[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 248 (Monday, December 29, 2003)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 74939-74940]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-31895]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 648

[I.D. 122203A]
RIN 0648-AN17


Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act 
Provisions; Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Northeast (NE) 
Multispecies Fishery; Amendment 13

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

ACTION: Notice of availability of a fishery management plan amendment; 
request for comments.

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SUMMARY: NMFS announces that the New England Fishery Management Council 
(Council) has submitted Amendment 13, incorporating the Draft Final 
Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (FSEIS) to the NE 
Multispecies Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for Secretarial review and 
is requesting comments from the public. Amendment 13 was developed by 
the Council to end overfishing and rebuild NE multispecies (groundfish) 
stocks managed under the authority of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery 
Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act), and to make 
other changes in the management of the groundfish fishery. The proposed 
measures include: Changes in the days-at-sea (DAS) baseline for 
determining historical participation in the groundfish fishery; DAS 
reductions from the baseline; creation of new categories of DAS and 
criteria for their allocation and use in the fishery; changes in 
minimum fish size and possession limits for recreationally caught fish; 
a new limited access permit category for Handgear vessels; elimination 
of the northern shrimp fishery exemption line; access to groundfish 
closed areas for tuna purse seiners; an exemption program for southern 
New England scallop dredge vessels; modifications to Vessel Monitoring 
System requirements; changes to procedures for exempted fisheries; 
changes to the process for making periodic adjustments to management 
measures in the groundfish fishery; revisions to trip limits for cod 
and yellowtail flounder; changes in gear restrictions, including 
minimum mesh sizes and gillnet limits; a DAS Transfer Program; a DAS 
Leasing Program; implementing measures for the U.S./Canada Resource 
Sharing Understanding for cod, haddock, and yellowtail flounder on 
Georges Bank (GB); Special Access Programs (SAPs) to allow targeted 
harvest of healthy stocks of groundfish; revisions to overfishing 
definitions and control rules; measures to protect Essential Fish 
Habitat (EFH); new reporting requirements; sector allocation 
procedures; and a GB Cod Hook Gear Sector Allocation. The effort-
reduction measures in Amendment 13 are intended to end overfishing on 
all stocks and constitute rebuilding programs for those groundfish 
stocks that require rebuilding. Other measures are intended to provide 
flexibility and business options for permit holders, such as allowing 
the fishery to pursue the healthy groundfish stocks, and DAS transfer 
and leasing options.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before February 27, 2004.

ADDRESSES: Comments on Amendment 13 should be sent to Patricia A. 
Kurkul, Regional Administrator, NMFS, Northeast Regional Office, One 
Blackburn Drive, Gloucester, MA 01930. Mark the outside of the 
envelope, ``Comments on Groundfish Amendment 13.'' Comments may also be 
sent via facsimile (fax) to (978) 281-9135. Comments will not be 
accepted if submitted via e-mail or the Internet.
    Copies of Amendment 13, the FSEIS, Regulatory Impact Review (RIR), 
and the Preliminary Regulatory Economic Evaluation (PREE) are available 
from Paul J. Howard, Executive Director, New England Fishery Management 
Council, 50 Water Street, Mill 2, Newburyport, MA 01950.
    Copies of the Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis (IRFA) are 
available from the Regional Administrator at the address above.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Thomas Warren, Fishery Policy Analyst, 
phone: 978-281-9347, fax: 978-281-9135; email: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Council has been developing Amendment 13 
since 1999, in order to bring the FMP into conformance with all 
Magnuson-Stevens Act requirements, including ending overfishing and 
rebuilding all overfished groundfish stocks.
    On December 28, 2001, a decision was rendered by the U.S. District 
Court for the District of Columbia (Court) on a lawsuit brought by the 
Conservation Law Foundation, Center for Marine Conservation, National 
Audubon Society and Natural Resources Defense Council against NMFS 
(Conservation Law Foundation, et al., v. Evans, et al., Case No. 
00CVO1134, (D.D.C., December 28, 2001)). The lawsuit alleged that 
Framework Adjustment 33 to the FMP violated the overfishing, rebuilding 
and bycatch provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Act (18 U.S.C. 1801, et 
seq.), as amended by the Sustainable Fisheries Act (SFA), and the Court 
granted plaintiffs' Motion for Summary Judgment on all counts. The 
Court did not impose a remedy, but instead asked the parties to the 
lawsuit to propose remedies consistent with the Court's findings.
    From April 5-9, 2002, plaintiffs, defendants and intervenors 
engaged in Court-assisted mediation to try to agree upon mutually 
acceptable short-term and long-term solutions to present to the Court 
as a possible settlement. Although these discussions ended with no 
settlement, several of the parties continued mediation and filed with 
the Court a Settlement Agreement Among Certain Parties (Settlement 
Agreement) on April 16, 2002. The Settlement Agreement called for 
short-term measures to reduce overfishing while the Council completed 
its development of Amendment 13.
    On April 29, 2002, NMFS published an interim final rule (67 FR 
21139) under the authority of section 304(e), consistent with section 
305(c), of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which allows for interim measures 
to reduce overfishing until an amendment to stop overfishing and 
rebuild fish stocks is implemented, and to implement the short-term 
measures called for by the Settlement Agreement. On May 6, 2002 (67 FR 
30331), NMFS corrected the April 29, 2002, interim final rule to bring 
it into full compliance with the Order. NMFS further amended the April 
29, 2002, interim final rule on June 5, 2002 (67 FR 38608) to bring the 
regulations into conformance with a May 23, 2002, Order issued by the 
Court in response to a motion for reconsideration. NMFS proposed 
additional, more restrictive interim measures on July 1, 2002 (67 FR 
44139), and implemented those measures on August 1, 2002 (67 FR 50292), 
also as required by the terms of the Settlement Agreement. A final rule 
implementing a regulatory amendment to correct minor oversights in the 
August 1, 2002, interim final rule, was published on January 28, 2003 
(68 FR 4113), and another minor correction to the August 1, 2002, 
interim final rule was published March 25, 2003 (68 FR

