[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 66 (Monday, April 7, 2003)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 16754-16755]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-8398]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 660

[I.D. 032703B]
RIN 0648-AN79, 0648-AP54, 0648-AP55


Fisheries Off West Coast States and in the Western Pacific; 
Precious Coral Fisheries, Fishery Management Plan (FMP) Amendment 4; 
Bottomfish and Seamount Groundfish Fisheries, FMP Amendment 6; Pelagic 
Fisheries, FMP Amendment 8; Crustacean Fisheries, FMP Amendment 10

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA), Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of availability of supplemental FMP amendments; request 
for comments.

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SUMMARY: NMFS announces that the Western Pacific Fishery Management 
Council (Council) has prepared supplements to FMP Amendment 4 to the 
Fishery Management Plan for the Precious Coral Fisheries of the Western 
Pacific Region (Amendment 4) fisheries, FMP Amendment 6 to the Fishery 
Management Plan for the Bottomfish and Seamount Groundfish Fisheries of 
the Western Pacific Region (Amendment 6), fisheries FMP Amendment 8 to 
the Fishery Management Plan for the Pelagic Fisheries of the Western 
Pacific Region (Amendment 8) for fisheriesand FMP Amendment 10 to the 
Fishery Management Plan for Crustaceans Fisheries of the Western 
Pacific Region (Amendment 10) of the Western Pacific Region. The 
supplemental amendments, which have been submitted to NMFS for 
Secretarial review, are intended to implement certain revisions made by 
the provisions of the Sustainable Fisheries Act (SFA) revisions to the 
Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-
Stevens Act). Included in the supplemental amendments are bycatch 
provisions for the bottomfish and seamount groundfish and pelagic FMPs 
fisheries; overfishing definitions and control rules for the bottomfish 
and seamount groundfish, pelagics, and crustacean FMPs fisheries; and 
definitions of ``fishing communities'' in Hawaii for the bottomfish and 
seamount groundfish, pelagics, crustaceans, and precious corals FMPs 
fisheries.

DATES: Written comments on the supplemental FMP amendments must be 
received on or before June 6, 2003.

ADDRESSES: Written comments on any of the supplemental FMP amendments 
should be sent to Dr. Charles Karnella, Administrator, Pacific Islands 
Area Office, NMFS, 1601 Kapiolani Boulevard, Suite 1110, Honolulu, HI 
96814, or faxed to 808-973-2941. Comments will not be accepted via e-
mail or the internet.
    Copies of the amendment documents are available from Kitty Simonds, 
Executive Director, Western Pacific Fishery Management Council, 1164 
Bishop St., Suite 1400, Honolulu, HI 96813. The documents are also 
available on the following website: http://www.wpcouncil.org.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kitty Simonds, phone: (808) 522-8220; 
fax: (808) 522-8226.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Magnuson-Stevens Act requires each 
Regional Fishery Management Council to submit fishery management plans 
or plan amendments to NMFS for review and approval, disapproval, or 
partial approval. The Magnuson-Stevens Act also requires NMFS, 
immediately upon receiving a fishery management plan or amendment, to 
publish notification in the Federal Register that the fishery 
management plan or plan amendment is available for public review and 
comment. NMFS will consider the public comments received during the 
comment period described above in determining whether to approve, 
disapprove, or partially disapprove the fishery management plan or plan 
amendment.
    The Council has prepared supplements to Amendment 4, Amendment 6, 
Amendment 8, and Amendment 10 that address bycatch issues; establish 
overfishing definitions and describe control rules; and designate 
define fishing communities in the State of Hawaii, consistent with the 
certain SFA amendments made by the 1996 SFA to the Magnuson-Stevens 
Act. Then on February 3, 1999, NMFS approved portions of the Council's 
FMP amendments pertaining to essential fish habitat provisions, 
identification of commercial, recreational and charter fishing sectors; 
overfishing definition for precious corals; bycatch provisions for 
crustaceans and precious coral fisheries; and designation definition of 
fishing communities for American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of 
the Northern Mariana Islands.
    The supplemental amendments provide new specifications of 
overfishing criteria. Maximum sustainable yield-based control rules and 
overfishing thresholds are defined for the Northwestern Hawaiian 
Islands (NWHI) lobster stock and multi-species complexes of bottomfish 
and seamount groundfish and western Pacific pelagic management unit 
species. Stock status determination criteria, including maximum fishing 
mortality thresholds and minimum stock size thresholds, are defined for 
the lobster stock, bottomfish, and pelagic stock complexes. The 
bottomfish and seamount groundfish FMP already contains measures to 
prevent overfishing and to rebuild overfished stocks. These include a 
moratorium on the harvest of armorhead to rebuild this stock in the 
seamount groundfish fishery, a prohibition on the use of destructive 
bottomfish fishing methods, area closures around the main Hawaiian 
Islands, and limited access programs in the implementation of 
bottomfish NWHI to limit fishing effort. Additional measures to prevent 
overfishing or to rebuild overfished stocks that may be considered by 
the Council in the future include additional area closures, seasonal 
closures, reduction in the number of available limited access permits, 
establishment of limited access programs in areas other than the NWHI, 
limits on catch per trip, limits on effort per trip, and fleet-wide 
limits on catch and effort.
    The pelagics FMP already includes measures to prevent local 
overfishing

