI and GOA FMP 
management areas that would be in effect when the pollock or Pacific 
cod fisheries are open in the BSAI or GOA. Vessels leaving the BSAI 
would be required to offload all fish caught in the BSAI and would be 
prohibited from deploying trawl gear in the W/C Regulatory Areas of the 
GOA until 1200 hours A.l.t. on the third day after the date that 
offloading was completed. Vessels transiting from the Western 
Regulatory Area to the BSAI would be subject to the same 3-day stand 
down requirement. However, vessels transiting between the Central 
Regulatory Area and the BSAI would face a 2-day stand down period. The 
Council believed that a shorter stand down period for vessels 
transiting between the Central Regulatory Area and the BSAI was 
warranted because the Central Regulatory Area is farther from the BSAI 
and less subject to rapid shifts of effort back and forth from BSAI 
fisheries.
    The purpose of requiring vessels to offload all fish caught in one 
area before deploying gear in the new area is to aid enforcement 
officers in determining whether a violation of the stand down 
requirement has occurred. If vessels were allowed to retain fish on 
board the vessel while transiting to a new area, enforcement officers 
boarding a vessel would have no means of determining whether the fish 
on board the vessel were caught in the previous area, or caught in the 
new area in violation of the stand down requirement. Requiring vessels 
to empty their holds before beginning the stand down period would 
eliminate this enforcement difficulty.

Classification

    This proposed rule has been determined to be not significant for 
the purposes of E.O. 12866.
    NMFS has prepared an initial regulatory flexibility analysis that 
consists of the EA/RIR and the preamble to this proposed rule. A copy 
of the EA/RIR is available from NMFS (see ADDRESSES).
    The proposed stand down requirement would affect an estimated 275 
trawl catcher vessels fishing for groundfish in the GOA and BSAI, all 
of which are considered small entities, because it would restrict their 
ability to make rapid transits between the BSAI and GOA groundfish 
fisheries. Managing pollock and Pacific cod fisheries in the GOA has 
been increasingly difficult because of the potential for large catcher 
vessels based in the BSAI to participate in pollock and Pacific cod 
openings in the GOA that have relatively small TACs and risk harvest 
overruns. Ten to 15 catcher vessels, believed to be based in the BSAI, 
made rapid transits from one area to another in 1997. NMFS cannot 
calculate how many such vessels might transit in 1998 but it is 
possible that more than 10-15 catcher vessels could participate in GOA 
pollock and Pacific cod fisheries and risk harvest overruns. NMFS 
projects that the proposed restriction could result in the foregone 
harvest of pollock to BSAI-based catcher vessels, which could exceed 
the estimated 7,663 mt of pollock harvested in 1997 by these vessels. 
NMFS cannot calculate this proposed rule's effect on the affected 
vessels, but it is possible that it could result in losses of 5 percent 
or more of these vessels' gross revenues and/or increase the costs of 
production by more than 5 percent. No entities are expected to be 
forced out of business as a result of this action. As such, based on 
NMFS threshold guidelines, this action could result in a significant 
economic impact on a substantial number of small entities.
    This proposed rule would not result in any new reporting 
requirements and does not duplicate, overlap with, or conflict with any 
other Federal rules.
    Alternatives to the proposed stand down requirement include no 
action, variations on the length or applicability of the stand down 
requirement, or establishing a vessel registration program. The no 
action alternative would preserve the possibility of distributional 
impacts resulting from the BSAI-based fleet taking some of the TAC that 
would otherwise be harvested by the GOA-based fleet. This alternative's 
risks to the long-term health of the stock, due to the potential for 
continued overharvests, could lead to negative economic impacts in 
future years.
    The Council considered a range of variations on the length and 
applicability of the stand down requirement. The options that would 
have applied the requirements either to all groundfish vessels, or all 
trawl vessels were rejected because the objective of preventing 
overharvests could be achieved through a less restrictive option that 
applied the stand down requirement only to trawl catcher vessels. The 
options that would have applied the stand down requirements to all 
target fisheries was selected over the option that would have applied 
only to the pollock and Pacific cod fisheries due to potential 
conflicts with the increased retention/improved utilization program and 
the difficulties of enforcing a more narrowly tailored rule. Reducing 
the length of the stand down period for the Western Regulatory Area 
from 72 to 48 hours may have marginally reduced some of the impacts on 
small entities and still reduced the number of rapid transits. However, 
this alternative would not have alleviated the impacts of the 
offloading requirement and could have resulted in enforcement 
difficulties. There were also several options concerning when the stand 
down period should begin: from the time of gear retrieval in one area, 
from

