[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 244 (Tuesday, December 21, 1999)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 71390-71395]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-32924]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 679

[Docket No. 991210329-9329-01; I.D. 102699B]
RIN 0648-AM63


Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Bering Sea 
and Aleutian Islands Area; Amendment 58 to Revise the Chinook Salmon 
Savings Areas

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

ACTION: Proposed rule, request for comments.

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SUMMARY: NMFS proposes regulations to implement Amendment 58 to the 
Fishery Management Plan for the Groundfish Fishery in the Bering Sea 
and Aleutian Islands Area (BSAI) (FMP) and associated recommendations 
from the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council). Amendment 
58 would establish a framework to allow NMFS to reduce the annual trawl 
bycatch limit for chinook salmon and it would revise the Chinook Salmon 
Savings Area (CHSSA) in the BSAI. This action is necessary to reduce 
chinook salmon bycatch and is intended to further the conservation and 
management objectives of the FMP.

DATES: Comments on the proposed rule must be received no later than 
February 4, 2000.
ADDRESSES: Comments may be sent to Sue Salveson, Assistant Regional 
Administrator, Sustainable Fisheries Division, Alaska Region, NMFS, 
P.O. Box 21668, Juneau, AK 99802-1668, Attn: Lori Gravel, or delivered 
to the Federal Building, 709 West 9th Street, Juneau, AK. 
NMFS will not accept comments submitted by e-mail or the Internet. 
Copies of Amendment 58 and the Environmental Assessment/Regulatory 
Impact Review/Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis (EA/RIR/IRFA) 
prepared for this action may be obtained from the same address or by 
calling the Alaska Region, NMFS, at 907-586-7228.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Shane Capron, 907-586-7228 or 
[email protected]

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NMFS manages the groundfish fisheries in the 
BSAI under the FMP. Regulations appearing at 50 CFR part 679 issued 
under authority of the Magnuson-

[[Page 71391]]

Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act) 
implement the FMP. General regulations governing U.S. fisheries appear 
at 50 CFR part 600. The Council prepared the FMP under authority of the 
Magnuson-Stevens Act. The Council prepared Amendment 58 to the FMP 
primarily to reduce bycatch of chinook salmon by trawl fisheries in the 
BSAI. NMFS published a notice of availability for this amendment in the 
Federal Register at 64 FR 60157 on November 4, 1999, soliciting public 
comments on this amendment through January 3, 2000. Public comments 
that are received on that request for comments or in response to this 
notice of proposed rulemaking on or before January 3, 2000, will be 
considered in the approval/disapproval decision. Comments received 
after that date, but before the end of the comment period for this 
proposed rule, will not be considered in the approval-disapproval 
decision of the amendment, but will be considered in context of this 
proposed rule. The preamble of the final rule will contain a summary of 
the comments received, both on Amendment 58 and on the proposed rule. 
Copies of Amendment 58 are available upon request (see ADDRESSES).

