[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 11 (Tuesday, January 19, 1999)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 2870-2871]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-1105]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 679

[Docket No. 990112009-9009-01; I.D. 010899A]
RIN 0648-AM18


Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Fishing 
Participation in 1999

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

ACTION: Advance notice of proposed rulemaking.

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SUMMARY: NMFS announces that anyone participating in any non-salmon 
fishery under the authority of the North Pacific Fishery Management 
Council (Council) during the calendar year 1999, will not be assured of 
receiving participation credit for future access to that fishery 
pursuant to section 211 of the American Fisheries Act (AFA) or under 
the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-
Stevens Act) if a management regime that limits the number of 
participants is developed and implemented under those authorities. This 
document is necessary to publish the stated intent of the Council that 
participation credit would not be granted for fishing in a non-salmon 
fishery in 1999. This document is intended to promote public awareness 
that potential eligibility criteria for future access to the affected 
fisheries may be developed and to discourage new entrants into those 
fisheries based on economic speculation while the Council considers 
further controls on access to those fisheries.

DATES: Comments must be received by February 18, 1999.
ADDRESSES: Comments should be addressed to Sue Salveson, Assistant 
Regional Administrator for Sustainable Fisheries, Sustainable Fisheries

[[Page 2871]]

Division, Alaska Region, NMFS, 709 West 9th Street, Room 453, Juneau, 
AK 99801, or P.O. Box 21668, Juneau, AK 99802, Attention: Lori J. 
Gravel.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: John Lepore, 907-586-7228

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The AFA, Pub. L. 105-277, was signed into 
law on October 21, 1998. The stated objectives of the AFA are (1) to 
give U.S. interests a priority in the harvest of U.S. fishery resources 
and (2) to significantly reduce fishing capacity in the Bering Sea 
pollock fishery. The AFA provides the ability to eligible participants 
in the Bering Sea pollock fishery to form fishery cooperatives to 
optimize harvesting and processing opportunities. Enhanced efficiencies 
in the Bering Sea pollock fishery resulting from fishery cooperatives 
could lead to increases in participation and/or capital investments in 
other fisheries. The U.S. Congress recognized and provided for this 
potential result. Section 211 of the AFA directs the Council to 
recommend for approval by the Secretary of Commerce such conservation 
and management measures as it determines are necessary to protect other 
fisheries under its authority and the participants in those fisheries, 
including processors, from adverse impacts caused by the AFA or fishery 
cooperatives in the directed pollock fishery.
    During the Council's December 1998 meeting, various sectors of the 
fishing industry voiced their concern about the potential for 
speculative entry into fisheries in 1999. The primary cause of this 
concern was that fishing operations eligible to participate in the 
Bering Sea directed pollock fishery under fishery cooperatives allowed 
under the AFA could have greater flexibility to enter other fisheries 
in an effort to establish ``traditional harvest levels'' for future 
access to those fisheries. In an effort to address this concern, the 
Council stated its intent that it would not use participation in a 
fishery in 1999, as an indicator of a fishing operation's ``traditional 
harvest'' in that fishery. Further, the Council recommended that NMFS 
publish a notice in the Federal Register that participation in 1999 
would not be taken into account by the Council in determining catch 
histories for any future limited access programs under the AFA and/or 
the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
    The Council intends to address whether and how to further limit 
access to the non-salmon fisheries under its authority. Further, 
section 211(c)(1) of the AFA requires the Council to recommend to NMFS, 
by July 1, 1999, conservation and management measures to prevent Bering 
Sea pollock fishing operations from exceeding in the aggregate the 
traditional harvest levels of those fishing operations in other 
fisheries under the authority of the Council as a result of fishing 
cooperatives. This document is intended to discourage speculative entry 
into the non-salmon fisheries while potential management regimes to 
further control access into those fisheries are discussed and possibly 
developed by the Council. In developing future limited access programs, 
the Council may choose different and variably weighted methods to 
qualify participants based on the type and length of participation in 
the subject fisheries or other methods of determining dependence on 
those fisheries. The potential eligibility criteria may be based on 
historical participation. Therefore, current participants in non-salmon 
fisheries under the authority of the Council should locate and preserve 
records that substantiate and verify participation in those fisheries. 
These fisheries include, but are not limited to, the groundfish fishery 
of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area, the groundfish 
of the Gulf of Alaska, the scallop fishery off Alaska, and the 
commercial king and Tanner crab fishery in the Bering Sea and Aleutian 
Islands Area.
    This notification establishes January 13, 1999 for potential use as 
a basis for determining historical or traditional participation in any 
non-salmon fishery in 1999. This action does not commit the Council to 
develop or adopt any particular management regime or to use any 
specific criteria for determining entry into any of those fisheries. 
Any further action by the Council on this issue will be taken pursuant 
to the requirements of the AFA and/or the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

    Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq., and Pub. L. 105-277.

    Dated: January 12, 1999.
Rolland A. Schmitten,
Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries 
Service.
[FR Doc. 99-1105 Filed 1-13-99; 4:04 pm]
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