[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 47 (Wednesday, March 10, 2004)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 11361-11363]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-5291]



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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 660

[I.D. 030104B]


Western Pacific Fishery Management Council; Public Meetings

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

ACTION: Notice of public meetings and hearings.

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SUMMARY: The Western Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) will 
hold its 122nd meeting to consider and take actions on fishery 
management issues in the Western Pacific Region.

DATES: The meetings and public hearings will be held on March 22, March 
23, 24, and 25, 2004. For specific times, see SUPPLEMENTARY 
INFORMATION.

ADDRESSES: All meetings and public hearings will be held at Hawaii 
Convention Center, Kalakaua Avenue, Honolulu, Hawaii, 96814; telephone 
(808)943-3500.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kitty M. Simonds, Executive Director; 
telephone: (808)522-8220.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In addition to the agenda items listed 
below, the Council will hear recommendations from its Scientific and 
Statistical Committee, and other ad hoc groups. Public comment periods 
will be provided throughout the agenda. The order in which agenda items 
are addressed may change. The Council will meet as late as necessary to 
complete scheduled business.

Schedule and Agenda for Council Standing Committee Meetings

Monday, March 22, 2004

    1. 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. Enforcement/Vessel Monitoring System (VMS)
    2. 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. Fishery rights of indigenous people
    3. 9 a.m. to 12 noon. International fisheries/pelagics
    4. 9 a.m. to 12 noon. Bottomfish
    5. 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. Ecosystem and habitat
    6. 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Crustaceans and precious corals
    7. 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. Executive/budget and program

Schedule and Agenda for Public Hearings

Tuesday, March 23, 2004

    11:45 a.m. Proposed regulatory amendment (final action) to Western 
Pacific Fishery Management Plans to allow fishermen the option of using 
NMFS approved electronic logbooks instead of paper logbooks.

Wednesday March 24, 2004

    11:45 a.m. Initial action on a regulatory amendment to implement 
additional measures to conserve sea turtles and initial action to amend 
the Fishery Management Plan for the Pelagic Fisheries of the Western 
Pacific Region (Pelagics FMP) to revise the requirements for seabird 
mitigation when fishing north of 23[deg] N' lat. to include side 
setting as an alternative to one or more of the current suite of 
seabird mitigation measures.

Thursday, March 25, 2004

    11:00 a.m. Preliminary options to manage the bottomfish fishery 
around the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). The 
agenda during the full Council meeting will include the items listed 
here.
    For more information on public hearing items, see Background 
Information.

Schedule and Agenda for Council Meeting

Tuesday, March 23, 2004

    9:00 a.m. and continue until business is completed.
    1. Introductions
    2. Approval of agenda
    3. Approval of 119th, 120th, and 121st Meeting Minutes
    4. Island reports of American Samoa, Guam, Hawaii and the CNMI
    5. Reports from fishery agencies and organizations
    A. Department of Commerce
    a. NMFS
    i. Pacific Islands Regional Office
    ii. Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center
    b. NOAA General Counsel Southwest Region
    c. National Ocean Service
    B. Department of Interior - Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)
    C. U.S. State Department
    6. Enforcement/VMS
    A. U.S. Coast Guard activities
    B. NMFS activities
    C. Enforcement activities of local agencies
    D. Status of violations
    E. National VMS program and policies
    F. Electronic logbook amendment
    7. Observer programs
    A. Report on Northwestern Hawaiian Island (NWHI) Bottomfish program
    B. Report on native observer program
    8. Precious coral fisheries
    A. Report on new beds in the NWHI
    B. Additional research on Carijoa riisei
    9. Crustacean fisheries
    A. Status of lobster research: Update on Multi-FAN CL lobster model
    10. Fishery rights of indigenous peoples
    A. Community demonstration projects program (2nd solicitation)
    B. Guam community monitoring program
    C. Fishing knowledge education program

Tuesday, March, 23 2004

    6:30 to 9:00 p.m. Fishers forum:
    1) Federal fishery data collection requirements for Hawaii coral 
reef and bottomfish fisheries.
    2) Solicitation of public comments on strategic plan for the 
Pacific Islands/Western Pacific Region.