Background

    Trawl fisheries in the BSAI, particularly the midwater pollock 
fishery, incidentally catch chinook salmon, which is why Amendment 58 
removes the PSC limit. Salmon are prohibited species in the BSAI 
groundfish fisheries. They cannot be retained and must be returned to 
the sea as soon as possible with a minimum of injury after they have 
been counted by a NMFS certified observer. However, the mortality rate 
for salmon caught in trawl fisheries is 100 percent as salmon cannot 
survive interception by trawl gear. Final regulations published on 
November 29, 1995 (60 FR 61215), effective January 1996, established 
annual prohibited species catch (PSC) limits for chinook salmon and 
specific seasonal no trawling zones in the CHSSA that are triggered 
when the limits are reached. These existing regulations prohibit 
trawling in the CHSSA through April 15 of each year once the bycatch 
limit of 48,000 chinook salmon, as specified in the FMP, is reached.
    Chinook salmon bycatch in trawl fisheries reached a high in 1980, 
when foreign trawl vessels intercepted approximately 115,000 chinook 
salmon. Following Federal action to reduce bycatch in the trawl 
fisheries, the foreign fleet was constrained by a bycatch reduction 
schedule that reduced the allowable level each year from 65,000 chinook 
salmon in 1981 to 16,500 chinook salmon in 1986. Domestic vessels began 
fishing in the mid-1980s and bycatch numbers remained below 40,000 fish 
until 1993. From 1994 to 1998, most of the chinook salmon bycatch was 
within the area designated as the CHSSA. During this same period, the 
bycatch limit of 48,000 chinook salmon was exceeded four times, with a 
high of about 60,000 chinook salmon intercepted in 1998. Since 1996, 
when the CHSSA became effective, a PSC limit of 48,000 chinook salmon 
has been in place between January 1 and April 15 for vessels using 
trawl gear, with no restrictions on the amount of chinook salmon 
bycatch in the subsequent months.
    Concern over chinook salmon bycatch in the groundfish trawl 
fisheries exists because incidental harvests reduce the amount of 
chinook salmon available for escapement and subsistence in commercial 
and recreational fisheries. Between 50 and 90 percent of the chinook 
salmon bycatch in the BSAI is estimated to originate in Western Alaska 
river systems. Minimum escapement goals for the Yukon River, Kuskokwim 
River, and portions of Bristol Bay are being met through careful 
management of directed fisheries by time, area, and gear restrictions. 
In addition, chinook salmon is one of the major food items of Native 
communities in Western and Interior Alaska and plays an important role 
in supporting the indigenous cultures and mixed, subsistence-cash 
socioeconomic systems of these peoples. Finally, commercial and 
recreational chinook salmon fishing provides a primary source of income 
for Western Alaska communities.
    The Magnuson-Stevens Act emphasizes the importance of minimizing 
bycatch in achieving sustainable fisheries. National standard 9 
mandates that conservation and management measures, to the extent 
practicable, (1) minimize bycatch and (2) to the extent bycatch cannot 
be avoided, minimize the mortality of such bycatch. In addition, 
section 303 of the Magnuson-Stevens Act was amended in 1996 to add 
bycatch reduction incentives as a discretionary provision of fishery 
management plans. This provision states that any fishery management 
plan may ``include, consistent with the other provisions of this Act, 
conservation and management measures that provide harvest incentives 
for participants within each gear group to employ fishing practices 
that result in lower levels of bycatch or in lower levels of the 
mortality of bycatch'' (section 303(b)(10)).
    To comply with these provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the 
Council emphasized the need for additional bycatch management measures 
during the 1997 call for proposals to reduce bycatch and bycatch rates. 
At its meeting in September 1997, the Council initiated development of 
an analysis to investigate lowering the chinook salmon bycatch limit in 
the BSAI. This proposal, submitted by the Yukon River Drainage 
Fisheries Association, identified the current bycatch trigger of 48,000 
chinook salmon as too high to reduce chinook salmon bycatch 
effectively. Additionally, bycatch of chinook salmon after April 15 
does not apply toward the PSC limit that triggers a closure.
    At its meeting in February 1999, the Council considered this 
information and the analysis prepared by its staff and by staff from 
the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in support of this action and 
adopted Amendment 58 to the BSAI FMP to reduce chinook salmon bycatch 
in the BSAI. The Council considered five alternatives and recommended 
the combination of FMP and regulatory amendments that would: (1) Reduce 
the chinook salmon bycatch limit from 48,000 to 29,000 chinook salmon 
over a 4-year period, (2) implement year-round accounting of chinook 
salmon bycatch for the pollock fishery, beginning on January 1 of each 
year, (3) revise the boundaries defined by the CHSSA, and (4) set new 
CHSSA closure dates.

