[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 43 (Monday, March 7, 2005)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 10931-10933]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-4375]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 622

[I.D. 030105E]
RIN 0648-AS16


Fisheries of the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and South Atlantic; 
Shrimp Fishery of the South Atlantic Region; Amendment 6

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

ACTION: Notice of availability of Amendment 6 to the Fishery Management 
Plan for the Shrimp Fishery of the South Atlantic Region (FMP); request 
for comments.

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SUMMARY: NMFS announces that the South Atlantic Fishery Management 
Council (Council) has submitted Amendment 6 to the FMP for review, 
approval, and implementation by NMFS. Amendment 6 would modify the 
FMP's bycatch reduction device (BRD) framework by transferring 
authority from the Council to NMFS for the BRD testing protocol and by 
modifying the bycatch reduction criteria established in the BRD 
framework; require the use of BRDs in the rock shrimp fishery in the 
exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the South Atlantic; establish bycatch 
reporting requirements for the shrimp fishery of the South Atlantic 
EEZ; require that all shrimp vessels harvesting penaeid shrimp in the 
South Atlantic EEZ obtain an annually renewable Federal shrimp vessel 
permit from NMFS; and establish or modify stock status criteria for 
white, brown, pink, and rock shrimp. The intended effect of Amendment 6 
is to enhance the ecological efficiency of the shrimp fishery of the 
South Atlantic EEZ by better identifying the bycatch taken in the 
fishery and conserving those species found in the bycatch, while 
sustaining the viability of the shrimp fishery with

[[Page 10932]]

a minimum of economic and social impacts.

