[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 110 (Wednesday, June 8, 2011)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 33189-33190]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-14150]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 660

RIN 0648-BA68


Fisheries Off West Coast States; Coastal Pelagic Species 
Fisheries; Amendment 13 to the Coastal Pelagic Species Fishery 
Management Plan; Annual Catch Limits

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

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

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SUMMARY: NMFS announces that the Pacific Fishery Management Council 
(Council) has submitted Amendment 13 to the Coastal Pelagic Species 
(CPS) Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for review by the Secretary of 
Commerce. The intent of Amendment 13 is to ensure the FMP is consistent 
with NMFS advisory guidelines. The guidelines describe fishery 
management approaches to meet the objectives of National Standard 1 
(NS1) of section 301 of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and 
Management Act (MSA). National Standard 1 states ``Conservation and 
management measures shall prevent overfishing while achieving, on a 
continuing basis, the optimum yield (OY) from each fishery for the U.S. 
fishing industry.''

DATES: Comments on Amendment 13 must be received by August 8, 2011.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by 0648-BA68 by any one 
of the following methods:
     Electronic Submissions: Submit all electronic public 
comments via the Federal eRulemaking Portal http://www.regulations.gov.
     Mail: Rodney R. McInnis, Regional Administrator, Southwest 
Region, NMFS, 501 West Ocean Blvd., Suite 4200, Long Beach, CA 90802.
     Fax: (562) 980-4047, Attn: Joshua Lindsay.
    Instructions: 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 (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 (enter N/A in the required 
fields if you prefer to remain anonymous). Attachments to electronic 
comments will be accepted in Microsoft Word, Excel, WordPerfect, or 
Adobe PDF file formats only.
    Copies of the CPS FMP as Amended through Amendment 13 and its 
associated Environmental Assessment/Regulatory Impact Review, are 
available from Donald O. McIssac, Executive Director, Pacific Fishery 
Management Council, 7700 NE Ambassador Place, Suite 101, Portland, OR 
97220-1384 or the NMFS Southwest Region (Rodney McInnis or Joshua 
Lindsay) (see ADDRESSES).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Joshua B. Lindsay, Sustainable 
Fisheries Division, NMFS, at 562-980-4034 or Mike Burner, Pacific 
Fishery Management Council, at 503-820-2280.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The CPS fishery in the U.S. exclusive 
economic zone (EEZ) off the West Coast is managed under the CPS FMP, 
which was developed by the Council pursuant to the MSA, 16 U.S.C. 1801 
et seq. Species managed under the CPS FMP include Pacific sardine, 
Pacific mackerel, jack mackerel, northern anchovy, market squid and 
krill. The CPS FMP was approved by the Secretary of Commerce and was 
implemented by regulations at 50 CFR part 660, subpart I.
    The MSA requires each regional fishery management council to submit 
any amendment to an FMP to NMFS for review and approval, disapproval, 
or partial approval. The MSA also requires that NMFS, upon receiving an 
amendment to an FMP, publish notification in the Federal Register that 
the amendment is available for public review and comment. NMFS will 
consider the public comments received during the comment period 
described above in determining whether to approve, disapprove, or 
partially approve Amendment 13.
    The MSA was amended in 2007 to include new requirements for ACLs 
and accountability measures (AMs) and other provisions regarding 
preventing and ending overfishing and rebuilding fisheries. On January 
16, 2009, NMFS revised its guidelines implementing MSA National 
Standard 1 (74 FR 3178)

[[Page 33190]]

in response to these changes in the MSA. The revised guidelines explain 
NOAA's interpretation of the new statutory requirements for specifying 
ACLs at such levels that overfishing does not occur and that measures 
be taken to ensure accountability with these limits. The purpose of 
Amendment 13 is to amend the CPS FMP to ensure it is consistent with 
these revised advisory guidelines and to comply with the statute. 
Specifically, Amendment 13 would revise the framework process to set 
and adjust fishery specification and management measures, and would 
establish a framework for specifying new reference points such as ACLs 
and AMs, as well as other provisions for preventing overfishing such as 
the potential setting of annual catch targets (ACTs).
    Amendment 13 revises the framework process currently in place to 
set and adjust fishery specifications and management measures and 
establishes a framework for specifying new reference points such as 
overfishing level (OFL), acceptable biological catch (ABC) and ACL, 
where necessary. This includes the mechanisms to set ACLs and the 
associated AMs to ensure they are not exceeded, control rules for 
determining ABC and other provisions for preventing overfishing such as 
the potential setting of annual catch targets (ACTs) and the 
development of Maximum Sustainable Yield proxies and/or OFLs for those 
stocks for which current biomass estimates are not available. 
Specifically, Amendment 13 would implement this new fishery 
specification framework, designed to better account for scientific and 
management uncertainty and to prevent overfishing, in the FMP through 
the following:
     Modify the existing harvest control rules for actively 
managed species to include a buffer or reduction in ABC relative to OFL 
to account for scientific uncertainty. This buffer will be determined 
during the annual management cycle through a combination of scientific 
advice from the Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) and a policy 
determination of the Council;
     Maintain the default harvest control rules for monitored 
stocks as modified to specify the new management reference points. ACLs 
would be specified for multiple years until such time as the species 
becomes actively managed or new scientific information becomes 
available. The value of 0.25 in the ABC control rule (a 75 percent 
buffer) will remain in use until recommended for modification by the 
SSC and approved by the Council;
     Add a mechanism for the use of sector-specific ACLs, ACTs 
and AMs, in the annual harvest and management specification process.
    Amendment 13 also adds Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii pallasii) 
and jacksmelt (Atherinopsis californiensis) to the FMP as ecosystem 
component (EC) species. Although the incidental catch of these species 
within CPS fisheries is extremely small, the intent of this action is 
to monitor the catches of these species and report catch estimates in 
the annual Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation report along with 
other incidental catch. In addition to the current ecological 
considerations in the FMP, the amendment adds language to specify that 
the Council will include ecological considerations when reviewing and/
or adopting status determination criteria, ACLs, and ACTs. Although not 
a change to the FMP, the Council reaffirmed that all management unit 
species (MUS) in the FMP, including those species currently categorized 
as monitored species and prohibited harvest species (krill), are ``in 
the fishery'' and therefore remain as MUS.
    Public comments on Amendment 13 must be received by August 8, 2011, 
to be considered by NMFS in the decision whether to approve, 
disapprove, or partially approve Amendment 13. A proposed rule to 
implement Amendment 13 has been submitted for Secretarial review and 
approval. NMFS expects to publish and request public comment on the 
proposed regulation to implement Amendment 13 in the near future. 
Public comments on the proposed rule must be received by the end of the 
comment period on the amendment to be considered in the approval/
disapproval decision on the amendment. All comments received during the 
comment period for the amendment, whether specifically directed to the 
amendment, or the proposed rule, will be considered in the approval/
disapproval decision.

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

    Dated: June 3, 2011.
Margo Schulze-Haugen,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2011-14150 Filed 6-7-11; 8:45 am]
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