[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 83 (Friday, April 30, 1999)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 23260-23261]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-10903]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
50 CFR Part 648
[I.D. 041599B]
Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Atlantic Bluefish
Fishery
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of availability of Amendment 1 to the Fishery Management
Plan for Atlantic Bluefish (FMP); request for comments.
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SUMMARY: NMFS announces that the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management
Council (Council) has submitted Amendment 1 to the Atlantic Bluefish
FMP for Secretarial review and is requesting comments from the public.
Amendment 1 would establish new management measures to control fishing
mortality on Atlantic bluefish (bluefish) while addressing the new
requirements of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and
Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act), as amended by the Sustainable
Fisheries Act (SFA). The intent of Amendment 1 is to eliminate
overfishing and rebuild the Atlantic bluefish stock.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before June 29, 1999.
ADDRESSES: Send comments to Jon C. Rittgers, Acting Regional
Administrator, National Marine Fisheries Service, Northeast Regional
Office, One Blackburn Drive, Gloucester, Massachusetts 01930-3799. Mark
the outside of the envelope: ``Comments on Amendment 1 to the Atlantic
Bluefish Plan.''
Copies of Amendment 1, including the final environmental impact
statement and regulatory impact review, are available from Daniel
Furlong, Executive Director, Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council,
Room 2115 Federal Building, 300 S. New Street, Dover, DE 19904-6790.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Myles Raizin, Fishery Policy Analyst,
978-281-9104.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Amendment 1 would: revise the overfishing
definition for Atlantic bluefish; implement a 9-year stock rebuilding
schedule based on a staggered reduction of fishing mortality rate (F);
specify a commercial quota with state allocations and a coastwide
recreational harvest limit for the first year of the rebuilding
schedule; implement permit and reporting requirements for commercial
fishermen, dealers, and party/charter boat operators; establish a
Bluefish Monitoring Committee; establish an annual adjustment process
to meet fishing mortality rate objectives of the FMP; establish a
framework adjustment process to change measures such as minimum fish
size, gear restrictions, recreational seasons or bag limits, closed
areas or commercial seasons; specify a de minimus commercial quota for
certain states; and identify and describe essential fish habitat (EFH)
of bluefish.
This amendment is intended to bring the Atlantic Bluefish FMP into
conformance with the Magnuson-Stevens Act as amended by the SFA. The
provisions in section 108(a) of the SFA require that Fishery Management
Councils either add to or revise the required provisions of any fishery
management plan prepared by a Council or the Secretary of Commerce to
include the following provisions on: (1) bycatch reports (standardize
reporting methods to assess the type and amount of bycatch in a
fishery); (2) bycatch measures (develop management measures to minimize
bycatch and mortality of bycatch); (3) commercial, recreational, and
charter fishing sectors (specify data for each sector); (4) EFH
(describe and identify EFH, minimize to the extent practicable adverse
impacts from fishing, and identify other actions to encourage the
conservation of such habitat); (5) fishing communities (assess in a
fishery impact statement the likely effects of measures on fishing
communities); (6) and overfishing (specify objective and measurable
criteria for identifying whether a fishery is overfished, and include
measures to prevent overfishing). Public comment is invited on the
adequacy of Amendment 1 in meeting the requirements of section 108(a)
of the SFA.
Overfishing Definition
Amendment 1 would revise the overfishing definition so that it is
composed of two reference points to bring it into accordance with the
new national standards of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, as amended by the
SFA. The proposed overfishing definition for bluefish is: Overfishing
occurs whenever F is greater than the F threshold = Fmsy =
0.4; bluefish is overfished when biomass is less than 1/
2Bmsy=118.5 mil lb (53,750 mt). The long-term F target is 90
percent of Fmsy and the Btarget is Bmsy. No
change to the regulatory text is necessary to change the overfishing
definition.
