[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 90 (Wednesday, May 10, 2006)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 27209-27210]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 06-4358]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 600

[Docket No. 050520139-6102-04; I.D. 030305A]
RIN 0648-AS46


Magnuson-Stevens Act Provisions; Fishing Capacity Reduction 
Program; Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands King and Tanner Crabs; Industry 
Fee System for Fishing Capacity Reduction Loan

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

ACTION: Final rule.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: NMFS publishes this final rule to exempt any crab landed under 
the Community Development Quota (CDQ) Program from the fee regulations 
for the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands King and Tanner Crab Fishing 
Capacity Reduction Program, to provide that crab buyers disburse fee 
collections to NMFS not later than the 7th calendar day of each month, 
and to provide that the annual report from each crab buyer shall be 
submitted to NMFS by July 1 of each calendar year. The fee regulations 
otherwise remain unchanged. The intent of this final rule is to modify 
the fee rules so that they do not apply to any crab allocated pursuant 
to the CDQ Program, and to ease the fee collection burden for crab 
buyers.

DATES: This final rule is effective June 9, 2006.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael A. Sturtevant, Financial 
Services Division, NMFS headquarters, at 301-713-2390.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Electronic Access

    This Federal Register document is also accessible via the Internet 
at the Office of the Federal Register's website at http://www.access.gpo.gov/su-docs/aces/aces140.html.

Background

    Sections 312(b)-(e) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation 
and Management Act (16 U.S.C. 1861a(b) through (e)) generally 
authorized fishing capacity reduction programs. In particular, section 
312(d) authorized industry fee systems for repaying the reduction loans 
which finance reduction program costs.
    Subpart L of 50 CFR part 600 is the framework rule generally 
implementing sections 312(b)-(e).
    Sections 1111 and 1112 of the Merchant Marine Act, 1936 (46 App. 
U.S.C. 1279f and 1279g) generally authorized reduction loans.
    The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2001 (Public Law 106-554) 
directed the Secretary of Commerce to establish a $100 million fishing 
capacity reduction program in the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands king and 
Tanner crab fishery. Congress amended the authorizing act twice (Public 
Law 107-20 and Public Law 107-117), once to change the crab reduction 
program's funding from a $50 million appropriation and a $50 million 
loan to a $100 million loan and once to clarify provisions about crab 
fishery vessels.
    NMFS published the crab reduction program's proposed implementation 
rule on December 12, 2002 (67 FR 76329) and its final rule on December 
12, 2003 (68 FR 69331). Anyone interested in the program's full 
implementation details should refer to these two documents. NMFS 
initially proposed and adopted the program's implementation rule as 
section 600.1018 of Subpart L of 50 CFR part 600, but NMFS has since, 
without other change, re-designated the rule as section 600.1103 in a 
new subpart M of part 600.
    NMFS allocated the prospective $97,399,357.11 million reduction 
loan to the six reduction endorsement fisheries involved, as the 
following sub-amounts:
    1. Bristol Bay red king, $17,129,957.23,
    2. BSAI C. opilio and C. bairdi, $66,410,767.20,
    3. Aleutian Islands brown king, $6,380,837.19,
    4. Aleutian Islands red king, $237,588.04,
    5. Pribilof red king and blue king, $1,571,216.35, and
    6. St. Matthew blue king, $5,668,991.10.
    On November 24, 2004, NMFS published another Federal Register 
notice (69 FR 68313) advising the public that NMFS would, beginning on 
December 27, 2004, tender the crab reduction program's reduction 
payments to the 25 accepted bidders. On December 27, 2004, NMFS 
required all accepted bidders to then permanently stop all further 
fishing with the reduction vessels and permits.
    Subsequently, NMFS:
    1. Disbursed $97,399,357.11 in reduction payments to 25 accepted 
bidders;
    2. Revoked the relinquished reduction permits;
    3. Revoked each reduction vessel's fishing history;
    4. Notified the National Vessel Documentation Center to revoke the 
reduction vessels' fishery trade endorsements and appropriately 
annotate the reduction vessel's document; and
    5. Notified the U.S. Maritime Administration to prohibit the 
reduction vessel's transfer to foreign ownership or registry.
    On July 28, 2005, NMFS published a Federal Register document (70 FR 
43673) proposing regulations to implement the crab buyback program's 
industry fee system.
    On September 16, 2005, NMFS published a Federal Register document 
(70 FR 54652) implementing the crab buyback program's industry fee 
system regulations. Fee collection and payment began on October 17, 
2005.
    On March 1, 2006, NMFS published a Federal Register document (71 FR 
10459) proposing to exempt any crab landed by the recipients of the CDQ 
allocations from the fee regulations because they did not vote in the 
crab buyback program's fee referendum and NMFS did not include the ex-
vessel value of crab landed under the CDQ allocations in the required 
formula for establishing the reduction loan sub-amounts for whose 
repayment the reduction fishery was responsible. The recipients of the 
CDQ allocations do not directly benefit from the crab buyback.
    In addition, NMFS was informed by crab buyers that requiring fee 
principal disbursement to NMFS on the last business day of the month 
presents problems in properly accounting for crab landings in a timely 
fashion. Crab buyers are unable to complete their accounting process 
prior to the end of that business day. Therefore, in order to allow 
crab buyers sufficient time to disburse fee principal, NMFS proposed 
that deposit principal disbursement shall be made to NMFS not later 
than the 7th calendar day of each month.
    NMFS also proposed that the annual report from each crab buyer 
shall be

[[Page 27210]]

submitted to NMFS by July 1 of each calendar year. This should allow 
ample time for the State of Alaska to publish average crab price data 
for the previous calendar year.
    In this final rule, NMFS adopts the proposed provisions without 
change.