Elements of the Proposed Rule

Chinook Salmon Savings Areas

    Currently, the CHSSA encompasses three non-contiguous areas of the 
BSAI comprising nine geographic blocks, each defined by 1/2 deg. 
latitude by 1 deg. longitude. These blocks are closed to all vessels 
using trawl gear through 1200 hours Alaska local time (A.l.t.) April 15 
once an annual PSC limit of 48,000 chinook salmon is reached. 
Monitoring of incidental catches in the trawl fisheries begins on 
January 1. If closed, the CHSSA reopens 1200 hours A.l.t. April 15 for 
the remainder of the year, regardless of the amount of chinook salmon 
bycatch.
    Analysis of 1994-1997 observer data indicated that the current 
boundaries of the CHSSA could be modified slightly to incorporate new 
regions of relatively high chinook bycatch. High rates of bycatch were 
found in the vicinity of the Pribilof Islands. However, bycatch within 
specific areas and years was not found to be consistent. Alternatively, 
the two-block component of the current

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CHSSA, in the Pribilof Islands, has had low bycatch rates of chinook 
salmon since its inception in 1996. Hence, these two blocks would be 
removed from the CHSSA. Additionally, the new area near Unimak Island, 
which showed consistently high bycatch rates of chinook salmon, would 
be included in the revised CHSSA.

Progressive Reduction of the Chinook Salmon Bycatch Limit

    This action would prohibit directed fishing for pollock by vessels 
using trawl gear within the CHSSA when NMFS determines that the bycatch 
limit for chinook salmon has been attained for each year according to 
the following schedule:

 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                      Year                         Chinook Salmon Limit
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2000                                                              41,000
2001                                                              37,000
2002                                                              33,000
2003 and after                                                    29,000
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Accounting for the PSC limit would begin on January 1 and continue 
throughout the fishing year. Non-pollock fisheries, which account for 
about 10 percent of the trawl chinook salmon bycatch, would be exempt 
from the closure of the CHSSA, and any chinook salmon bycatch in those 
fisheries would not be counted toward the PSC limit.
    Historically, the Pacific cod trawl fishery is the only non-pollock 
fishery that intercepts a significant amount of chinook salmon. This 
fishery has accounted for a consistent amount of bycatch, ranging from 
5,000 to 7,000 chinook salmon per year, while the pollock fishery 
bycatch of chinook salmon has ranged from approximately 40,000 to 
60,000 chinook salmon per year. The Council recommended the exemption 
of the Pacific cod fishery because the Pacific cod fishery has 
exhibited consistent and relatively low bycatch of chinook salmon 
(about 10 percent of the annual bycatch). The pollock fishery has 
intercepted about 90 percent of the annual chinook salmon bycatch and 
has also shown greater flexibility in reducing its bycatch of chinook 
salmon by altering its fishing patterns. For these reasons, the Council 
determined that a PSC limit would be most effective if applied in a 
relative amount to the pollock fishery only. The Council assumed that a 
bycatch limit of 29,000 chinook salmon for the pollock fishery would be 
in addition to about 7,000 chinook salmon intercepted annually by the 
Pacific cod fishery (for a total of about 36,000 chinook salmon taken 
as bycatch).
    In the event the chinook salmon limit is triggered before April 15, 
the CHSSA would close immediately. The closure would be removed on 
April 15 (before the beginning of the second pollock season), but would 
be reinitiated on September 1 and continue through the end of the year. 
If the limit were reached after April 15, but before September 1, then 
the CHSSA would close on September 1. The date, September 1, was 
selected because analysis indicates that bycatch increases in the fall. 
If the limit were reached after September 1, the CHSSA would close 
immediately and not reopen until the following year on January 1.