Rebuilding Strategy
An additional requirement of the SFA is that stocks identified as
overfished (i.e., stock biomass is less than minimum biomass threshold)
must be rebuilt to the level that will produce BMSY in as
short a period as possible. The Council and Commission propose to
rebuild the bluefish stock to the BMSY level over a 9-year
rebuilding period. The 9-year rebuilding schedule would eliminate
overfishing and rebuild the stock through a graduated reduction in the
F. The current F associated with MSY is FMSY=0.4. In 1997,
the F was estimated at F=0.51, so that overfishing was occurring.
For the first 2 years of the rebuilding plan (1999-2000), F would
remain at the current level, F=0.51 and then would be reduced to F=0.41
in years 3-5 (2001-2003), and finally to F=0.31 in years 6-9 (2004-
2007). During the rebuilding period, the target F for the next fishing
year would be set at the level specified in the rate reduction schedule
or the level estimated for the most recent year, whichever is less.
Based on the overfishing definition, target F would continue to be at
90% FMSY (F=0.36), once rebuilding is achieved. Amendment 1
proposes that commercial landings quotas and a recreational harvest
limit are the chief measures to achieve these goals.
Essential Fish Habitat Designation
The Council identified and described EFH for various stages of the
life cycle of bluefish, fishing impacts on EFH, non-fishing threats on
EFH, and research recommendations relevant to a better understanding of
EFH. The Council intends that the EFH designations for bluefish under
this Amendment be reviewed and, if needed, updated at least every 5
years. Amendment 1 would authorize the revision of EFH components of
the FMP through the FMP's framework process.
Management Measure Considered for Disapproval
De minimus Status
De minimus has been defined as a situation in which, under existing
conditions of the stock and scope of the fishery, conservation and
enforcement actions taken by an individual state
[[Page 23261]]
would be expected to contribute insignificantly to a coastwide
conservation program required by a FMP or amendment. Amendment 1
proposes that any state that has commercial landings less than 0.1
percent of the total coastwide commercial landings in the last
preceding year for which data are available would be eligible for de
minimus status. The de minimus status would only apply to the
commercial fishery, and any state granted de minimus status would be
allocated 0.1 percent of the coastwide commercial quota. Further,
Amendment 1 proposes that the sum of the allocation to de minimus
states would be deducted from the coastwide commercial quota before the
remainder of the quota is allocated to other states. The proposed
measure to establish de minimus quota specifications is identical to
the measure that NMFS disapproved in Amendment 8 and Amendment 10 to
the Fishery Management Plan for Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea
Bass.
This measure would require an annual examination of state landings
to determine if landings in that state during the preceding year for
which data are available were less than 0.1 percent of the overall
annual quota. If a state met this criterion, it would be granted de
minimus status. This provision raises a number of concerns: the burdens
of administering this provision could well outweigh its benefits; and
lack of any clear obligation on the part of a de minimus state to close
its fishery (i.e., prohibit landings) once its quota is harvested,
could result in overfishing. These concerns will be considered in
determining the approvability of this provision.
If de minimus status does not, at the very least, require a state
to impose landing constraints, the provision may encourage owners of
vessels that have not traditionally landed in that state to land
amounts of bluefish much greater than they could land in their home
port states. This could result in the state's de minimus quota being
rapidly exceeded and compound the overfishing situation if a de minimus
state is not required to close its fishery when its de minimus quota is
harvested.
A proposed rule that would implement Amendment 1 may be published
in the Federal Register for public comment, following an evaluation of
the proposed rule by NMFS under the procedures of the Magnuson-Stevens
Act. Public comments on the proposed rule must be received by the end
of the comment period on Amendment 1 (see DATES) in order to be
considered in the decision concerning approval or disapproval of the
Amendment. All comments received by June 29, 1999, whether specifically
directed to Amendment 1 or the proposed rule, will be considered in the
approval/disapproval decision on Amendment 1. Comments received after
that date will not be considered in the approval/disapproval decision
on Amendment 1.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: April 26, 1999.
Bruce Morehead,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 99-10903 Filed 4-29-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-F