[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 175 (Friday, September 10, 2010)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 55286-55288]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-22634]


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

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 648

[Docket No. 0910051338-0403-04]
RIN 0648-AY29


Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Northeast 
Multispecies Fishery; Adjustment to Fishing Year 2010 Georges Bank 
Yellowtail Flounder Total Allowable Catch

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

ACTION: Temporary final rule; adjustment to specifications.

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

SUMMARY: Final catch data for the 2009 fishing year (FY) (May 1, 2009-
April 30, 2010) indicate that the total catch of Georges Bank (GB) 
yellowtail flounder was 1,770 mt, exceeding the 1,617 mt FY 2009 Total 
Allowable Catch (TAC) by 153 mt. The regulations require that any 
overage of the GB yellowtail flounder TAC specified for the common 
pool, individual sectors, or the scallop fishery in one FY be 
subtracted from the respective TACs in the following FY. Therefore, 
NMFS hereby announces deductions to the FY 2010 GB yellowtail flounder 
TAC, including how the deduction will be divided between the annual 
catch limit (ACL) for common pool vessels (common pool sub-ACL), and 
the ACL for sector vessels (sector sub-ACL).

DATES: Effective September 7, 2010 through April 30, 2011.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Douglas Potts, Fishery Policy Analyst, 
(978) 281-9341.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The TACs for Eastern GB cod, Eastern GB 
haddock, and GB yellowtail flounder in the U.S./Canada Management Area 
were published in the Federal Register on April 9, 2010 (75 FR 18356) 
as part of the Framework Adjustment 44 (FW 44) final rule. That action 
established the FY 2010 U.S. TACs of GB cod, haddock, and yellowtail 
flounder at 338 mt, 11,988 mt, and 1,200 mt, respectively, and 
specified that, should an analysis of the catch by U.S. vessels 
indicate that an overage occurred during FY 2009, the pertinent TAC 
would be adjusted downward in order to be consistent with the FMP and 
the U.S./Canada Resource Sharing Understanding (Understanding). The 
regulations at Sec.  648.85(a)(2)(ii) require that ``any overages of 
the GB cod and GB haddock TACs specified for either the common pool or 
individual sectors, or any overages of the GB yellowtail flounder TAC 
specified for the common pool, individual sectors, or the scallop 
fishery * * * that occur in a given fishing year will be subtracted 
from the respective TAC in the following fishing year.'' The final 
annual catch analysis cannot be completed until about 1 month into the 
following FY because of the need to include any late reports from 
vessels and dealers. Therefore, any required TAC adjustment must be 
made during the FY following the FY in which the overage occurred.
    Based upon vessel reports, dealer reports, and other information 
available as of June 8, 2010, the total estimated catch of GB 
yellowtail flounder in the U.S./Canada Management Area during FY 2009 
was 1,770 mt. This exceeds the overall FY 2009 GB yellowtail flounder 
TAC of 1,617 mt by 153 mt. Therefore, an overage of 153 mt of GB 
yellowtail flounder must be subtracted from the overall FY 2010 U.S./
Canada GB yellowtail flounder TAC through this action. This results in 
an adjusted overall TAC of 1,047 mt for FY 2010 for GB yellowtail 
flounder. The Eastern GB cod and haddock TACs were not exceeded in FY 
2009. Therefore, these two TACs are not adjusted.

[[Page 55287]]

    The current regulatory provision requires that the reduction in the 
GB yellowtail flounder TAC be applied to the common pool, individual 
sectors, and scallop TACs, based on any overages in the previous year's 
TACs for each of these three components of the fishery. In FY 2009, 
however, with the exception of a bycatch TAC allocation to the scallop 
fishery, there was only an overall TAC allocated to the groundfish 
fishery, with no specific allocation to the common pool or individual 
sectors. Therefore, although there is a requirement to reduce this 
year's GB yellowtail flounder TAC by last year's overall overage, there 
is no specific regulatory provision describing how to allocate the 
reduction among these three components in this FY. (This is relevant to 
this FY only.) This action implements the required reduction and, 
pursuant to the agency's general regulatory authority under section 
305(d) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act 
(16 U.S.C. 1855), creates an ad hoc method to prorate this reduction 
between the common pool and individual sectors based on the percentages 
of TAC allocated to the common pool and individual sectors for FY 2010. 
The FW 44 final rule set the FY 2010 GB yellowtail flounder ACL 
subcomponent for the scallop fishery to account for 100 percent of the 
anticipated GB yellowtail flounder bycatch in that fishery. Therefore, 
there is no rational basis to reduce scallop bycatch allocation this 
year. Implementing this method for allocating the reduction in TAC 
between the common pool and individual sectors is necessary to ensure 
consistency with the intent of Amendment 16 and FW 44.
    To understand how the reduction is to be prorated it is necessary 
to describe how the allocation of TACs among the various components of 
the fishery is done. For transboundary managed stocks, the Acceptable 
Biological Catch (ABC) is equivalent to the U.S. portion of the TAC 
negotiated under the Understanding. The total ACL (or TAC) is set lower 
than the ABC to account for management uncertainty. For yellowtail 
flounder, the total ACL (or TAC) is subdivided into sub-ACLs (or TACs) 
for the groundfish fishery (sectors and common pool) and other ACL 
subcomponents, including an allocation to account for bycatch in the 
scallop fishery, and bycatch in other fisheries. The sector sub-ACL is 
further divided into Annual Catch Entitlement (ACE) values (or TACs) 
for each of the 17 NE multispecies sectors. The 17 sector ACEs that 
constitute the sector sub-ACL for FY 2010 were initially published on 
April 9, 2010 (75 FR 18113), in the sector final rule. These common 
pool and sector allocations were subsequently modified by a rule 
published on May 26, 2010 (75 FR 29459), to adjust for final sector 
membership rosters. The percentage allocations of TACs to these sub-
ACLs and ACEs form the basis for prorating the reduction dictated by 
the 2009 FY's overage.
    Table 1 contains the new values for the ABC, ACL, sub-ACLs, and ACL 
subcomponents for GB yellowtail flounder implemented by this action. 
Table 2 contains details of the adjustments to each of the 17 sector's 
ACEs for GB yellowtail flounder as a result of this action.