Classification

    This action has been determined to be not significant under E.O. 
12866.
    NMFS has prepared an IRFA that describes the economic impact this 
proposed rule, if adopted, would have on small entities. A copy of this 
analysis is available from NMFS (see ADDRESSES).
    The proposed action would apply to the 138 fishing vessels in the 
pollock fishery. In 1997, 34 factory trawlers and 106 catcher vessels 
participated in the pollock fishery harvesting about 1.15 million mt of 
pollock, an ex-vessel value of about $227 million. Under the proposed 
rule, if a chinook salmon PSC limit were attained, all vessels would be 
prohibited from directed fishing for pollock within the CHSSA, and the 
proposed regulations could affect all 138 vessels, including CDQ 
vessels. However, the available pollock TAC would not be reduced; only 
the location of the catch would be restricted. Therefore, this action 
should not prevent these vessels' ability to harvest the entire amount, 
although pollock catch rates could decrease as a direct result of a 
CHSSA closure. During the summer months when chinook salmon bycatch has 
been historically very low, the CHSSA would be open for directed 
fishing even if the PSC limit has been previously attained. NMFS is not 
aware of any Federal regulations that duplicate this proposed rule. No 
new reporting, recordkeeping, or compliance requirements are imposed by 
this rule. NMFS designed this rule to minimize impacts on small 
entities. The rule would specifically target the pollock fishery, which 
is composed primarily of large entities and which historically has been 
responsible for the vast majority of chinook salmon bycatch in the 
BSAI. All other fisheries in the BSAI, many of which have a higher 
number and percentage of small entity participation, are exempt from 
the chinook salmon PSC limit and any trawling prohibitions that might 
result from attainment of a PSC limit. Chinook salmon bycaught in non-
pollock fisheries also would not be counted toward the cap under the 
preferred alternative, which reduces the potential for behavior of non-
pollock fisheries to adversely impact (small) pollock operations. NMFS 
considered the alternative of maintaining the status quo. Although 
maintaining the status quo might minimize impacts on small entities, it 
would not achieve the objectives of this action.

List of Subjects in 50 CFR Part 679

    Alaska, Fisheries, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.

    Dated: December 15, 1999.
Andrew A. Rosenberg,
Deputy Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries 
Service.
    For the reasons set out in the preamble, 50 CFR part 679 is 
proposed to be amended as follows:

PART 679--FISHERIES OF THE EXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONE OFF ALASKA

    1. The authority citation for part 679 continues to read as 
follows:

    Authority: 16 U.S.C. 773 et seq., 1801 et seq., and 3631 et seq.

    2. In Sec. 679.2, the definition for Chinook Salmon Savings Area of 
the BSAI is revised to read as follows:
    * * * * *
    Chinook Salmon Savings Area of the BSAI (see 
Sec. 679.21(e)(7)(viii)).
    * * * * *
    3. In Sec. 679.7, paragraph (d)(9) is revised to read as follows:


Sec. 679.7  Prohibitions.

* * * * *
    (d) * * *
    (9) For the operator of an eligible vessel listed on an approved 
CDP, use trawl gear to harvest pollock CDQ in the Chinook Salmon 
Savings Area between January 1 and April 15, and between September 1 
and December 31, after the CDQ group's chinook salmon PSQ is attained.
* * * * *
    4. In Sec. 679.21, paragraphs (e)(1)(vii) and (e)(7)(viii) are 
revised to read as follows:


Sec. 679.21  Prohibited species bycatch management.

* * * * *
    (e) * * *
    (1) * * *
    (vii) Chinook salmon. The trawl closures identified in paragraph 
(e)(7)(viii) of this section will take effect

[[Page 71393]]

when the Regional Administrator determines that the PSC limit of 
chinook salmon caught while harvesting pollock in the BSAI between 
January 1 and December 31 is attained according to the following 
amounts identified for each year:

 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                      Year                         Chinook Salmon Limit
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2000                                                              41,000
2001                                                              37,000
2002                                                              33,000
2003 and after                                                    29,000
------------------------------------------------------------------------

* * * * *
    (7) * * *
    (viii) Chinook salmon. (A) Closure. If, during the fishing year, 
the Regional Administrator determines that catch of chinook salmon, by 
vessels using trawl gear while directed fishing for pollock in the 
BSAI, will reach the annual limit, as identified in paragraph 
(e)(1)(vii) of this section, NMFS, by notice in the Federal Register 
will close the Chinook Salmon Savings Area, as defined in Figure 8 to 
this part, to directed fishing for pollock with trawl gear consistent 
with the following dates:
    (1) From the effective date of the closure notice until April 15, 
and from September 1 through December 31, if the Regional Administrator 
determines that the annual limit of chinook salmon will be attained 
before April 15.
    (2) From September 1 through December 31, if the Regional 
Administrator determines that the annual limit of chinook salmon will 
be attained after April 15.
    (B) [Reserved]
    * * * * *
    5. In part 679, Figure 8 is removed and Figure 8a and Figure 8b are 
added to read as follows:
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[FR Doc. 99-32924 Filed 12-20-99; 8:45 am]
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