[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 143 (Monday, July 27, 1998)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Page 40066]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-19975]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 648

[Docket No. 971015246-7293-02; I.D. 072098D]


Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Summer Flounder 
Fishery; Commercial Quota Harvested for Massachusetts

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

ACTION: Commercial quota harvest.

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SUMMARY: NMFS announces that the summer flounder commercial quota 
available to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has been harvested. 
Vessels issued a commercial Federal fisheries permit for the summer 
flounder fishery may not land summer flounder in Massachusetts for the 
remainder of calendar year 1998, unless additional quota becomes 
available through a transfer. Regulations governing the summer flounder 
fishery require publication of this document to advise the Commonwealth 
of Massachusetts that the quota has been harvested and to advise vessel 
permit holders and dealer permit holders that no commercial quota is 
available for landing summer flounder in Massachusetts.

DATES: Effective 0001 hours, July 23, 1998, through December 31, 1998.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tom Warren, Fishery Management 
Specialist, (978) 281-9347.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Regulations governing the summer flounder 
fishery are found at 50 CFR part 648. The regulations require annual 
specification of a commercial quota that is apportioned among the 
coastal states from North Carolina through Maine. The process to set 
the annual commercial quota and the percent allocated to each state are 
described in Sec. 648.100.
    The initial total commercial quota for summer flounder for the 1998 
calendar year was set equal to 11,105,636 lb (5,037,432 kg) (62 FR 
66304, December 18, 1997). The percent allocated to vessels landing 
summer flounder in Massachusetts is 6.82046 percent, or 757,841 lb 
(343,751 kg).
    Section 648.100(e)(4) stipulates that any overages of commercial 
quota landed in any state be deducted from that state's annual quota 
for the following year. In the calendar year 1997, a total of 745,171 
lb (338,004 kg) were landed in Massachusetts, creating a 35,942 lb 
(16,303 kg) overage that was deducted from the amount allocated for 
landings in the Commonwealth during 1998 (63 FR 23227, April 28, 1998). 
The resulting quota for Massachusetts is 721,899 lb (327,488 kg).
    Section 648.101(b) requires the Administrator, Northeast Region, 
NMFS (Regional Administrator), to monitor state commercial quotas and 
to determine when a state's commercial quota is harvested. The Regional 
Administrator is further required to publish a document 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. The Regional 
Administrator has determined, based upon dealer reports and other 
available information, that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has 
attained its quota for 1998.
    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 
23, 1998, further landings of summer flounder in Massachusetts by 
vessels holding commercial Federal fisheries permits are prohibited for 
the remainder of the 1998 calendar year, unless additional quota 
becomes available through a transfer and is announced in the Federal 
Register. Effective July 23, 1998, federally permitted dealers are also 
advised that they may not purchase summer flounder from federally 
permitted vessels that land in Massachusetts 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 21, 1998.
Bruce C. Morehead,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 98-19975 Filed 7-22-98; 2:35 pm]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-F