Table 1--GB Yellowtail Flounder ABC, ACL, sub-ACL, and ACL Subcomponents
                            for FY 2010 (mt)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                     Previous
                                                      value    New value
------------------------------------------------------------------------
ABC...............................................      1,200      1,047
Total ACL.........................................      1,170      1,021
Scallop Fishery ACL Subcomponent..................        146        146
Other ACL Subcomponents...........................         60         52
Groundfish Total ACL..............................        964        823
Sector Sub-ACL*...................................        941        803
Common Pool Sub-ACL...............................         23         20
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*All sub-ACL values for sectors assume that each sector MRI has a valid
  permit for FY 2010.


  Table 2--GB Yellowtail Flounder ACE for Each Sector for FY 2010 (mt)*
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                     Previous   New ACE
                    Sector name                     ACE  (mt)     (mt)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
FGS...............................................          0          0
NCCS..............................................          8          7
NEFS 2............................................         16         14
NEFS 3............................................          0          0
NEFS 4............................................         21         18
NEFS 5............................................         92         79
NEFS 6............................................         13         11
NEFS 7............................................        156        133
NEFS 8............................................        154        131
NEFS 9............................................        183        156
NEFS 10...........................................          0          0
NEFS 11...........................................          0          0
NEFS 12...........................................          0          0
NEFS 13...........................................        149        127
PCCGS.............................................          0          0
SHS...............................................         79         68
TSS...............................................         70         60
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* All ACE values for sectors outlined in Table 1 assume that each sector
  MRI has a valid permit for FY 2010.
George Bank Cod Fixed Gear Sector (FGS), Northeast Coastal Communities
  Sector (NCCS), Northeast Fishery Sectors (NEFS), Port Clyde Community
  Groundfish Sector (PCCGS), Sustainable Harvest Sector (SHS), and Tri-
  State Sector (TSS).

    FW 44 specified an incidental catch TAC for the Regular B Days-at 
Sea (DAS) Program, equivalent to 2 percent of the GB yellowtail 
flounder common pool sub-ACL. As a result of the adjustment to the 
common pool sub-ACL, this incidental catch TAC is reduced from 0.47 mt 
to 0.40 mt.

Classification

    This action is required by 50 CFR part 648 and is exempt from 
review under Executive Order 12866.
    Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B) and (d)(3), the Assistant 
Administrator finds good cause to waive prior notice and opportunity 
for public comment, as well as the delayed effectiveness for this 
action, because notice, comment, and a delayed effectiveness would be 
unnecessary, impractical, and contrary to the public interest. Any 
delay in this action to allow for prior public comment could result in 
overharvest of the new GB yellowtail flounder allocation by a sector or 
the common pool. Such an overage would result in closure of the Eastern 
U.S./Canada Area, and zero possession of GB yellowtail flounder for the 
affected group and, therefore, loss of opportunities to fish for other 
stocks. Further, the regulations at Sec.  648.85(a)(2)(ii), which were 
subject to prior public comment, require that any overage of the TAC 
for GB yellowtail flounder be deducted from the TAC in the following 
FY. Accordingly, the action being taken by this temporary rule is non-
discretionary. Since this is a non-discretionary action, based on 
numerous records solely in the possession of NMFS, public comment would 
not serve to inform the agency calculation of the overage and its 
deduction from the appropriate TAC.
    The rate of harvest of GB yellowtail flounder by groundfish vessels 
and scallop vessels fishing in the Scallop Access Areas in the U.S./
Canada Management Area, as reported from Vessel Monitoring Systems, is 
updated weekly on the Internet at http://www.nero.noaa.gov. 
Accordingly, the public is able to obtain information that would 
provide at least some advance notice of a potential action as a result 
of a GB yellowtail flounder TAC being exceeded during FY 2009. Further, 
the potential that one or more of the FY 2009 TACs for the U.S./Canada 
stocks could be exceeded, and therefore reduce the FY 2010 TAC, was 
considered and

[[Page 55288]]

open to public comment during the proposed rule stage of FW44.

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

    Dated: September 3, 2010.
Eric C. Schwaab,
Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries 
Service.
[FR Doc. 2010-22634 Filed 9-7-10; 4:15 pm]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P