[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 26 (Wednesday, February 8, 2006)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 6442-6444]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E6-1726]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 679

[Docket No. 060127018-6018-01; I.D. 012506E]
RIN 0648-AR96


Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Control Date 
for the Charter Sport Fishery for Pacific Halibut

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

ACTION: Advance notice of proposed rulemaking; control date.

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SUMMARY: This notice announces that anyone entering the charter sport 
fishery for Pacific halibut in and off Alaska after December 9, 2005 
(control date) will not be assured of future access to that fishery if 
a management regime that limits the number of participants is developed 
and implemented under the authority of the Northern Pacific Halibut Act 
of 1982 (Halibut Act). This notice is necessary to publish the intent 
of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) that 
participation credit may not be granted for operating in the charter 
halibut fishery if initial entry into the fishery occurs after the 
control date. This notice is intended to promote public awareness of a 
potential eligibility criterion for future access to the charter 
halibut resource, and to discourage new entrants into the charter 
halibut fishery while the Council discusses whether and how access to 
the halibut resource by the charter sport fishery should be controlled. 
This announcement does not prevent any other date for eligibility in 
the fishery or another method of controlling fishing effort from being 
proposed and implemented.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jay Ginter at (907)586-7228 or 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Fishing for Pacific halibut (Hippoglossus 
stenolepis) is managed by the International Pacific Halibut Commission 
(IPHC) and NMFS under the authority of the Halibut Act (16 U.S.C. 773 - 
773k). The IPHC is authorized by the Convention of the United States 
and Canada for the Preservation of the Halibut Fishery in the North 
Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea (Convention) to promulgate regulations for 
the conservation and management of the Pacific halibut fishery. 
Commission regulations are published as annual management measures 
pursuant to 50 CFR 300.62. Section 773c of the Halibut Act provides the 
U.S. Secretary of Commerce (Secretary) with general responsibility to 
carry out the Convention, and requires the Secretary to adopt such 
regulations as may be necessary to carry out the purposes and 
objectives of the Convention and the Halibut Act. The Secretary's 
authority has been delegated to the Assistant Administrator for 
Fisheries, NOAA. Additional management regulations that are in addition 
to and not in conflict with regulations adopted by the IPHC may be 
recommended by the Council and implemented by the Secretary through 
NMFS to allocate harvesting privileges among U.S. fishermen (section 
773c(c)).
    In the early 1990s, the rapid growth of the guided recreational (or 
charter) halibut fishery fleet led to increased concerns that 
unrestrained catch by the charter fishery would result in smaller 
allocations of halibut resources to the commercial sector. Accordingly, 
in 1993, the Council created a Halibut Charter Working Group (Work 
Group) and directed it to examine potential management alternatives for 
the charter halibut fishery and to develop suitable elements and 
options for a regional or statewide moratorium on the entry of new 
charter vessels into the fishery.
    Later that year, the Work Group presented various management 
options to the Council for consideration and the Council announced a 
control date of September 23, 1993, as the last day to qualify for a 
potential moratorium. The Council deferred further action on the issue 
until January 1995 because of staffing priorities. In January 1995, the 
Council reviewed the Work Group's findings, received public testimony, 
developed a problem statement, and discussed development of 
alternatives for managing harvests of halibut by the charter fishery. 
Again, staffing priorities and lack of funding for adequate research 
delayed formal analysis of the management alternatives until 1996.
    In June 1996, the Council narrowed the scope of potential 
management alternatives by eliminating consideration of the unguided 
sport fishery and focusing alternatives exclusively on the guided 
segment of the halibut sport fishery, which includes lodges, 
outfitters, and charter vessel guides. The Council also reviewed the 
possibility of allowing charter vessel owners and operators to purchase 
or lease IFQ in the existing commercial halibut IFQ Program. The 
specific alternatives considered were: (1) status quo; (2) Federal 
reporting requirements; (3) annual allocation of the total allowable 
catch between guided sport and commercial fisheries and a moratorium on 
new entries into the charter sport fishery for Pacific halibut; and (4) 
purchase by the charter industry of halibut IFQ from the commercial 
fishery if the cap in (3) were exceeded by the charter halibut fishery.
    In September 1997, the Council recommended that charter halibut 
harvests be managed under guideline harvest levels (GHLs) in IPHC 
statistical areas 2C (Southeast Alaska) and 3A (Southcentral Alaska). 
The Council envisioned GHLs as an initial step towards developing a 
management strategy that would limit charter halibut harvests while 
maintaining the historic length of the charter season and allowing 
growth in the charter halibut fishery. The GHL defines the level of 
harvests permissible in the charter halibut fishery without further 
reallocating halibut from the commercial sector; however, the GHL does 
not constrain harvests by itself. To limit harvests to the GHL, the 
Council recommended that NMFS implement one of several optional 
measures to constrain future halibut harvest if the end-of-season 
harvest data indicated

