[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 78 (Monday, April 24, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 20984-20986]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E6-6108]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

[I.D. 041806D]


Atlantic Striped Bass Conservation Act; Atlantic Striped Bass 
Fishery

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

ACTION:  Notice of scoping process; request for comments.

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SUMMARY:  Based on recommendations contained in Amendment 6 to Atlantic 
States Marine Fisheries Commission's (ASMFC) Interstate Fishery 
Management Plan for Atlantic Striped Bass (Amendment 6) and comments 
received from an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR), NMFS 
previously announced its intent to begin a scoping process to gather 
information for the preparation of an environmental impact statement 
(EIS). Initial scoping occurred during nine public hearings in 
November-December 2003. Due to the significant time that had passed 
since these initial scoping hearings, NMFS is seeking additional 
scoping on its preliminary draft analyses of Federal management options 
to open the EEZ to the harvest of Atlantic Striped Bass. The purpose of 
this notice is to alert the interested public of this further scoping 
process and to provide for public participation in compliance with 
environmental documentation requirements.

DATES: Comments on this notice must be received (see ADDRESSES) no 
later than 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on or before May 24, 2006.

ADDRESSES:  Written comments and requests for copies of the draft 
document should be sent to: Tom

[[Page 20985]]

Meyer, State-Federal Fisheries Division, Office of Sustainable 
Fisheries, NMFS, 1315 East West Highway, Room 13248, Silver Spring, MD 
20910. Mark the outside of the envelope ``Striped Bass Scoping.'' An 
electronic copy of the draft document and supporting documents (ANPR 
and a Notice of Intent to Prepare an EIS (NOI)) may also be obtained on 
the State-Federal Fisheries Division's website under Regulatory 
Activities at http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/sfa/state_federal/state_federal.htm. Comments may also be sent via fax to (301) 713-0596, or 
via e-mail to: [email protected]. Include in the subject 
line of the fax or e-mail the following document identifier: Striped 
Bass Scoping.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tom Meyer, telephone (301) 713-2334, 
x173.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    An ANPR was published in the Federal Register on July 21, 2003 (68 
FR 43074), with the comment period closing on August 20, 2003. The 
comment period was subsequently reopened on August 26, 2003 (68 FR 
51232) for an additional 30-days. NMFS announced that it was 
considering proposed rulemaking to revise Federal Atlantic striped bass 
regulations to be compatible with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries 
Commission's (ASMFC) Amendment 6 to the Interstate Fishery Management 
Plan for Atlantic Striped Bass (Amendment 6), and was seeking comments 
on the implementation of ASMFC's recommendations to the Secretary of 
Commerce (Secretary) to open the EEZ to the harvest of Atlantic striped 
bass. NMFS also solicited comments on possible alternative management 
measures and issues that NMFS should consider relative to these 
recommendations. After review of comments received from the public 
during the ANPR comment period, NMFS determined there were sufficient 
issues raised, both in support of and in opposition to the ASMFC 
recommendation, to warrant further evaluation of the potential impacts 
of opening the EEZ to striped bass fishing. That determination resulted 
in the initiation of a decision-making process required under the 
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). A ``Notice of intent to 
prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and notice of scoping 
process'' (NOI) was published in the Federal Register on October 20, 
2003 (68 FR 59906). The notice presented a summary of the ANPR 
comments, and requested further public input on a list of potential 
alternatives and other management measures. Public meetings were held 
in nine Atlantic coast states between November 5 - December 10, 2003, 
and public comment period closed on December 22, 2003. See ADDRESSES 
for information on how to obtain a copy of the ANPR or the NOI.
    Atlantic striped bass management is based on ASMFC's Atlantic 
Striped Bass Interstate Fishery Management Plan (ISFMP), first adopted 
in 1981. From 1981 - 1994, four ISFMP Amendments were developed that 
provided a series of management measures that led to the rebuilding of 
the stocks. In 1995, ASMFC declared the Atlantic striped bass 
population fully restored and implemented Amendment 5 to the ISFMP to 
perpetuate the stock so as to allow a commercial and recreational 
harvest consistent with the long-term maintenance of the striped bass 
stock. Since then the population has expanded to record levels of 
abundance. To maintain this recovered population, ASMFC approved 
Amendment 6 in February 2003 (copies of Amendment 6 are available via 
ASMFC's website under Interstate Fisheries Management-striped bass at 
http://www.asmfc.org). ASMFC believes that the measures contained in 
Amendment 6 are necessary to prevent the overfishing of the Atlantic 
striped bass resource while allowing growth in both the commercial and 
recreational fishery. Development of Amendment 6 took almost 4 years 
and involved extensive input from technical and industry advisors, and 
provided numerous opportunities for the public to comment on the future 
management of the species.
    Amendment 6 incorporates results of the 2001 Atlantic striped bass 
stock assessment, developed by the Atlantic Coast States, ASMFC, NMFS, 
and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (see section 1.2.2 of Amendment 
6 for summary). Amendment 6 also included recommendations to the 
Secretary on the development of complementary measures in the EEZ. 
Management of Atlantic striped bass in the EEZ was one of the issues 
that was considered throughout development of Amendment 6.

