[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 113 (Tuesday, June 12, 2001)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 31609-31610]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-14893]



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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 622

[ I.D. 052301E]


Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council; Public Hearings

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

ACTION: Notice of public hearings; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council (Council) will 
convene public hearings to receive comments on its proposed Amendment 
18 to the Fishery Management Plan for the Reef Fish Resources of the 
Gulf of Mexico that proposes to establish a 10-year red grouper stock 
rebuilding program and address other reef fish fishery gear and 
enforcement issues.

DATES: The public hearings will be held in June. See SUPPLEMENTARY 
INFORMATION for specific dates and times of the public hearings. 
Written comments will be accepted until June 28, 2001.

ADDRESSES: Written comments should be sent to and copies of draft 
Amendment 18 and its draft supplemental environmental impact statement 
(DSEIS) are available from the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management 
Council, 3018 U.S. Highway 301, North, Suite 1000, Tampa, FL 33619; 
telephone 813-228-2815. Public hearings will be held in Texas, 
Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. See SUPPLEMENTARY 
INFORMATION for specific hearing locations.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Steven Atran, Population Dynamics 
Statistician, Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council; 813-228-2815.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In October 2000, NMFS informed the Council 
that it had determined that the Gulf of Mexico red grouper stock is 
overfished and undergoing overfishing. Under the Magnuson-Steven 
Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act), the 
Council is required to propose management measures to initiate 
rebuilding the stock within one year of NMFS' determination that the 
stock is overfished. -
    The Council has developed Amendment 18, in part, to address its 
responsibility under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, to propose stock 
rebuilding measures for red grouper. The Council will convene public 
hearings to review draft Amendment 18 and its accompanying DSEIS. 
Amendment 18 proposes to establish a 10-year red grouper rebuilding 
program and address other gear and enforcement issues. The issues and 
proposed alternative measures contained in draft Amendment 18 are 
summarized below; the section references refer to sections of the draft 
Amendment 18 document. -

Draft Amendment 18 Issues and Alternative Measures

Longline and Buoy Gear Endorsement (Section 6.1.1)

    6.1.1.1 Establish a longline/buoy gear endorsement - No preferred 
alternative selected. -
    6.1.1.2 Transferability of endorsement - Fully transferable. -
    6.1.1.3 Appeals board - Appeals to be handled by NMFS.
    Longline and Buoy Gear Boundary Line (Section 6.1.2) - No preferred 
alternative selected.
    Longline and Buoy Gear Phase-Out (Section 6.1.3) - No preferred 
alternative selected.
    Use of Powerheads When Spearfishing (Section 6.2) - Require a 
permit for the use of powerheads when reef fish fishing (both 
commercially and recreationally), and eliminate the regulatory 
exemption that allows the use of powerheads in the stressed area for 
harvest of sand perch, dwarf sand perch, and hogfish.
    Use of Reef Fish for Bait (Section 7.0) - Prohibit the use of all 
species in the reef fish management unit or parts thereof, except sand 
perch and dwarf sand perch, with any gear for bait. No preferred 
alternative has been selected regarding whether to apply this provision 
to commercial fishing, recreational fishing, or both.
    Vessel Monitoring System (Section 8.0) - Require fishing vessels 
engaged in the bottom (reef fish) longline fishery to be equipped with 
an electronic vessel monitoring system (VMS), with the cost of the 
vessel equipment, installation, maintenance, and month-to-month 
communications to be paid or arranged by the owners as appropriate. 
NMFS would maintain and publish in the Federal Register a list of type-
approved units and communications protocols.
    Dormant Reef Fish Permits (Section 9.0) - No preferred alternative 
selected. -

Red Grouper Rebuilding Plan (Section 10.0)

