[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 31 (Tuesday, February 17, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 7421-7450]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-3393]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

[I.D. 032801B]


Magnuson-Stevens Act Provisions; Fishing Capacity Reduction 
Program; Crab Species Covered by the Fishery Management Plan for Bering 
Sea/Aleutian Islands King and Tanner Crabs

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration, Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of invitation to bid.

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SUMMARY: The National Marine Fisheries Service issues this notice to 
inform persons whom it invites to bid in the fishing capacity reduction 
program for the crab species covered by the Fishery Management Plan for 
Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands king and tanner crabs.

ADDRESSES: Direct any questions about this notice to Michael L. Grable, 
Chief, Financial Services Division, National Marine Fisheries Service, 
1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910-3282.
    Any person who wants to contact the National Marine Fisheries 
Service's Restricted Access Management Program (which issues crab 
species licenses) may do so at: Restricted Access Management Program, 
National Marine Fisheries Service, P.O. Box 21668, Juneau, AK 99802-
1668.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael L. Grable, (301) 713-2390.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 144(d) of Division B of Public Law 
106-554, as amended, authorized this fishing capacity reduction program 
(program). The program's objective is reducing harvesting capacity in 
the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands crab fishery. This will help 
financially stabilize this limited-entry fishery and manage its fish.
    The National Marine Fisheries Service (we) published proposed 
program regulations on December 12, 2002 (67 FR 76329). We published 
final program regulations on December 12, 2003 (68 FR 69331 et seq.). 
We published a notice of qualifying bidders and voters on December 22, 
2003 (68 FR 71082).

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 Interested persons should carefully review these documents for full 
details about the program. Interested persons may obtain the documents 
from Michael L. Grable (see ADDRESSES). The documents are also posted 
on our Alaska Regional Office's website at http://www.fakr.noaa.gov/sustainablefisheries/crab/faq.htm.
    The final program regulations require us to publish this notice.
    This is a voluntary program. In exchange for reduction payments, 
accepted bidders will permanently relinquish their fishing licenses and 
their fishing vessels' catch histories and fishing privileges.
    The program's maximum cost cannot exceed $100 million. A 30-year 
loan will finance 100 percent of whatever the cost turns out to be. 
Future crab landing fees will repay the loan.
    We attach, as addendum 1, a facsimile of the invitation to bid 
(invitation) which we will use to invite bids from persons on our list 
of qualifying bidders. We also attach, as addendum 2, a facsimile of 
the bidding form and terms of capacity reduction agreement (reduction 
contract) which qualifying bidders will use to make bid offers. These 
addenda state all other applicable bid submission requirements and 
procedures. All bidders must bid in strict accordance with the 
invitation and reduction contract. We may reject any bids which do not.
    Bidding will open on March 5, 2004. Bidding will close on April 23, 
2004. Bidders should not bid before bidding opens. We will not accept 
bids which our Financial Services Division in Silver Spring, MD, first 
receives after bidding closes.
    After publishing this notification but before bidding opens, we 
will mail a bidding package to each person then on, and at the address 
in, our qualifying bidder list. We will mail the bidding packages not 
later than February 27, 2004. Each bidding package will contain the 
invitation and the reduction contract, as well as questions and answers 
about bidding and other program details. We will reject any bid a 
bidder submits on any form other than the bidding form portion of the 
reduction contract in the bidding package which we send to the bidder.
    Before mailing bidding packages, we will update our qualifying 
bidders list to include all intervening changes in the Restricted 
Access Management (RAM) Program's crab license database (upon which our 
list is based).
    Bidders who first become qualifying bidders after we send our 
bidding packages may request a bidding package by contacting Michael L. 
Grable (see ADDRESSES).
    After receiving bidding packages and bidding opens, qualifying 
bidders (along with co-bidders where appropriate) who wish to bid must 
submit their irrevocable bid offers to our Silver Spring, MD, Financial 
Services Division in time for that Division to have received them 
before bidding closes.
    We will score each bid amount against the dollar value of the 
bidder's documented crab harvests during the bid scoring period. We 
will get each bidder's documented crab harvest data directly from the 
State of Alaska, and no bidder need attempt to include any crab harvest 
data in its bid. We will, in a reverse auction, then accept each bid 
whose amount is the lowest percentage of the bidder's ex-vessel 
revenues until either the $100 million is fully committed or no other 
responsive bid remains to be accepted. Bid acceptances create reduction 
contracts between the United States and the bidders.
    Next, we will conduct a referendum about the crab landing fees 
required to repay the potential reduction loan. We will mail a voting 
package to each person then on, and at the address in, our qualifying 
voter list. This will include a detailed synopsis of accepted bids 
(e.g., capacities reduced, reduction costs, and prospective loan 
repayment fees) by area/species endorsement categories. It will also 
include a ballot as well as questions and answers about voting and 
other program details.
    Reduction contracts will become inoperable unless at least two 
thirds of the referendum votes cast approve the landing fee.
    If the referendum is successful, we will then mail a bid acceptance 
notice to each accepted bidder. This will be the bidder's first advice 
that we accepted its bid. The notice will also state that a successful 
referendum fulfilled the one condition to reduction contract 
performance.
    We will also publish a 30-day reduction payment tender notice in 
the Federal Register. Afterwards, we will tender reduction payments to 
accepted bidders and complete the program.
    Any bid whose bidder we have not previously notified of the bid's 
acceptance or rejection will, in any event, expire on September 17, 
2004. We will, however, have notified all bidders well before this 
date.
    If the referendum is unsuccessful, we will consider whether 
circumstances warrant issuing another invitation.
    Our notice of qualifying bidders and voters included only one 
license holder name and mailing address for each crab license listed. 
We note that some crab licenses are co-held by more than one person, 
corporation, or partnership. Where this is the case, our notice 
included only the co-holder, and its mailing address, whom the RAM 
Program's crab license database inferred as the designated contact for 
the other co-holders.
    Nevertheless, all co-holders must sign each bid involving a co-held 
license. Even if a qualifying bidder's crab license is co-held, we will 
mail the bidding package only to the designated contact co-holder at 
the address specified in our notice. We will, however, notify the other 
co-holders that we have done so. Each designated contact co-holder will 
be responsible to ensure that all co-holders sign the bid as the 
qualifying bidder. We will reject any bid involving a co-held license 
unless all co-holders sign the bid as the qualifying bidder.
    Do not confuse the terms ``co-holder'' and ``co-owner'' with the 
term ``co-bidder''. Co-bidders are involved only when a bid's 
reduction/privilege vessel is owned by someone other than the 
qualifying bidder who holds the crab license included in the bid as the 
crab reduction permit. In each bid involving a co-bidder, the crab 
license holder or co-holders must sign the bid as the qualifying bidder 
and the reduction/privilege vessel owner or co-owners must sign the bid 
as a co-bidder. Like qualifying bidders who are co-owned, co-bidders 
who are co-owned must also have all co-owners sign the bid.

    Authority: 5 U.S.C. 561, 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq., 16 U.S.C. 
1861a(b) through (e), 46 App. U.S.C. 1279f and 1279g, section 144(d) 
of Division B of Pub. L. 106-554, section 2201 of Pub. L. 107-20, 
and section 205 of Pub. L. 107-117.
    [The addenda will not be codified in the Code of Federal 
Regulations]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-S

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    Dated: February 10, 2004.
William T. Hogarth,
Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries 
Service.
[FR Doc. 04-3393 Filed 2-13-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-S