[[Page 39067]]

noon on the date of landing fish, or from the actual time and date of 
the delivery of fish. Beginning the period at the time of retrieval of 
gear could have reduced impacts associated with delay on small 
entities. This approach would have relied on log book data, and vessels 
under 60 feet LOA are not required to maintain logbooks. However, NMFS 
does not believe that many of these small catcher vessels make rapid 
transits. Beginning the period at the time of actual delivery would 
have imposed a new record keeping and reporting requirement, and would 
have entailed a Paperwork Reduction Act clearance process that would 
have precluded implementing this action prior to 1999.
    A vessel registration system, which would require vessels to pre-
register for the areas in which they would be fishing, would resolve 
NMFS's management problems with the relatively minor impact of reduced 
flexibility for the fishing fleets. In some cases this option would 
impose costs on vessels that realize mid-course they would prefer to 
fish in another area, but it would improve the predictability of the 
fishing season and allow fishers to plan more effectively. The council 
has recommended developing this alternative and implementing it at a 
later date.

List of Subjects in 50 CFR Part 679

    Alaska, Fisheries, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.

    Dated: July 14, 1998.
David L. Evans,
Deputy Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries 
Service.

    For the reasons set out in the preamble, 50 CFR part 679 is 
proposed to be amended as follows:

PART 679--FISHERIES OF THE EXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONE OFF ALASKA

    1. The authority citation for part 679 continues to read as 
follows:

    Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq., 773 et seq., and 3631 et seq.

    2. In Sec. 679.23 a new paragraph (h) is added to read as follows:


Sec. 679.23  Seasons.

* * * * *
    (h) Stand down requirements for catcher vessels transiting between 
the BSAI and GOA.

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 If you own or operate a catcher vesssel     You are prohibited from                                            
 and fish for groundfish with trawl gear   subsequently deploying trawl                Until * * *              
              in the * * *                      gear in the * * *                                               
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(1) BSAI while pollock or Pacific cod is  Western and Central            1200 hours A.l.t. on the third day     
 open to directed fishing in the BSAI.     Regulatory Areas of the GOA.   after the date of landing or transfer 
                                                                          of all groundfish on board the vessel 
                                                                          harvested in the BSAI, unless you are 
                                                                          engaged in directed fishing for       
                                                                          Pacific cod in the GOA for processing 
                                                                          by the offshore component.            
(2) Western Regulatory Area of the GOA    BSAI.........................  1200 hours A.l.t. on the third day     
 while pollock or inshore Pacific cod is                                  after the date of landing or transfer 
 open to directed fishing in the Western                                  of all groundfish on board the vessel 
 Regulatory Area of the GOA.                                              harvested in the Western Regulatory   
                                                                          Area of the GOA.                      
(3) Central Regulatory Area of the GOA    BSAI.........................  1200 hours A.l.t. on the second day    
 while pollock or inshore Pacific cod is                                  after the date of landing or transfer 
 open to directed fishing in the Central                                  of all groundfish on board the vessel 
 Regulatory Area of the GOA.                                              harvested in the Central Regulatory   
                                                                          Area of the GOA.                      
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[FR Doc. 98-19334 Filed 7-20-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P