    10.1 Red Grouper Sustainable Fishing Parameters - Set red grouper 
maximum sustainable yield (MSY), fishing mortality rate at MSY (FMSY), 
and spawning stock biomass proxy at MSY (SSMSY) at the range of values 
estimated by the Reef Fish Stock Assessment Panel, MSY = 6.705 to 7.012 
million pounds; FMSY = 0.223 to 0.270; SSMSY = 350.7 to 433.2 million 
grams female gonad weight. -
    10.2 Red Grouper Minimum Stock Size Threshold (MSST) - Red grouper 
minimum stock size threshold (MSST) shall be 80% of SSMSY (280.6 to 
346.6 million grams female gonad weight). -
    10.3 Red Grouper Maximum Fishing Mortality Threshold (MFMT) - Red 
grouper maximum fishing mortality threshold (MFMT) shall be FMSY (0.223 
to 0.270), or the F consistent with recovery to the MSY level in no 
more than 10 years. -
    10.4 Red Grouper Optimum Yield (OY) - Red grouper optimum yield 
(OY) shall be 90% of MSY (6.035 to 6.311 million pounds). -
    10.5 Red Grouper Rebuilding Strategy - Adopt a 10-year red grouper 
rebuilding plan based on a constant catch strategy. The annual ABC 
during the rebuilding period is initially set at 4.3-5.2 million 
pounds. (This is a reduction of 21-34 percent from the 1996-99 average 
landings of 6.6 million pounds.) This ABC range may be modified 
following a future stock assessment by a regulatory amendment or plan 
amendment. -
    10.6 Commercial Shallow-Water Grouper Closed Seasons, Reef Fish 
Recreational Harvest on a Commercial Vessel, and Reef Fish Fishing Year 
- In addition to consideration of commercial shallow-water grouper 
closed seasons, this section also contains an alternative to consider 
prohibiting the retention of both commercial and recreational harvest 
of reef fish species on the same trip, and an alternative to consider 
changing the start of the fishing year for stocks that have a fixed 
closed season. No preferred alternative selected. -
    10.7 Recreational Closed Seasons - No preferred alternative 
selected. -
    10.8 Commercial Grouper Trip Limits - No preferred alternative 
selected. -
    10.9 Recreational Grouper Bag Limits - No preferred alternative 
selected.
    10.10 Closed Areas - No preferred alternative selected.
    Tilefish and Deep-Water Grouper Quotas and Closed Seasons(Section 
11.0) - Combine tilefish and deep-water grouper into a new deep-water 
reef fish aggregate; set the new deep-water reef fish quota at 1.47 
million pounds (which is the average annual harvest of tilefish and 
deep-water grouper from 1996-99); and consider a closed season for 
deep-water grouper and tilefish.
    Changes to the Reef Fish Management Unit (Section 12.0) - Add the 
following species to the FMP management unit as

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indicated: Add the marbled grouper (Epinephelus inermis)to the shallow-
water grouper aggregate under the management unit; and add the sand 
tilefish (Malacanthus plumieri) to the management unit.
    Modifications to the Reef Fish FMP's Framework Procedure for 
Setting Total Allowable Catch (TAC) (Section 13.0) - The primary 
modification is to allow a species TAC and commercial-to-recreational 
allocation to be set for an individual species within an aggregate 
(such as the shallow-water grouper aggregate) that differs from the 
aggregate allocation, provided the aggregate allocation remains as 
specified. A second modification allows NMFS stock assessments to 
report the status of stocks in terms of biomass or biomass proxy 
instead of spawning potential ratio (SPR). This section also contains 
an alternative to consider specifying that, if a TAC is set for red 
grouper or gag, the allocations will be based on catch histories of 
those stocks for the years 1986 to 1999. -

Time and Location for Public Hearings

    Public hearings for Reef Fish Amendment 18 will be held at the 
following locations and dates from 7 p.m. - 10 p.m.
    1. Thursday, June 14, 2001, Port Aransas Community Center, 408 
North Allister, Port Aransas, TX.
    2. Monday, June 18, 2001, Larose Regional Park, 307 East 5th 
Street, Larose, LA.
    3. Tuesday, June 19, 2001, Imperial Palace Hotel, 850 Bayview, 
Biloxi, MS.
    4. Wednesday, June 20, 2001, Hilton Beachfront Garden Inn, 23092 
Perdido Beach Boulevard, Orange Beach, AL.
    5. Thursday, June 21, 2001, National Marine Fisheries Service, 3500 
Delwood Beach Road, Panama City, FL.-
    6. Monday, June 25, 2001, Holiday Inn Beachside, 3841 North 
Roosevelt Boulevard, Key West, FL.
    7. Tuesday, June 26, 2001, Edison Comm. College, Hendry Hall, room 
K143, Ft. Myers, FL (Use Shoreline Blvd. entrance. Park in 1st lot on 
right (Lot 8). For Map directions see: http://www.edison.edu/aboutecc/lee_campus.htm).
    8. Wednesday, June 27, 2001, Madeira Beach City Hall, 300 Municipal 
Drive, Madeira Beach, FL.
    9. -Thursday, June 28, 2001, Plantation Inn, 9301 West Fort Island 
Trail, Crystal River, FL. -
    The Council will also hear public testimony before taking final 
action on Amendment 18 at another meeting. A notification of the date, 
time, and location of that meeting will be published in the Federal 
Register. The Council will accept written comments received by June 28, 
2001. -

Special Accommodations

    These meetings are physically accessible to people with 
disabilities. Requests for sign language interpretation or other 
auxiliary aids should be directed to Anne Alford at the Council (see 
ADDRESSES) by June 7, 2001.

    Dated: June 7, 2001.
Richard W. Surdi,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 01-14893 Filed 6-8-01; 3:25 pm]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-S