Wednesday, March 24, 2004

    8:30 a.m. and continue until business is completed.
    11. Pelagics/international fisheries
    A. American Samoa and Hawaii longline quarterly reports
    a. Quarterly reports
    b. Southern albacore catch per unit effort in 2003
    B. Turtle management
    a. Regulatory amendment to implement new technologies for the 
Pelagics FMP (including an SEIS)
    b. Regulatory amendment to implement additional measures to 
conserve sea turtles (Action Item)
    c. Post-hooking mortality workshop
    d. Risk assessment seminar
    e. New Biological Opinion on pelagic fisheries
    f. Progress on turtle conservation projects
    C. Discussion of squid and seabird SEIS
    D. Seabird conservation
    a. Consideration of side-setting as an option (Action Item)
    E. Marlin management
    F. Private fish aggregation devices
    G. Shark management
    H. Marine mammal management
    I. International meetings
    a. Bellagio Conference: Conservation and Sustainable Multilateral 
Management of Sea Turtles in the Pacific Ocean
    b. 4th Interim Scientific Committee meeting
    c. Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission 4th Bycatch Working 
Group

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    d. Asia Region Seabird Bycatch Workshop
    e. 24th Sea Turtle Symposium
    f. Indian Ocean South East Asia Sea Turtle Conference

Thursday, March 25, 2004

    8:30 a.m. and continue until business is completed.
    12. Ecosystems and habitat
    A. Report on the Coral Reef Fish Stock Assessment Workshop
    B. NWHI sanctuary alternatives: rationale and criteria
    C. Review of Council Marine Protected Area Policy
    D. National Bycatch Implementation Plan
    13. Bottomfish fisheries
    A. Report on international deep-slope fishery workshop
    B. Seamount groundfish moratorium (expires 8/04)
    C. Report on Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory project
    D. Bottomfish Stock Assessment Workshop recommendations
    E. Preliminary CNMI bottomfish management options (Action Item)
    14. Program planning
    A. Regulatory streamlining
    B. Archipelago ecosystem-based management
    C. Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement
    D. Legislation
    E. Pacific Islands/Western Pacific Strategic Plan
    F. Programmatic grants report
    G. Council Chairs' and Executive Director's meeting
    H. Status of Hawaii $5 million disaster funds for Federal fisheries
    I. Annual report
    J. Federal fishery data collection
    K. WPacFIN
    15. Administrative matters
    A. Financial reports
    B. Administrative report
    C. Meetings and workshops
    D. Advisory group changes
    16. Other Business