Summary of Comments and Responses

    NMFS received one comment from an attorney representing the six CDQ 
groups as well as individual comments from each of the six CDQ groups.
    Comment 1: Four of the comments agreed with the proposed rule. 
However, they asserted that NMFS wrongfully interpreted the program's 
enabling legislation to include CDQ crab.
    Response: NMFS did not assert in the proposed rule that it was 
taking this action due to an incorrect interpretation of the program's 
enabling legislation. NMFS determined that the regulations should be 
changed because participants of the CDQ program did not vote in the 
crab buyback program's fee referendum and NMFS did not include the ex-
vessel value of crab landed under the CDQ allocations in the required 
formula for establishing the reduction loan sub-amounts for whose 
repayment the reduction fishery was responsible.
    Comment 2: All of the seven comments strongly agree and support the 
exclusion of CDQ crab allocations from the definition of reduction 
fishery.
    Response: NMFS concurs and accordingly publishes this final rule.
    Comment 3: All of the comments requested that all fee collections 
from CDQ allocations be repaid to the CDQ groups and that NMFS 
interpret the rule as retroactive to the effective date.
    Response: NMFS determined that CDQ landings should not be subject 
to the buyback fees and is amending the regulations accordingly. NMFS 
will issue full refunds to crab buyers of any fees paid on CDQ crab 
landings.
    Comment 4: Four of the comments requested that interest be repaid 
on all fee collections from CDQ allocations.
    Response: NMFS has no legal authority or appropriated funding for 
the payment of interest. Therefore, NMFS is unable to pay interest on 
the fees collected from CDQ allocations.

Classification

    The Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, NOAA (AA), has 
determined that this final rule is consistent with the Magnuson-Stevens 
Act and other applicable laws.
    This final rule has been determined to be not significant for 
purposes of Executive Order 12866.
    NMFS has certified to the Small Business Administration, under 
Section 605(b) of the Regulatory Flexibility Act, that this final rule 
would not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of 
small entities.
    There are currently six CDQ groups that receive CDQ crab 
allocations and participate in the BSAI crab fisheries. This final rule 
revises the regulations to expressly exclude the recipients of the CDQ 
allocations from the crab buyback program's fee collection system. The 
CDQ groups allocations did not vote in the crab buyback program's fee 
referendum and NMFS did not include the ex-vessel value of crab landed 
under the CDQ allocations for establishing the reduction loan sub-
amounts.
    The total fee to be collected for any given year is calculated 
based on a formula using projected landings, the interest rate, and the 
amortization schedule, and it is calculated in advance for the entire 
year. In determining the annual fee, the contributions from recipients 
of the CDQ allocations were not considered in the calculation. The 
collection of fees on CDQ crab landings would result in the repayment 
of fees above what was expected for this year. As a result of the 
additional revenue, the buyback loan would be repaid slightly earlier 
than expected and would result in a slight decrease in the overall 
amount of interest accrued on the loan. Removal of the CDQ landings 
from the fee assessment would not have a negative impact on the 
expectations of the remaining BSAI crab harvesters since they were not 
expecting fee payments from the CDQ landings based on the fee 
calculations provided by NMFS. Furthermore, the contributions from CDQ 
landings are relatively small compared to the overall reduction loan 
amount. The contributions from the CDQ crab landings would represent 10 
percent of the total reduction loan amount. This final rule is 
necessary to ensure that recipients of CDQ crab are excluded from the 
requirement to pay fees on their BSAI crab landings. The six CDQ groups 
would be positively affected by this final rule.

List of Subjects in 50 CFR Part 600

    Fisheries, Fishing capacity reduction, Fishing permits, Fishing 
vessels.

    Dated: May 4, 2006.
James W. Balsiger,
Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Programs, National 
Marine Fisheries Service.

0
For the reasons set out in the preamble, 50 CFR part 600 is amended as 
follows:

PART 600--MAGNUSON-STEVENS ACT PROVISIONS

0
1. The authority citation for part 600, subpart M, continues to read as 
follows:

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

0
2. In Sec.  600.1104, paragraph (b), the definition of ``Reduction 
fishery'' is revised and paragraph (h)(4) is revised to read as 
follows:


Sec.  600.1104  Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) crab species fee 
payment and collection system.

* * * * *
    (b) * * *
    Reduction fishery means the fishery for all crab rationalization 
crab, excluding CDQ allocations, in all crab rationalization fisheries.
* * * * *
    (h) * * *
    (4) Fish buyers in each reduction endorsement fishery shall in 
accordance with Sec.  600.1014, deposit and disburse, as well as keep 
records for and submit reports about, the fees applicable to each such 
fishery; except the requirements specified under paragraph (c) of this 
section concerning the deposit principal disbursement shall be made to 
NMFS not later than the 7th calendar day of each month; and the 
requirements specified under paragraph (e) of this section concerning 
annual reports which shall be submitted to NMFS by July 1 of each 
calendar year; and,
* * * * *
[FR Doc. 06-4358 Filed 5-9-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-S