[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 147 (Wednesday, July 31, 2002)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 49621-49622]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-19363]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 648

[Docket No. 011109274-1301-02; I.D. 072202B]


Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Summer Flounder, 
Scup, and Black Sea Bass Fisheries; Adjustment to the 2002 Scup Winter 
II Commercial Quota

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

ACTION: Scup Winter II commercial quota adjustment for 2002.

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SUMMARY: NMFS (NOAA Fisheries) adjusts the 2002 Winter II commercial 
scup quota. This action complies with a provision of the commercial 
quota management program established by the Fishery Management Plan for 
the Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Fisheries (FMP). Scup 
landings in excess of the quota allocated for the prior year's Winter 
II quota period (November and December) must be deducted from the 
Winter II scup quota for the following year. The intent of this action 
is to continue the rebuilding program described in the FMP's 
objectives, by taking into account 2001 overages of the scup Winter II 
quota.

DATES: Effective July 31, 2002, through December 31, 2002.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Richard A. Pearson, Fisheries Policy 
Analyst, (978) 281-9279.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    NOAA Fisheries published a final rule in the Federal Register on 
December 26, 2001 (66 FR 66348), announcing specifications and 
adjustments to the 2002 summer flounder, scup, and black sea bass 
commercial quotas. On February 14, 2002, NOAA Fisheries published a 
final rule in the Federal Register (67 FR 6877) revising the method by 
which the commercial quotas for these species are to be adjusted if 
landings in any fishing year exceed the quota allocated (thus resulting 
in a quota overage). The FMP originally required that any landings in 
excess of a commercial quota allocation for a state or period in one 
year would be deducted from that state's or period's annual quota 
allocation for the following year. This was problematic because 
complete landings data for the

[[Page 49622]]

year were often not available until much later in the next fishing 
year. As a result, it was frequently necessary for NMFS to publish 
several subsequent quota adjustments during the next fishing year, as 
landings information became available. These adjustments complicated 
the resource management efforts of state marine fisheries agencies, and 
hampered planning by commercial fishers. The regulatory amendment 
corrected these deficiencies by establishing a cut-off date of October 
31 for landings data to be used in calculating quota overages and 
making the resultant adjustments to the quotas when developing the 
specifications for the upcoming fishing year. The regulatory amendment 
also specified that, by June 30 of the following year, all available 
landings data for the previous year's Winter II scup quota period 
(November - December) and the Quarter 4 black sea bass quota period 
(October - December) would be compiled and compared to the quota 
allocations for those periods. Any resultant overages would be deducted 
from the quotas for the current fishing year in July, through 
notification in the Federal Register. Any further overages identified 
as a result of late data submitted for any given year's quota periods 
would be applied to the quota allocations for the next fishing year. 
Accordingly, this notice is being published to inform the public of 
overages of the 2001 Winter II scup quota period and to adjust the 2002 
Winter II scup quota to account for those overages. There was not an 
overage of the 2001 Quarter 4 black sea bass quota so an adjustment of 
the 2002 Quarter 4 quota is not necessary.
    The adjustment in this notification is final. Additional data, 
including late landings reported from either federally permitted 
dealers or state statistical agencies reporting landings by non-
federally permitted dealers, that are received will be added onto 
available 2002 landings and then used to determine any adjustments to 
the 2003 quotas during the specification-setting process for the 2003 
fishing year.

Scup

    The 2001 Winter II scup quota, available 2001 Winter II scup 
landings, and the resulting overage of the 2001 Winter II scup quota 
are presented in Table 1. The resulting adjusted 2002 Winter II scup 
commercial quota is presented in Table 2.

                                Table 1. Scup Winter II 2001 Landings and Overage
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                                                     2001 Quota           2001 Landings         2001 Overage
                    Period                     -----------------------------------------------------------------
                                                    Lb       Kg\1\        Lb       Kg\1\        Lb       Kg\1\
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Winter II                                         708,469    321,356    777,790    352,800     69,321     31,444
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\1\ Kilograms are as converted from pounds, and may not necessarily add due to rounding.


                                   Table 2. Scup Winter II Adjusted 2002 Quota
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                                                                 2002 Initial Quota        2002 Adjusted Quota
                           Period                            ---------------------------------------------------
                                                                   Lb         Kg\1\          Lb         Kg\1\
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Winter II                                                       1,248,823      566,456    1,179,502      535,013
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\1\ Kilograms are as converted from pounds, and may not necessarily add due to rounding.

Classification

    This action is required by 50 CFR part 648 and is exempt from 
review under Executive Order 12866.

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

    Dated: July 25, 2002.
John H. Dunnigan,
Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries 
Service.
[FR Doc. 02-19363 Filed 7-30-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-S