Background Information

1. Public Hearing on electronic logbook amendment (Action Item)
    The Council will consider final action on a proposed regulatory 
amendment to Western Pacific Fishery Management Plans that would allow 
fishermen the option of using NMFS approved electronic logbook books 
instead of the Federal paper logbook forms that are now required. In 
its initial action, the Council recognized that the availability and 
capability of personal computers has increased to the point where using 
them to record fisheries dependent information can benefit Western 
Pacific fishery participants and NMFS. The benefits of electronic 
logbook forms include significant time savings for fishery 
participants, increased data accuracy, and time and money savings for 
NMFS.
    The alternatives considered in the draft regulatory amendment range 
from maintaining the current regulations, to requiring the use 
electronic logbook forms and requiring their transmission via e-mail or 
satellite systems. In recognition of the fact that not all fishery 
participants may have technology or desire to use electronic logbooks, 
the preferred alternative would amend the five Fishery Management Plans 
of the Western Pacific to allow the optional use of electronic logbook 
forms, and the submission of such forms on non-paper media or 
transmitted via e-mail or satellite systems. This option would be 
available to current participants in those fisheries with Federal 
reporting requirements (meaning fisheries in which participants submit 
Federal logbooks directly to NMFS) as well as those future participants 
in fisheries that may become subject to Federal reporting.
2. Regulatory amendment to implement additional measures to conserve 
sea turtles (Action Item)
    At its 121st meeting, the Council took action on long term measures 
to implement new technology to reduce and mitigate turtle-longline 
interactions in the Hawaii longline fishery. The Council took final 
action to recommend management measure to re-establish a limited (2,120 
sets annually) Hawaii-based shallow-set fishery using new technologies 
(circle hooks, mackerel-type bait, and dehookers) to reduce and 
mitigate sea turtle interactions. However, several additional issues 
remain unresolved and will be considered by the Council at this 
meeting. These issues arise out of the fact that a recent Court order 
will vacate the existing sea turtle conservation regulations effective 
April 1, 2004. It is anticipated that the Council's recommended 
management regime for the Hawaii-based fishery will be implemented on 
that date, however existing measures for other fisheries will not be 
replaced without further Council action. These include: (1) A 
requirement that operators of general longline vessels annually attend 
protected species workshops and carry workshop completion certificates 
with them when fishing; (2) a requirement that operators of general 
longline vessels carry and use dip nets, line clippers, and bolt 
cutters (longline vessels with less than 3' freeboard such as alias 
would not have to carry dip nets or long handled line clippers) to 
release hooked or entangled sea turtles; (3) a requirement that vessels 
registered to general longline permits do not shallow-set north of the 
equator. The Council will also consider whether the current turtle 
handling requirements for operators of non-longline vessels using hooks 
to fish for pelagic species in EEZ waters should be supplemented with a 
requirement to remove trailing gear from hooked or entangled sea 
turtles. The Council may consider taking initial action at this meeting 
to amend the Pelagics FMP to include some or all of these additional 
measures.
3. Consideration of side-setting as an option (Action Item)
    In November 2000, the USFWS issued a biological opinion (BiOp) 
which contained reasonable and prudent measures for minimizing 
interactions with albatross populations which nest in the NWHI. The 
BiOp recognized that the Hawaii-based longline fishery at that time 
comprised two segments, namely a deep-setting tuna-targeting segment, 
and a shallow-setting swordfish targeting segment. All longline vessels 
fishing above 23[deg] N' lat. were required to use thawed blue dyed 
bait and employ strategic offal discards when setting and hauling the 
longline. Vessels setting deep to catch tuna were also required to use 
a line setting machine with weighted branch lines. Vessels setting 
shallow to target swordfish were required to begin setting the longline 
at least 1 hour after local sunset and complete the setting process by 
local sunrise, using only the minimum vessel lights necessary. The 
Council amended the Pelagics FMP to require these measures and a final 
rule was published in May 2002. However, the final rule did not include 
a requirement for night setting due to an earlier closure of the 
swordfish segment of the Hawaii-based fishery in early 2001, under 
separate rule making in compliance with a March, 2001, BiOp issued by 
NMFS regarding sea turtles. The Council recently completed an amendment 
to the Pelagics FMP which will re-open the swordfish-targeting segment 
of the Hawaii longline fishery by April 2004, which includes the night 
setting requirement. During 2002 and 2003, additional seabird 
mitigation research field tests were conducted with underwater setting 
chutes, blue dyed bait and side setting. Side setting, as the term 
implies, means setting the longline from the side, rather than from the 
stern of the vessel. While all measures

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worked well, side setting was the only method which virtually reduced 
the interaction rate between longline and seabirds to zero. However, 
side setting is not included within the suite of measures required in 
the USFWS BiOp, nor in the regulations for the Hawaii-based fishery. 
The Council may therefore consider taking initial action at this 
meeting to amend the Pelagics FMP to revise the requirements for 
seabird mitigation when fishing north of 23[deg] N' lat. to allow side 
setting as an alternative to one or more of the current suite of 
seabird mitigation measure requirements.
4. Preliminary CNMI bottomfish management options (Action Item)
    A public hearing will be held on preliminary options to manage the 
bottomfish fishery around the CNMI. Based on comments received during 
public scoping meetings held in CNMI, the Council developed preliminary 
options including limiting the harvest of bottomfish, reporting 
requirements, establishing area closures, gear and vessel restrictions, 
and other control measures as suggested by persons during the scoping 
meetings. At its 122nd meeting, the Council may take initial action to 
support a range of alternatives, including selection of a preliminary 
preferred alternative, to be considered in an amendment to be drafted 
by Council staff.
    Although non-emergency issues not contained in this agenda may come 
before the Council for discussion, those issues may not be the subject 
of formal Council action during this meeting. Council action will be 
restricted to those issues specifically listed in this document and any 
issue arising after publication of this document that requires 
emergency action under section 305(c) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery 
Conservation and Management Act, provided the public has been notified 
of the Council's intent to take final action to address the emergency.

Special Accommodations

    These meetings are physically accessible to people with 
disabilities. Requests for sign language interpretation or other 
auxiliary aids should be directed to Kitty M. Simonds, (808)522-8220 
(voice) or (808)522-8226 (fax), at least 5 days prior to the meeting 
date.

    Authority: 1801 et seq.

    Dated: March 4, 2004.
Bruce C. Morehead,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 04-5291 Filed 3-9-04; 8:45 am]
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