[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 206 (Monday, October 26, 1998)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 57094-57095]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-28600]



[[Page 57094]]

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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 679

[I.D. 101498C]
RIN 0648-AJ50


Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone off Alaska; Amendment 56 
to the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish of the Gulf of Alaska and 
Amendment 56 to the Fishery Management Plan for the Groundfish Fishery 
of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Area

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

ACTION: Notice of availability; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) has 
submitted Amendment 56 to the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish of 
the Gulf of Alaska and Amendment 56 to the Fishery Management Plan for 
the Groundfish Fishery of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Area 
(FMPs). These amendments would revise the definition of overfishing 
levels (OFL) for groundfish species or species groups in the FMPs. This 
action is necessary to revise the definition of OFL for consistency 
with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act 
(Magnuson-Stevens Act) and is intended to advance the Council's ability 
to achieve, on a continuing basis, the optimum yield from fisheries 
under its authority. NMFS is requesting comments from the public on the 
proposed amendments, copies of which may be obtained from the Council 
(See ADDRESSES).

DATES: Comments on Amendments 56/56 must be submitted by December 28, 
1998.

ADDRESSES: Comments on the proposed amendments should be submitted to 
Sue Salveson, Assistant Regional Administrator for Sustainable 
Fisheries, Alaska Region, NMFS, P.O. Box 21668, Juneau, Alaska, 99802, 
Attn: Lori Gravel, or delivered to the Federal Building, 709 West 9th 
Street, Juneau, AK. Copies of Amendments 56/56 and the Environmental 
Assessment prepared for the proposed amendments are available from the 
North Pacific Fishery Management Council, 605 West 4th Ave., Suite 306, 
Anchorage, AK 99501-2252; telephone 907-271-2809.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: James Hale, 907-586-7228.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    The Magnuson-Stevens Act requires that each Regional Fishery 
Management Council submit any fishery management plan or plan amendment 
it prepares to NMFS for review and approval, disapproval, or partial 
approval. The Magnuson-Stevens Act also requires that NMFS, after 
receiving a fishery management plan or amendment, immediately publish a 
notice in the Federal Register that the fishery management plan or 
amendment is available for public review and comment. This action 
constitutes such notice for Amendments 56/56 to the FMPs. NMFS will 
consider the public comments received during the comment period in 
determining whether to approve, disapprove, or partially approve these 
amendments.
    Section 301(a) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act establishes national 
standards for fishery conservation and management. All fishery 
management plans must be consistent with those standards for approval 
by NMFS. National standard 1 requires conservation and management 
measures to ``prevent overfishing while achieving, on a continuing 
basis, the optimum yield'' from fisheries in Federal waters. National 
Standard 2 requires further that conservation and management measures 
be based on the best scientific information available.
    Prior to its amendment in 1996, the Magnuson-Stevens Act did not 
define overfishing. Advisory national standard guidelines for the 
development of fishery management plans and amendments, pursuant to 
section 301(b) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act and codified at 50 CFR part 
600, required that each fishery management plan specify an objective 
and measurable definition of overfishing for each managed stock or 
stock complex. The guidelines further required that an overfishing 
definition (1) have sufficient scientific merit, (2) be likely to 
protect the stock from closely approaching or reaching an overfished 
status, (3) provide a basis for objective measurement of the status of 
the stock against the definition, and (4) be operationally feasible. 
The Council developed such an objective and measurable definition of 
overfishing and, in 1991, implemented that definition under Amendments 
16 and 21 to the FMPs (56 FR 2700, January 24, 1991).
    In 1996, with increased understanding of the reference fishing 
mortality rates used to determine Acceptable Biological Catches (ABCs) 
and OFLs, the Council recommended, and NMFS approved, the existing 
definition of overfishing: A 6-tiered system accommodating different 
levels of reliable information available to fishery scientists for 
determining OFLs. Fishery scientists use the equations from an 
appropriate tier to determine when a stock is overfished according to 
the reliability of information available. The 6-tiered system 
accomplishes three basic functions: (1) It compensates for uncertainty 
in estimating fishing mortality rates at a level of maximum sustainable 
yield (MSY) by establishing fishing mortality rates more conservatively 
as biological parameters become more imprecise; (2) it relates fishing 
mortality rates directly to biomass for stocks below target abundance 
levels, so that fishing mortality rates fall to zero should a stock 
become critically depleted; and (3) it maintains a buffer between ABC 
and the overfishing level. Further information and background on the 
OFL definition contained in Amendments 44/44 may be found in the Notice 
of Availability published at 61 FR 54145 on October 17, 1996.

Revised Definition of OFL

    On October 11, 1996, the President signed into law the Sustainable 
Fisheries Act (Public Law 104-297), which made numerous amendments to 
the Magnuson-Stevens Act. The amended Magnuson-Stevens Act now defines 
the terms ``overfishing'' and ``overfished'' to mean a rate or level of 
fishing mortality that jeopardizes the capacity of a fishery to produce 
the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) on a continuing basis (Sec. 3(29)), 
and requires that all fishery management plans:

    ``Specify objective and measurable criteria for identifying when 
the fishery to which the plan applies is overfished (with an 
analysis of how the criteria were determined and the relationship of 
the criteria to the reproductive potential of stocks of fish in that 
fishery) and, in the case of a fishery which the Council or the 
Secretary has determined is approaching an overfished condition or 
is overfished, contain conservation and management measures to 
prevent overfishing and rebuild the fishery'' (Sec. 303 (a)(10)).