[[Page 6443]]

that the charter sector had reached or exceeded its area specific GHL.
    In November 1997, NMFS informed the Council that regulations 
implementing the GHL could not be published unless they included a more 
specific, non-discretionary system for constraining harvests in the 
event the harvest limits were met or exceeded. In December 1997, the 
Council created a GHL Committee to identify and recommend such a 
system. The GHL Committee convened three times in 1998 and 1999 and 
produced a suite of management measure alternatives for the Council's 
consideration; including setting a new control date of June 24, 1998, 
for entry into the charter sport fishery for Pacific halibut (63 FR 
34356, June 24, 1998). In February 2000, the Council recommended a 
redefined GHL and, for constraining harvests in a timely manner after 
the GHL is exceeded, a framework system of management measures to be 
implemented by notification in the Federal Register without NMFS 
discretion and without prior notice-and-comment rulemaking. NMFS 
proposed regulations that would implement the GHL framework system on 
January, 28, 2002 (67 FR 3867).
    NMFS again notified the Council that its GHL framework could not be 
approved as recommended. Given the potential impacts of the management 
measures recommended by the Council, those measures could not be 
implemented by publishing a notification in the Federal Register, but 
would need to provide opportunity for public comment on specific 
regulatory measures as required by the Administrative Procedure Act 
(APA). NMFS suggested that the Council consider an alternative that 
would require a letter of notification from NMFS to the Council when a 
GHL is reached. The Council would then initiate an analysis to 
recommend harvest restrictions, which NMFS would publish as a proposed 
rule and invite public comment consistent with the APA. The Council 
accepted this suggested alternative and submitted it for Secretarial 
review. A final rule implementing this alternative GHL system was 
published August 8, 2003 (68 FR 47256). More information on the GHL may 
be found in the preamble to the proposed rule published on January 28, 
2002 (67 FR 3867).
    Concurrent with the adoption of the GHL Program in February 2000, 
the Council initiated an analysis for integrating the charter halibut 
fishery into the existing commercial halibut IFQ Program. To develop 
alternatives for analysis, the Council created a Halibut Charter IFQ 
Committee comprised of representative charter operators, sport anglers, 
and commercial fishermen. The Council determined that participation in 
the charter halibut fishery would be based on catches reported in 1998 
and 1999 in logbooks required by the State of Alaska. In addition, the 
Council decided not to proceed with a moratorium on entry into the 
charter fishery, but rather determined that a charter IFQ Program 
should replace GHL management of the fishery. The Council also removed 
lodges and outfitters from its problem statement, thus limiting 
analysis to guided charter vessels.
    In April 2000, the Council adopted a problem statement that noted 
that although the GHL is intended to stop the open-ended reallocation 
from the commercial to the charter sector, overcapitalization within 
the charter halibut fleet may continue to have a negative impact on 
charter vessel operators and anglers. The problem statement noted also 
that this concern could be addressed by a quota-based management such 
as an IFQ Program.
    During its review in February 2001, the Council refined its 
alternatives for analysis to include: (1) status quo, (2) incorporate 
the charter halibut fishery into the existing IFQ Program, and (3) 
establish a moratorium in the charter halibut fishery in Areas 2C and 
3A. Also in February 2001, the Council revised the problem statement 
that it had previously adopted in April 2000.
    In April 2001, the Council adopted its preferred alternative that 
incorporated the charter sector into the existing commercial halibut 
IFQ Program. Under the preferred alternative, quota share would be 
issued only to a person who owned or leased a charter vessel that 
transported guided clients who caught halibut during 1998 or 1999 from 
IPHC regulatory areas 2C or 3A. In June 2001, the State of Alaska 
representative on the Council notified the Council of the State's plan 