DATES: Written comments must be received no later than 5 p.m., eastern 
time, on May 6, 2005.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods:
     E-mail: [email protected]. Include in the subject 
line the following document identifier: 0648-AS16-NOA.
     Federal e-Rulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. 
Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
     Mail: Steve Branstetter, Southeast Regional Office, NMFS, 
9721 Executive Center Drive N., St. Petersburg, FL 33702.
     Fax: From March 7, 2005 through March 17, 2005, 727-570-
5583. From March 22, 2005 through May 6, 2005, 727-824-5308. Comments 
cannot be received via fax from March 18 through March 21, 2005.
    Copies of Amendment 6, which includes a Supplemental Environmental 
Impact Statement, a Regulatory Impact Review (RIR), and an Initial 
Regulatory Flexibility Analysis (IRFA), are available from the South 
Atlantic Fishery Management Council, 1 Southpark Circle, Suite 306, 
Charleston, SC 29407-4699; phone: 843-571-4366; fax: 843-769-4520; toll 
free: 866-SAFMC-10; email: [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Steve Branstetter, 727-570-5305; 
fax 727-570-5583; e-mail: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation 
and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act) requires each Regional 
Fishery Management Council to submit any fishery management plan or 
amendment to NMFS for review and approval, disapproval, or partial 
approval. The Magnuson-Stevens Act also requires that NMFS, upon 
receiving a plan or amendment, publish an announcement in the Federal 
Register notifying the public that the plan or amendment is available 
for review and comment.
    Amendment 6, if implemented, would establish a requirement for 
penaeid shrimp vessels fishing in the South Atlantic EEZ to possess a 
Federal commercial vessel permit for South Atlantic penaeid shrimp. 
Currently, there are limited data available to estimate the number of 
shrimp fishing vessels and fishing effort expended by those vessels in 
the South Atlantic EEZ. In proposing this action, the Council concluded 
that information collected via a Federal permit system would aid in the 
formulation of sound management measures. Indirectly, in combination 
with the proposed standardized bycatch reporting methodology (see 
below), better information can be collected by which to manage those 
species that are taken as bycatch in the shrimp fishery.
    Amendment 6 contains proposed measures to require vessels 
participating in the rock shrimp fishery in the South Atlantic EEZ to 
use NMFS-certified BRDs. This action would address the requirements of 
National Standard 9 of the Magnuson-Stevens Act to (A) minimize bycatch 
and (B) to the extent bycatch cannot be avoided, minimize the mortality 
of such bycatch, to the extent practicable. The proposed action also 
supports the Council's efforts to achieve an ecosystem approach in 
fisheries management.
    Amendment 6, if implemented, also would establish a method to 
regularly monitor, report, and estimate the bycatch in the shrimp 
fishery of the South Atlantic region, in compliance with section 
303(a)(11) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act. Section 303(a)(11) states that 
any FMP that is prepared by any Council, or by the Secretary of 
Commerce, with respect to any fishery, shall ``establish a standardized 
reporting methodology to assess the amount and type of bycatch 
occurring in the fishery....'' To support this mandate, the National 
Standard Guidelines call for development of a database for each fishery 
in order to house bycatch and bycatch mortality information. The 
Council proposes to adopt the Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics 
Program Release, Discard, and Protected Species Module to house bycatch 
and bycatch mortality information. Until this module is fully 
implemented and active, the Council proposes to use a variety of 
sources to assess and monitor bycatch including observer coverage and 
logbooks aboard Federally permitted commercial shrimp vessels, state 
cooperative data collection, and grant funded projects.
    Amendment 6 proposes to modify the BRD framework procedure, as 
established in the Shrimp FMP, giving NMFS the authority to maintain 
and modify the BRD Testing Protocol as necessary. The BRD framework was 
established in Amendment 2 to the Shrimp FMP and outlines the 
procedures by which an experimental BRD is to be tested for its ability 
to reduce bycatch in a shrimp trawl. The intent of this action is to 
reduce the administrative burden associated with potential revisions of 
the BRD Testing Protocol and to achieve more timely implementation of 
any such revisions.
    Relatedly, to more effectively address bycatch reduction, the 
Council is proposing to adjust the criteria for the certification of 
new BRDs established in the BRD framework. Amendment 2's BRD framework 
established criteria by which experimental BRDs would be certified for 
use in the South Atlantic penaeid shrimp fishery. Currently, a BRD is 
certified if the BRD can be statistically demonstrated to reduce 
bycatch mortality of juvenile Spanish mackerel and weakfish by a 
minimum of 50 percent or if it demonstrates a 40-percent reduction in 
numbers of Spanish mackerel and weakfish. When these criteria were 
established, both species were considered overfished. Spanish mackerel 
now is completely recovered, and weakfish is no longer overfished. In 
addition, sampling for these species has proved to be impractical 
because it is difficult to encounter Spanish mackerel and weakfish 
simultaneously while testing BRDs.
    To better address the requirements of National Standard 9, the 
Council is proposing to change the certification criteria to a general 
finfish reduction requirement. The Council is proposing that for a new 
BRD to be certified for use in the shrimp fishery, it must be 
statistically demonstrated that the BRD can reduce the total weight of 
finfish catch by at least 30 percent. This broader bycatch reduction 
objective would support the Council's efforts to achieve an ecosystem 
approach in fisheries management.
    Finally, to better comply with the Magnuson-Stevens Act 
requirements, the Council is proposing to establish or modify the 
current stock status criteria established for white, brown, pink, and 
rock shrimp. The Magnuson-Stevens Act requires that each FMP define 
reference points in the form of maximum sustainable yield (MSY) and 
optimum yield (OY), and specify objective and measurable criteria for 
identifying when the fishery is overfished and/or undergoing 
overfishing. Status determination criteria include a minimum stock size 
threshold (MSST) to indicate when a stock is overfished, and a maximum 
fishing mortality threshold (MFMT) to indicate when a stock is 
undergoing overfishing. Together, these four parameters (MSY, OY, MSST, 
and MFMT) provide fishery managers with the tools to determine the 
status of a fishery at any given time and assess whether management 
measures are achieving established goals. In the Council's 1998 
comprehensive amendment to the FMP that addressed SFA definitions, the 
Council concluded

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its established definitions were consistent with the best available 
scientific information at the time. Based on more recent information, 
the Council is proposing to either modify existing criteria or to 
establish new criteria.
    A proposed rule that would implement measures outlined in Amendment 
6 has been received from the Council. In accordance with the Magnuson-
Stevens Act, NMFS is evaluating the proposed rule to determine whether 
it is consistent with the FMP, the Magnuson-Stevens Act, and other 
applicable law. If that determination is affirmative, NMFS will publish 
the proposed rule in the Federal Register for public review and 
comment.
    Comments received by May 6, 2005, whether specifically directed to 
the amendment or the proposed rule, will be considered by NMFS in its 
decision to approve, disapprove, or partially approve the amendment. 
Comments received after that date will not be considered by NMFS in 
this decision. All comments received by NMFS on the amendment or the 
proposed rule during their respective comment periods will be addressed 
in the final rule.

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

    Dated: March 2, 2005.
Alan D. Risenhoover,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 05-4375 Filed 3-4-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-S