    The Magnuson-Stevens Act further requires Regional Fishery 
Management Councils to submit amendments, by October 11, 1998, that 
would bring fishery management plans into compliance.
    In April 1998, the Council and its Advisory Panel and Scientific 
and Statistical Committee (SSC) reviewed a draft analysis of 
alternatives for revising

[[Page 57095]]

the existing OFL definitions. On May 1, 1998, NMFS published revised 
advisory national standard guidelines to assist Regional Fishery 
Management Councils in updating FMPs for consistency with this 
definition of overfishing and with other provisions of the amended 
Magnuson-Stevens Act. In June 1998, the Council recommended the present 
proposed amendments to the FMPs.
    The Magnuson-Stevens Act and the revised guidelines constitute a 
significant policy shift in the treatment of MSY. MSY represents the 
largest long-term average catch or yield that can be taken from a stock 
or stock complex under prevailing ecological and environmental 
conditions. The guidelines indicate that MSY, treated as a target 
strategy under the current FMP definition of overfishing, should 
represent a limit rather than a target. This means that ``limit'' 
harvest strategies (such as the rules used to specify OFL) should 
result in a long-term average catch that approximates MSY, and that 
``target'' harvest strategies (such as the rules used to specify ABC) 
should result in catches that are substantially more conservative than 
the limit. Because tiers 2-4 of the current FMP definition of 
overfishing could be interpreted as treating MSY as a target rather 
than as a limit. Amendments 56/56 would revise tiers 2-4 as follows.
    Tiers 2-4 currently depend on reliable point estimates of certain 
fishing mortality rates designated as F30% and 
F40% --rates of fishing that reduce the amount of spawning 
contributed by an average fish over the course of its lifetime to 30 
percent and 40 percent, respectively, of the amount that would be 
contributed in the absence of fishing. F30% represents a 
fishing rate arrived at by scientists and used by fisheries managers in 
the recent past to serve as a warning point that the MSY rate has 
probably already been exceeded and that any further increase in the 
rate of fishing could lead to overfishing. Amendments 56/56 would 
revise the default value from F30% to the more conservative 
estimate of F35%. Tier 2 currently sets the OFL rate equal 
to MSY inflated by a ratio of the fishing mortality rates of 
F30% to F40% and sets the target ABC rate at less 
than or equal to the MSY rate. This tier is proposed to be revised to 
set the OFL limit equal to the MSY rate and set the ABC rate at less 
than or equal to MSY reduced by the ratio of fishing mortality rates 
F40% to F35%.
    The advisory guidelines interpret the new statutory definition of 
overfishing by determining a stock to be overfished whenever it falls 
below a ``minimum stock size threshold'' (MSST). The MSST is defined, 
in part, on the basis of a stock's ability to rebuild within 10 years 
if fished at the maximum allowable level (i.e., if catch were to equal 
the OFL in each of the next 10 years). This approach provides 
additional protection for the environment by assuring that remedial 
action is taken when stock size falls below the MSY level.
    However, the Council and its SSC found that specification of an 
MSST does not seem warranted in the case of Gulf of Alaska and Bering 
Sea and Aleutian Islands groundfish. The Council's approach of using a 
biomass-based policy that reduces fishing mortality as stocks decrease 
in size was selected to provide for automatic rebuilding. The principal 
requirement for a stock that falls below its MSST is that it be 
harvested with a strategy designed to rebuild it within the statutory 
time frame of 10 years. Given the SSC's belief that the current stock 
assessment approach is sufficient to assure that harvest levels provide 
for rebuilding within 10 years, the Council and the SSC viewed the 
specification of an MSST as unnecessary. Thus, assuming that the SSC is 
correct in its finding that the current approach automatically assures 
sufficient rebuilding within 10 years, specification of an MSST in the 
FMPs would not be necessary.
    The Director of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, NMFS, 
(Director) has certified, with reservations, that the proposed 
definition of overfishing complies with the provisions of the 
guidelines at 50 CFR 600.310(d)(5) that an overfishing definition (1) 
have sufficient scientific merit, (2) contain the criteria for 
specification of stock status determination provided in 50 CFR 
600.310(d)(2), (3) provide a basis for objective measurement of the 
status of the stock against the criteria, and (4) be operationally 
feasible.
    This proposed overfishing definition is fundamentally the same as 
that implemented by Amendments 44/44 to the FMPs; the scientific merit, 
operational feasibility, and provision for objective measurement remain 
unchanged. Hence, the rationale for the Director's certification under 
criteria (1), (3), and (4) above remains the same as discussed in the 
Notice of Availability for Amendments 44/44 published at 61 FR 54145 on 
October 17, 1996.
    The reason that the proposed amendments are certified with 
reservations is that the proposed overfishing definition lacks the MSST 
specified by 50 CFR 600.310(d)(2), but satisfies the intent of the MSST 
with features that accomplish the same objective. Specifically, the 
proposed definition would automatically reduce the fishing mortality 
rate for any stocks that fall below reference abundance levels whenever 
such levels can be estimated. Thus, the proposed definition prevents 
overfishing and ensures that stocks rebuild to those reference levels 
in a conservative fashion. This proposed action contains no 
implementing regulations.

    Dated: October 20, 1998.
Gary C. Matlock,
Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries 
Service.
[FR Doc. 98-28600 Filed 10-23-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-F