to move to rescind the Council's April 2001 action recommending a 
charter halibut IFQ Program. At the next Council meeting in October 
2001, a motion to rescind that program failed.
    During the next several years, NMFS developed the proposed 
regulation and implementation plan for the recommended charter halibut 
IFQ Program. On August 3, 2005, the Assistant Administrator for 
Fisheries sent a letter to the Council in which NMFS requested that the 
Council confirm its support for the 2001 decision to incorporate the 
charter sector into the commercial halibut IFQ Program before NMFS 
published the proposed rule in the Federal Register. At its October 
2005 meeting, after receiving public testimony about the proposed 
charter halibut IFQ Program, the Council indicated its concern for the 
lengthy process, but neither confirmed nor denied its continued support 
of the proposed charter halibut IFQ Program. Also at the October 2005 
meeting, a Council member announced that he would move to rescind the 
charter halibut IFQ Program at the December 2005 meeting of the 
Council.
    In December 2005, the Council adopted a motion to amend its April 
2001 action recommending a charter halibut IFQ Program. The preamble to 
the motion cited the following concerns about the time delay in 
implementing the charter halibut IFQ: ``a lengthy delay in enacting 
this program has resulted in a large number of current participants 
that do not qualify for quota share. This has resulted in controversy 
and a lack of broad support for the program as well as potential legal 
vulnerabilities.'' In light of these concerns, the Council decided to 
form a stakeholder working group comprised of representatives of 
affected groups. The working group is responsible for developing 
alternatives that provide for the long-term management of the charter 
halibut fishery. Because these management alternatives may limit access 
to the charter halibut fishery, the Council set a control date of 
December 9, 2005, after which charter operators entering the charter 
halibut fishery will not necessarily be assured access to the halibut 
resource.
    The Council and NMFS intend, in making this announcement, to 
discourage speculative entry into the charter sport fishery for Pacific 
halibut in convention waters off Alaska while potential entry or access 
control management measures are developed by the Council. The control 
date will help distinguish established participants from speculative 
entrants into the fishery. Although participants are notified that 
entering the charter sport fishery for Pacific halibut after the 
control date will not assure them of future access to the fishery based 
on participation, additional or other qualifying criteria may be 
applied. The Council may choose different and variably weighted methods 
to qualify participants based on the type and length of participation 
in the fishery or other methods of determining economic dependence on 
the fishery. For the purpose of this announcement, a person in the 
halibut charter fishery means the owner or operator of a vessel that 
carries passengers for hire to engage in

[[Page 6444]]

recreational fishing for Pacific halibut in convention waters off 
Alaska.
    This announcement establishes December 9, 2005, as such a control 
date for determining historical or traditional participation in the 
charter sport fishery for halibut. This action does not commit the 
Council or Secretary to any particular management regime or criteria 
for entry to the charter halibut fishery. Charter vessel operators are 
not guaranteed future participation in the charter halibut fishery 
regardless of their date of entry or intensity of participation in the 
fishery before or after the control date. The Council may choose a 
different control date, or it may choose a management regime that does 
not make use of such a date. Finally, the Council may choose to take no 
further action to control entry or access to the charter halibut 
fishery.

Classification

    This advance notice of proposed rulemaking has been determined to 
be not significant for the purposes of Executive Order 12866.

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

    Dated: February 2, 2006.
John Oliver,
Deputy Assistant Administrator for Operations, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. E6-1726 Filed 2-7-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-S