[[Page 16755]]

and to keep stocks from becoming locally overfished through a limited 
access program for the Hawaii-based longline fishery, prohibition on 
the use of drift gill nets, and various longline area closures in 
Federal waters around American Samoa, Guam, and Hawaii. Additional 
measures that may be considered by the Council in the event of 
overfishing include reductions in the number of limited access longline 
permits, size restrictions, etc.
    The crustaceans FMP contains measures to prevent overfishing and 
keep NWHI stocks from becoming overfished including gear restrictions, 
trap specifications (to allow juvenile lobsters to escape), a limited 
access permit program for the NWHI commercial lobster fishery, a limit 
on the number of lobster traps allowed per vessel, seasonal and area 
closures, and annual bank-specific harvest guidelines. Additional 
measures that may be considered by the Council, if needed, include 
adjustments to the NWHI seasonal closure, temporary fishery closures, 
and size or species harvest restrictions.
    Supplemental FMP amendments pertaining to bycatch issues describe 
bycatch levels and patterns in the bottomfish and seamount groundfish 
and pelagic fisheries. Management measures currently require all 
primary and relief operators (captains) in the NWHI limited access 
fisheries to complete one-time protected species workshop. The 
supplemental amendments describe recent improvements in bycatch 
reduction and bycatch reporting, as well as non-regulatory management 
initiatives to further minimize bycatch and reduce bycatch mortality, 
and improve the measurement of bycatch and analyses thereof in these 
fisheries. These initiatives include fishery outreach programs that 
foster awareness of bycatch issues, research into fishing methods and 
gear modification to reduce bycatch and bycatch mortality, development 
of markets for low value fish that would otherwise be discarded by 
fishermen, and improvements to information collection for bycatch.
    The supplemental amendments for the bottomfish and seamount 
groundfish, pelagics, crustaceans, and precious corals FMPs define each 
of the major inhabited main Hawaiian islands as a fishing community. 
This island-by-island designation definition of fishing communities is 
based on analyses indicating that the social and economic cohesion of 
fishery participants is strongest at the island level. Fishing, support 
services, and fishery infrastructure are critically important to all of 
Hawaii's populated areas. As such fishing communities in Hawaii are not 
distinguished according to a particular fishery or gear type. The 
supplemental amendments define Hawaii's fishing communities as the 
islands of Niihau, Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Maui, Lanai, and Hawaii.
    Public comments on any or all of the supplemental FMP amendments 
must be received by June 6, 2003, to be considered by NMFS in the 
decision whether to approve, disapprove, or partially approve the 
amendments.
    The supplemental amendments contain no implementing regulations.

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

    Dated: April 2, 2003.
Richard W. Surdi,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 03-8398 Filed 4-4-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-S