[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 204 (Friday, October 23, 2009)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 54773-54775]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-25546]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 648

RIN 0648-AW72


Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act 
Provisions; Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Northeast (NE) 
Multispecies Fishery; Amendment 16

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

ACTION: Notice of availability of a fishery management plan amendment; 
request for comments.

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SUMMARY: NMFS announces that the New England Fishery Management Council 
(Council) has submitted Amdnement 16 to the NE Multispecies Fishery 
Management Plan (FMP) and its associated draft Final Environmental 
Impact Statement (FEIS) for Secretarial review and is requesting 
comments from the public. Amendment 16 was developed by the Council as 
part of the biennial adjustment process in the FMP to update status 
determination criteria for all regulated NE multispecies or ocean pout 
stocks; to adopt rebuilding programs for NE multispecies stocks newly 
classified as being overfished and subject to overfishing; and to 
revise management measures, including significant revisions to the 
Sector management and allocation measures, necessary to end 
overfishing, rebuild overfished regulated NE multispecies or ocean pout 
stocks, and mitigate the adverse economic impacts of increased effort 
controls. Amendment 16 would also implement new requirements for 
establishing allowable biological catch (ABC), annual catch limits 
(ACLs), and accountability measures (AMs) for each stock managed by the 
FMP, pursuant to the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and 
Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act). Finally, this action would add 
Atlantic wolffish to the list of species managed by the FMP. This 
action is necessary to address the results of the most recent stock 
assessment, which indicate that several additional NE multispecies 
regulated species are overfished and subject to overfishing and that 
some stocks currently classified as overfished require additional 
reductions in fishing mortality to rebuild by the end of their 
rebuilding periods.

[[Page 54774]]


DATES: Comments must be received on or before December 22, 2009.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by 0648-AW72, by any of 
the following methods:
     Email: [email protected]. Include in the subject line 
RIN or text that identifies the subject Federal Register document open 
for comment.
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.
     Fax: (978) 281-9135, Attn: Douglas Christel.
     Mail or hand-delivery: Paper, disk, or CD-ROM comments 
should be sent to Patricia A. Kurkul, Regional Administrator, National 
Marine Fisheries Service, 55 Great Republic Drive, Gloucester, MA 
01930. Mark the outside of the envelope, ``Comments on the NE 
Multispecies Amendment 16 FEIS.''
    Instructions: All comments received are part of the public record 
and will generally be posted to http://regulations.gov without change. 
All Personal Identifying Information (for example, name, address, etc.) 
voluntarily submitted by the commenter may be publicly accessible. Do 
not submit Confidential Business Information or otherwise sensitive or 
protected information.
    NMFS will accept anonymous comments (either N/A in the required 
fields, if you wish to remain anonymous). You may submit attachments to 
electronic comments in Microsoft Word, Excel, WordPerfect, or Adobe PDF 
file formats only.
    Copies of Amendment 16, its Regulatory Impact Review (RIR), and the 
draft of the FEIS are available from Paul J. Howard, Executive 
Director, New England Fishery Management Council, 50 Water Street, Mill 
2, Newburyport, MA 01950. Copies of the Initial Regulatory Flexibility 
Analysis (IRFA) are available from the Regional Administrator at the 
address above. The EIS/RIR/IRFA is also accessible via the Internet at 
http://www.nefmc.org/nemulti/index.html.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Douglas Christel, Fishery Policy 
Analyst, phone: 978-281-9141, fax: 978-281-9135.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Amendment 13 to the FMP, which became 
effective May 1, 2004 (April 27, 2004; 69 FR 22906), established two 
different strategies for rebuilding (an adaptive strategy and a phased 
rebuilding strategy), and a rebuilding plan for each overfished stock 
was developed in accordance with one of the two strategies. Under the 
``adaptive'' rebuilding strategy, the fishing mortality rate (F) is 
held at a level that would produce maximum sustainable yield 
(FMSY) from 2004 through 2008, and then is subsequently 
reduced to the level required to rebuild by the selected end-date of 
the rebuilding period. In contrast, under the ``phased'' rebuilding 
strategy, F was allowed to remain above FMSY at the start of 
the rebuilding period in 2004, and then was reduced sequentially in 
2006 and 2009. Eight stocks (Gulf of Maine (GOM) cod, Georges Bank (GB) 
haddock, GOM haddock, Southern New England (SNE)/Mid-Atlantic (MA) 
winter flounder, GB yellowtail flounder, redfish, windowpane flounder 
(southern stock), and ocean pout) are managed under the adaptive 
rebuilding strategy, while five stocks (GB cod, Cape Cod (CC)/GOM 
yellowtail flounder, SNE/MA yellowtail flounder, American plaice, and 
white hake) are managed under the phased rebuilding strategy.
    Amendment 13 also established a biennial adjustment process whereby 
the Council reviews the FMP and makes any changes to management 
measures necessary to achieve the goals and objectives of the FMP. This 
adjustment process provides an update of the scientific information 
regarding the status of the stocks and an evaluation of the 
effectiveness of the regulations. The biennial review scheduled to 
occur in 2008, with necessary changes to the FMP implemented in 2009, 
included a peer-reviewed benchmark assessment and a review of the 
biological reference points (stock status determination criteria) for 
each stock. This planned assessment of the biological reference points 
(Groundfish Assessment Review Meeting, (GARM III)) was also part of the 
adaptive rebuilding strategy described above, which sought to evaluate 
the more fundamental scientific information mid-way through the 
rebuilding period for most stocks. GARM III, completed in August 2008, 
included a series of meetings over the course of one year. GARM III 
evaluated the underlying data and models utilized for assessment of the 
groundfish stocks, evaluated the biological reference points, 
established new reference points, assessed the biomass and fishing 
mortality status of the groundfish stocks in 2007, and provided 
examples of the Fs that would be expected to rebuild overfished stocks.
    GARM III concluded that 11 stocks were still subject to overfishing 
(i.e., fishing above the FMSY) and that 12 stocks were 
overfished (i.e., biomass levels were less than one half of the biomass 
at MSY (BMSY)), with 10 stocks classified as both 
overfished and subject to overfishing. A final determination on the 
status of pollock could not be made until the fall 2008 survey data 
made available, as the status of this species is based on the 3-year 
centered average of the fall biomass indices. Such data became 
available in January 2009, and indicated that pollock is overfished.
    The Council began development of Amendment 16 in 2006, with the 
intent of implementing any necessary revisions to management measures 
by the start of fishing year (FY) 2009 on May 1, 2009. On November 6, 
2006, a notice of intent to prepare a supplemental EIS and hold scoping 
meetings designed to solicit public input on any revisions to 
management measures necessary to continue rebuilding overfished 
groundfish stocks was published in the Federal Register (71 FR 64941). 
The Council continued to develop Amendment 16 for implementation in FY 
2009 until a presentation by the Northeast Fisheries Science Center 
NMFS (NEFSC) regarding preliminary estimates of 2006 stock size and F 
at the June 2008 Council meeting indicated that draft effort control 
measures under development for Amendment 16 were not targeting the 
correct stocks. Based on this information, the Council decided to wait 
until the receipt of the final GARM III assessment results in September 
2008 to continue the development of appropriate management measures 
under Amendment 16. The Council subsequently developed a revised 
schedule of development for Amendment 16, which postponed 
implementation of Amendment 16 until the start of FY 2010 on May 1, 
2010. In addition, the Council voted on September 4, 2008, to request 
that NMFS implement an interim action for the duration of FY 2009 (May 
1, 2009-April 30, 2010), and recommended a specific suite of management 
measures for the interim action. A proposed rule to implement interim 
management measures published on January 16, 2009 (74 FR 2959), with 
final interim measures published on April 13, 2009 (74 FR 17030) and 
effective on May 1, 2009.
    Based upon the final results of GARM III, the Council adopted draft 
management measures and an associated draft EIS (DEIS) at its February 
2009 meeting. A notice of availability for the DEIS, which analyzed the 
impacts of all of the measures under consideration in Amendment 16, was 
published on April 24, 2009 (74 FR 18705), with public comments 
accepted through June 8, 2009. Final measures under Amendment 16 were 
adopted by the