[[Page 74940]]

14347). Descriptions of the measures implemented through the interim 
rules can be found in the preamble to those rules and are not repeated 
here.
    The Order specified that management measures implemented by the 
August 1, 2002, interim final rule remain in effect until the 
completion of Amendment 13, which was initially scheduled to be in 
effect no later than August 22, 2003. However, due to the need for 
additional time to address concerns related to NMFS' Northeast 
Fisheries Science Center's trawl survey and new biological reference 
points developed for the NE multispecies stocks, NMFS and two of the 
plaintiffs filed a motion with the Court requesting an extension of the 
August 22, 2003, implementation schedule until May 1, 2004. On December 
4, 2002, the Court granted an extension of the Court-ordered timeline 
for Amendment 13 implementation until May 1, 2004.
    On January 22, 2003, NMFS published a Notice of Continuation of 
Regulations in the Federal Register to inform the public that NMFS was 
continuing the interim regulations for a second 180-day period, ending 
July 27, 2003. Under section 305(c)(3)(B) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, 
interim regulations implemented under section 305(c) are limited to two 
consecutive 180-day periods. Because the Order required that the 
interim management measures remain in effect until Amendment 13 is 
implemented, and because the Court granted an extension of the original 
schedule for implementation of Amendment 13 to May 1, 2004, in response 
to unanticipated events, NMFS proposed, on April 24, 2003 (68 FR 
20096), an emergency action under authority of section 305(c) of the 
Magnuson-Stevens Act. In addition to continuing the August 1, 2002, 
measures specified in the Settlement Agreement and Order, the April 24, 
2003, emergency rule proposed a pilot program to allow limited access 
NE multispecies vessels to lease their NE multispecies DAS. The 
proposed emergency rule was corrected on May 9, 2003 (68 FR 24914) and 
notification of changes to that rule was published June 20, 2003 (68 FR 
36970). Due to the newness and potential controversiality of the DAS 
Leasing Program, NMFS extended the comment period through June 10, 
2003, on the DAS leasing aspect of the proposed emergency rule only (68 
FR 28188; May 23, 2003). On June 27, 2003 (68 FR 38234), NMFS published 
a final emergency rule that implemented many of the same measures 
implemented through the August 1, 2002, interim final rule, with some 
modifications in response to public comment, but did not implement the 
DAS Leasing Program. Because of the public comments received and the 
controversial aspects of the DAS Leasing Program, NMFS concluded that 
it would be better to develop such a program through the Council 
process than through emergency rulemaking; thus, NMFS withdrew the 
proposed DAS Leasing Program (68 FR 41549, July 14, 2003). The measures 
implemented through the June 27, 2003, emergency rule remain in effect 
at this time. The emergency measures were continued in effect through 
publication of a notice of continuation in the Federal Register on 
December 22, 2003 (68 FR 71032).
    A notice of availability of a Draft Environmental Impact Statement 
for the EFH components of Amendment 13 was published on April 4, 2003 
(68 FR 16511), with public comment accepted through July 2, 2003. A 
notice of availability of the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact 
Statement (DSEIS), which analyzed the impacts of all of the measures 
under consideration in Amendment 13, was published on August 29, 2003 
(68 FR 52018), with public comments accepted through October 15, 2003. 
A correction to the DSEIS was published on September 19, 2002 (68 FR 
54900).
    Amendment 13 contains numerous measures to end overfishing and 
rebuild stocks. In accordance with the Settlement Agreement resulting 
from the legal challenge American Oceans Campaign, et al. v Daley, et 
al. (Civil Case Number 99-982 (GK)), Amendment 13 also evaluates the 
impacts of fishing on EFH through analysis in the FSEIS and includes 
management measures designed to minimize the adverse effects of fishing 
on EFH to the extent practicable. The major measures proposed in 
Amendment 13 are listed in the SUMMARY.
    A proposed rule that would implement Amendment 13 will be published 
in the Federal Register for public comment, following NMFS' evaluation 
of the proposed rule under the procedures of the Magnuson-Stevens Act. 
Public comments on the proposed rule must be received by the end of the 
comment period on Amendment 13 to be considered in the approval/
disapproval decision on the amendment. All comments received by 
February 27, 2004, whether specifically directed to Amendment 13 or the 
proposed rule, will be considered in the approval/disapproval decision 
on the amendment. Any comments on the proposed rule received after that 
date will not be considered in the decision to approve or disapprove 
Amendment 13.

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

    Dated: December 22, 2003.
Bruce Morehead,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 03-31895 Filed 12-23-03; 9:12 am]
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