[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 51 (Wednesday, March 16, 2011)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 14367-14368]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-6151]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 665

RIN 0648-AY93


Fisheries in the Western Pacific; Mechanism for Specifying Annual 
Catch Limits and Accountability Measures

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

ACTION: Notice of availability of fishery ecosystem plan amendments; 
request for comments.

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SUMMARY: NMFS announces that the Western Pacific Fishery Management 
Council (Council) proposes to amend its five fishery ecosystem plans 
(FEPs) to establish a mechanism for specifying annual catch limits 
(ACLs) and accountability measures (AMs), adopt the ecosystem component 
species classification described in the NMFS advisory guidelines for 
National Standard 1, and identify management unit species that have 
statutory exceptions to the ACL and AM requirements. The intent of the 
amendment is end and prevent overfishing, rebuild overfished stocks, 
and achieve optimum yield.

DATES: Comments on the amendment must be received by May 16, 2011.

ADDRESSES: Comments on the amendment, identified by 0648-AX93, may be 
sent to either of the following addresses:
     Electronic Submission: Submit all electronic public 
comments via the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal http://www.regulations.gov; or

[[Page 14368]]

     Mail: Mail written comments to Michael D. Tosatto, 
Regional Administrator, NMFS, Pacific Islands Region (PIR), 1601 
Kapiolani Blvd, Suite 1110, Honolulu, HI 96814-4700.
    Instructions: Comments must be submitted to one of these two 
addresses to ensure that the comments are received, documented, and 
considered by NMFS. Comments sent to any other address or individual, 
or received after the end of the comment period, may not be considered. 
All comments received are a part of the public record and will 
generally be posted to http://www.regulations.gov without change. All 
personal identifying information (e.g., name, address, etc.) submitted 
voluntarily by the commenter may be publicly accessible. Do not submit 
confidential business information, or otherwise sensitive or protected 
information. NMFS will accept anonymous comments (enter ``N/A'' in the 
required fields if you wish to remain anonymous). Attachments to 
electronic comments will be accepted in Microsoft Word or Excel, 
WordPerfect, or Adobe PDF file formats only.
    Copies of the amendment (Amendment 2 to the American Samoa FEP, 
Amendment 3 to the Hawaii FEP, Amendment 2 to the Mariana Archipelago 
FEP, Amendment 1 to the Pacific Remote Islands Areas FEP, and Amendment 
4 to the western Pacific Pelagic fisheries FEP are identical), 
including an environmental assessment and background information on the 
action, are available from http://www.regulations.gov and from the 
Council, 1164 Bishop St., Suite 1400, Honolulu, HI 96813, tel 808-522-
8220, fax 808-522-8226, or http://www.wpcouncil.org.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jarad Makaiau, NMFS PIR Sustainable 
Fisheries, 808-944-2108.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In 2006, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery 
Conservation and Management Act was amended to include new provisions 
that facilitate preventing and ending overfishing, and rebuilding 
overfished stocks. Specifically, each council's fishery management plan 
must include a mechanism for specifying ACLs so that overfishing does 
not occur. AMs are also required to prevent ACLs from being exceeded, 
and to correct or mitigate any overages of the ACL. The ACL and AM 
mechanism would be applied to all fisheries, except species that are 
subject to an international fishery agreement in which the U.S. 
participates, or have a life cycle of approximately one year or less. 
The National Standard 1 guidelines, published by NMFS on January 16, 
2009 (74 FR 3178), provides guidance for establishing ACLs and AMs, and 
exceptions to the requirements.
    This amendment would establish a mechanism for specifying ACLs and 
AMs in each of the five western Pacific FEPs. They would include a tier 
of control rules which the Council's Scientific and Statistical 
Committee would apply to determine an acceptable biological catch 
limit. These control rules would account for scientific uncertainty in 
the estimate of a fishery's overfishing limit, and the probability of 
overfishing. The mechanism would also include qualitative methods for 
determining the probability of overfishing and for setting ACLs, and 
describe a suite of AMs to prevent ACLs from being exceeded or to 
mitigate overages of an ACL, including use of annual catch targets.
    This amendment would also identify species that have statutory 
exceptions to the ACL and AM requirements; at present, these are all 
western Pacific pelagic management unit species. Finally, the amendment 
incorporates existing status determination criteria, as described in 
the five western Pacific FEPs. The Council would continue to use the 
SDC in determining the overfishing and overfished status of western 
Pacific fisheries, whereby exceeding the maximum fishing mortality 
threshold for a period of one year or more constitutes overfishing, and 
a stock is considered overfished if its biomass falls below the minimum 
stock size threshold. The amendment also describes the Council's intent 
to use the ``ecosystem component'' classification defined in the 
National Standard 1 guidelines. Specifying ecosystem component species 
is not part of this amendment; it would be done in future amendments to 
the appropriate FEP(s).
    Public comments on the proposed amendment must be received by May 
16, 2011 to be considered by NMFS in the decision to approve, partially 
approve, or disapprove the amendment. NMFS soon expects to publish and 
request public comment on a proposed rule that would implement the ACL 
mechanism.

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

    Dated: March 11, 2011.
Margo Schulze-Haugen,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2011-6151 Filed 3-15-11; 8:45 am]
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