[[Page 54775]]

Council at its June 2009 meeting. In addition to the implementing 
management measures to reduce F for overfished stocks, Amendment 16 
contains changes to status determination criteria and other aspects of 
the management program, such as an ABC control rule and potential 
sector contributions, that are not reflected in regulations. The 
proposed measures include: Revisions to biological reference points for 
most stocks; incorporation of Atlantic wolffish into the list of NE 
multispecies managed by the FMP; new reporting measures to increase 
timeliness and accuracy of catch data; changes in the allocation of 
days-at-sea (DAS) between Category A DAS and Category B DAS; changes to 
the way NE multispecies DAS are allocated and counted; gear restricted 
areas; modifications to the DAS Leasing and Transfer Programs; changes 
in minimum fish size for two stocks; revisions to special access 
programs (SAPs); modifications to existing trip limits, including 
increased trip limits for some stocks and landings prohibitions for 
other stocks; changes to Sector allocation procedures; modifications to 
Sector eligibility requirements; revisions to Sector operation plan 
requirements, including new and revised monitoring and reporting 
requirements and allowable exemptions; approval of 17 new Sectors; 
revisions to recreational gear, seasonal, and possession restrictions; 
establishment of a process to set and distribute ABCs and ACLs for all 
managed stocks among fishery subcomponents; and AMs for both commercial 
and recreational fisheries.
    A proposed rule that would implement Amendment 16, if approved, 
will be published in the Federal Register for public comment, following 
NMFS's evaluation of the proposed rule under the procedures of the 
Magnuson-Stevens Act. Public comments on the proposed rule must be 
received by the end of the comment period on Amendment 16 to be 
considered in the approval/disapproval decision on the amendment. All 
comments received by December 22, 2009, whether specifically directed 
to Amendment 16 or the proposed rule, will be considered in the 
approval/disapproval decision on the amendment. Any comments on the 
proposed rule received after that date will not be considered in the 
decision to approve or disapprove Amendment 16. To be considered, 
comments must be received by the close of business on the last day of 
the comment period; that does not mean postmarked or otherwise 
transmitted by that date.

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

    Dated: October 19, 2009.
Emily H. Menashes,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine 
Fisheries Service
[FR Doc. E9-25546 Filed 10-22-09; 8:45 am]
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