Recommendation to the Secretary

    In addition to the recommendations to the Secretary in Amendment 6, 
the Secretary also received a letter on April 24, 2003, from ASMFC with 
the following three recommendations for implementation of regulations 
in the EEZ: (1) Remove the moratorium on the harvest of Atlantic 
striped bass in the EEZ; (2) implement a 28-inch (71.1-cm) minimum size 
limit for recreational and commercial Atlantic striped bass fisheries 
in the EEZ; and (3) allow states the ability to adopt more restrictive 
rules for fishermen and vessels licensed in their jurisdictions.
    In support of its request, ASMFC cited a number of reasons, 
including: ASMFC declared the triped bass stock restored in 1995; 
commercial harvest is controlled by individual state quotas; with the 
EEZ closed striped bass caught there are required to be discarded, and 
are often dead when thrown back - Opening the EEZ will convert some of 
the discarded bycatch of striped bass to landings; and Amendment 6 
incorporates measures that would address future concerns about the 
stock status. See ADDRESSES for information on how to obtain a copy of 
the NOI, which has a complete list of ASMFC's cited reasons.
    ASMFC also stated that its Atlantic Striped Bass Technical 
Committee would monitor annually the Atlantic striped bass population, 
and, if at some point in the future ASMFC determines that the Atlantic 
striped bass population is overfished or that overfishing is occurring, 
it may recommend further management measures for the EEZ.

Delay in the Development of an EIS

    In September 2004, ASMFC's Striped Bass Technical Committee 
prepared its 2004 Stock Assessment Report for use by the Striped Bass 
Management Board (Board), which included data through 2003. That 
assessment contradicted previous assessments, which had indicated that 
the striped bass population was not overfished and continued to grow in 
abundance. Instead, the results of the modeling portion of the 2004 
assessment indicated that the stock was overfished and that spawning 
stock biomass had been reduced to below target levels. However, the 
members of the Technical Committee did not feel the assessment provided 
an accurate representation of stock status, especially given that 
results of tagging study analyses did not show a similar increase in 
fishing mortality. The Technical Committee was concerned with any 
conclusions that might be derived from these estimated and recommended 
the 2004 assessment results not be used for management decisions until 
both the modeling software and the input data sets were reevaluated 
during the 2005 assessment process. The results from the 2004 stock 
assessment have not been used by ASMFC for management decisions.
    With the great uncertainty in estimates of spawning stock biomass,

[[Page 20986]]

and fishing mortality rates during 2003, as presented in the 2004 stock 
assessment, NMFS decided to delay the completion of the EIS to be able 
to incorporate the 2005 stock assessment in the EIS.
    During 2005, the Technical Committee and Stock Assessment 
Subcommittee reviewed model inputs and the model itself to determine if 
the results from the 2004 assessment truly reflected status of the 
population or were an artifact of data or model errors. They concluded 
that a number of the indices used in the 2004 effort were not 
consistent with what was observed in the population as a whole, or were 
contradictory to the majority of other reliable time series. Those 
indices were removed from subsequent model runs. The Technical 
Committee believes the current assessment reflects the true status of 
the population (within reasonable ranges of certainty). Both the 2004 
and 2005 Striped Bass Stock Assessments are available on ASMFC's 
website under Interstate Fisheries Management-striped bass at http://www.asmfc.org.

Addendum I to Amendment 6

    During the development of Amendment 6, there were concerns over the 
impacts of bycatch mortality on the overall population. To address 
these concerns, ASMFC is currently developing Addendum 1 to Amendment 6 
to increase the accuracy of data on striped bass bycatch in all sectors 
of the striped bass fishery. Addendum I will outline mandatory data 
collection and bycatch mortality studies for the commercial, 
recreational, and for-hire fisheries for striped bass.

Further Public Participation

    Due to the significant time that has passed since the nine initial 
scoping hearings were held in November-December 2003, NMFS is seeking 
additional scoping on its preliminary draft analyses of Federal 
management options to open the EEZ to the harvest of Atlantic Striped 
Bass. See ADDRESSES for information on how to obtain a copy of the 
draft document and where to send comments.
    At this time, a preferred option has not been identified. Options 
being considered in this draft document include: (1) Open the entire 
EEZ, implement a 28-inch (71.1-cm) minimum size limit, and allow states 
to adopt more restrictive regulations for fishermen and vessels 
licensed in their state (ASMFC recommendation); (2) open the entire 
EEZ, implement a 28-inch (71.1-cm) minimum size limit, allow states to 
adopt more restrictive regulations for fishermen and vessels licensed 
in their state, implement a recreational bag limit of 2 fish per day, 
require circle hooks for all commercial and recreational hook and line 
fishing using bait, and commercial trip limits and bycatch trip limit 
options; (3) open the entire EEZ, implement a 28-inch (71.1-cm) minimum 
size limit, allow states to adopt more restrictive regulations for 
fishermen and vessels licensed in their state, allow hook and line gear 
only, implement a recreational bag limit of 2 fish per day, require 
circle hooks for all commercial and recreational hook and line fishing 
using bait, and implement a commercial trip limit of 30 fish per trip 
or day whichever is greater; and (4) status quo - maintain moratorium 
in EEZ.

    Authority: 16 U.S.C. 5151 et seq.

    Dated: April 19, 2006.
James P. Burgess,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. E6-6108 Filed 4-21-06; 8:45 am]
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