[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 208 (Thursday, October 28, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 58035-58036]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-28104]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
[I.D. 092099A]


Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Fisheries; Atlantic Yellowfin 
Tuna

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and

[[Page 58036]]

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

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SUMMARY: As required under the Fisheries Act of 1995, NMFS is 
publishing final statistics on the level of U.S. recreational and 
commercial landings of Atlantic yellowfin tuna (YFT) in metric tons 
(mt) since 1981. Preliminary statistics were published in March 1996, 
and NMFS received considerable public comment. NMFS is publishing these 
final statistics to inform the public of updated data on landings 
trends in the YFT recreational and commercial fisheries.

ADDRESSES: To request a copy of the scientific paper which forms the 
basis for these revised YFT statistics, contact Pasquale Scida at 978-
281-9208.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Regulations implemented under the authority 
of the Atlantic Tunas Convention Act (16 U.S.C. 971 et seq.) and the 
Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (16 U.S.C. 
1801 et seq.) governing the harvest of yellowfin tuna by persons and 
vessels subject to U.S. jurisdiction are found at 50 CFR part 635.
    NMFS is required under the Fisheries Act of 1995, Title III, 
Atlantic Tunas Convention Act, section 309(a) to publish Federal 
Register documents with preliminary and final/revised statistics on the 
commercial and recreational yellowfin tuna landings for the past 10 
years. NMFS published preliminary data on YFT landings in a Federal 
Register document to inform the public of trends in YFT recreational 
and commercial landings (61 FR 10319, March 13, 1996). In order to meet 
the intent of the Fisheries Act of 1995, given the complexity of the 
issues involved with a complex data recovery of YFT landings, NMFS 
deemed it preferable to at least publish preliminary data within the 
140-day deadline and requested public comment over a 2-month time 
period.
    These preliminary data and data issues have been discussed at 
meetings of the Advisory Committee to the U.S. Section to the 
International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) 
in recent years. Comments received from both the general public and 
from the ICCAT Advisory Committee (IAC) resulted in extensive 
reexamination of the data by NMFS scientists to gather the best 
available data on commercial and recreational YFT landings for 
publication and subsequent revisions to the preliminary statistics. At 
the November 1998 IAC meeting, a copy of a draft report to be used as 
the basis for submitting revised estimates of YFT landings to ICCAT was 
circulated to the IAC. After further refining the information, NMFS 
provided a draft scientific paper detailing YFT data revisions to the 
IAC at its March 1999 meeting.
    The source of the YFT data and revisions made to the historical 
database are described in a paper that has been submitted to the ICCAT 
Standing Committee on Research and Statistics (SCRS) at its 1999 
meetings. As noted in the summary of this SCRS paper, a variety of 
commercial landings databases were examined for the purpose of 
evaluating the possible need for revising reports of U.S. landings of 
Atlantic bigeye, albacore, yellowfin, and skipjack tuna to ICCAT. This 
SCRS paper updates, with appropriate revision and additions, a previous 
review of U.S. commercial landings of Atlantic yellowfin as presented 
in an earlier SCRS paper. In addition, various sources of recreational 
landing tallies and estimates are examined and landings values are 
presented. To obtain copies of this SCRS paper, see ADDRESSES.
    In presenting these revised data to the SCRS, the United States is 
formally revising historical landings statistics. These revised 
statistics have been submitted through the ICCAT reporting process, 
after incorporating the review comments received from both the IAC and 
the SCRS, and will be published in future reports of the SCRS. Because 
this review and revision of YFT statistics included extensive research 
of all sources of YFT data and a variety of estimation techniques, NMFS 
considers these historical data as the best data available at this 
time. NMFS, therefore, does not intend to consider further revisions to 
these data unless new, verifiable data become available.
    NMFS is exploring and, in some cases, implementing new measures 
designed to improve the quality of YFT commercial and recreational 
landings data. The Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Tunas, 
Swordfish, and Sharks, adopted in April 1999, includes new permitting 
and reporting requirements for recreational vessels, including logbooks 
for Highly Migratory Species charter/headboats, if selected. Through 
efforts implemented under the Atlantic Coast Cooperative Statistics 
Program, NMFS is working with states and other fishery management 
authorities to ensure uniform, non-redundant, and consistent data 
collection systems. These and other efforts should contribute to 
improved quality of YFT data in coming years.

    Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq. and 16 U.S.C. 971 et seq.

    Dated: October 22, 1999.
Gary C. Matlock,
Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries 
Service.

 Table: Yellowfin Tuna Commercial and Recreational Landings, 1981-1998,
                       in metric tons round weight
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        Year            Commercial Landings      Recreational Landings
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         1981                    1886                      1274
         1982                     819                       912
         1983                     358                      2196
         1984                    1775                       405
         1985                    6342                      3394
         1986                    5102                      4836
         1987                    5710                      3952
         1988                    9166                      1899
         1989                    6530                      1930
         1990                    5121                       545
         1991                    5495                      1418
         1992                    5982                       957
         1993                    4386                      1898
         1994                    3775                      4522
         1995                    4395                      4157
         1996                    3788                      4498
         1997                    4105                      3569
         1998                    2693                      2927
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[FR Doc. 99-28104 Filed 10-27-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-F