[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 181 (Monday, September 19, 2011)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 57944-57945]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-24013]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 648

[Docket No. 110816505-1506-01]
RIN 0648-BB39


Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Northeast 
Multispecies Fisheries, Small-Mesh Multispecies Secretarial Amendment

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

ACTION: Advance notice of proposed rulemaking; request for comments; 
notice of public meetings.

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SUMMARY: NMFS is requesting public comments on its initiation of a 
Secretarial Amendment to implement annual catch limits (ACLs) and 
measures to ensure accountability (AMs) in the small-mesh multispecies 
fishery. NMFS is initiating the Secretarial Amendment because the New 
England Fishery Management Council (Council) is not able to develop and 
submit Amendment 19 to establish ACLs and AMs for the small-mesh 
multispecies fishery as required by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery 
Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act), until well past 
the statutory deadline of 2011. As required by the Magnuson-Stevens 
Act, NMFS is announcing four public meetings to allow interested 
parties the opportunity to provide input on the action.

DATES: Written comments regarding the issues in this advance notice of 
proposed rulemaking (ANPR) must be received by 5 p.m. local time, on 
October 19, 2011. Meetings to obtain additional comments on the items 
discussed in this ANPR will be held on:
     Monday, October 3, 2011 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
     Tuesday, October 4, 2011 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
     Tuesday, October 11, 2011 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
     Wednesday, October 12, 2011 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

ADDRESSES: The meetings will be held in:
     East Setauket, NY.
     Toms River, NJ.
     Gloucester, MA.
     Narragansett, RI.

For specific locations, see SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION. You may also 
submit comments on this document, identified by NOAA-NMFS-2011-0206, by 
any of the following methods:

     Electronic Submission: Submit all electronic public 
comments via the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal http://www.regulations.gov. To submit comments via the e-Rulemaking Portal, 
first click the ``Submit a Comment'' icon, then enter NOAA-NMFS-2011-
0206 in the keyword search. Locate the document you wish to comment on 
from the resulting list and click on the ``Submit a Comment'' icon on 
the right of that line.
     Mail: Submit written comments to Patricia A. Kurkul, 
Regional Administrator, NMFS, Northeast Regional Office, 55 Great 
Republic Drive, Gloucester, MA 01930. Mark the outside of the envelope, 
``Comments on Whiting Secretarial.''
     Fax: 978-281-9135; Attn: Moira Kelly.
    Instructions: Comments must be submitted by one of the above 
methods to ensure that the comments are received, documented, and 
considered by NMFS. Comments sent by any other method, 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 for public viewing on http://www.regulations.gov without change. All personal identifying 
information (e.g., name, address, etc.) submitted voluntarily by the 
sender will 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.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Moira Kelly, Fishery Policy Analyst, 
(978) 281-9218, [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the Magnuson-Stevens Act at Sec.  
304(c)(1)(A), the Secretary of Commerce may develop an amendment for a 
council-managed fishery, if the responsible council ``fails to develop 
and submit to the Secretary, after a reasonable period of time, a [* * 
*] necessary amendment * * *'' The Magnuson-Stevens Act requires all

[[Page 57945]]

managed fisheries to have ACLs and AMs by 2011. The Council is 
developing, but has not yet completed, Amendment 19 to the Northeast 
Multispecies Fishery Management Plan, which would establish ACLs and 
AMs for the small-mesh multispecies fishery, and does not anticipate 
Amendment 19 to be submitted to NMFS until May 2012, which means it 
will not be effective until October 2012. The small-mesh multispecies 
fishery consists of silver hake, red hake, and offshore hake, often 
collectively known as ``whiting.'' There are two stocks each of silver 
and red hake (northern and southern) and one stock of offshore hake.
    The Council has not completed Amendment 19 for a number of reasons, 
including postponing work on the amendment until after the November 
2010 stock assessment review for the three small-mesh species. However, 
the Council is expected to set the acceptable biological catch (ABC) 
limits based on recommendations from its Scientific and Statistical 
Committee (SSC), at its September 2011 meeting. The SSC has recommended 
separate ABCs by stock or stock group: Northern red hake, southern red 
hake, northern silver hake, and a combined southern ``whiting'' ABC for 
the southern stock of silver hake and offshore hake. The Whiting 
Advisory Panel (AP) and the Oversight Committee will be recommending 
management alternatives at the Council's September meeting as well. 
NMFS intends to use the Council's ABC and a subset of the Advisory 
Panel and Committee's recommendations in the Secretarial Amendment.
    After the public hearings are completed, NMFS will make a decision 
regarding the management measures to include in the Secretarial 
Amendment and will publish a proposed rule and a notice of availability 
for the amendment. After the 60-day proposed rule/notice of 
availability comment period, NMFS will publish a final rule. The final 
rule will remain in effect until the Council's Amendment 19, if 
approved, is implemented.

Public Comments

    To help determine the scope of issues to be addressed and to 
identify significant issues related to this action, NMFS is soliciting 
written comments on this ANPR and will hold public meetings in four 
locations. All of the public meetings will take place from 4 p.m. to 7 
p.m., at the locations listed below. The public is encouraged to submit 
comments related to the specific ideas mentioned in this ANPR. All 
written comments received by the due date will be considered in 
drafting the proposed rule.
     Monday, October 3, 2011, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., at the New 
York Department of Environmental Conservation Marine Resources 
Headquarters, 205 Belle Mead Road, Suite 1, East Setauket, NY.
     Tuesday, October 4, 2011, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., at the 
Ocean County Administration Building, Room 119, 101 Hooper Avenue, Toms 
River, NJ.
     Tuesday, October 11, 2011, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., at the 
Northeast Regional Office, 55 Great Republic Drive, Gloucester, MA.
     Wednesday, October 12, 2011, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., at 
Narragansett Town Hall, 25 Fifth Avenue, Narragansett, RI.

Issues Under Consideration

    Based on information from prior Whiting Advisory Panel and 
Oversight Committee meetings, NMFS is considering several options for 
the Secretarial Amendment. NMFS will seek public comment on the scope 
of this ANPR and requests public input on the following options. For 
each option, NMFS will propose setting an ACL for the same four stocks 
or stock groups as the SSC's recommendations. Annual catch targets 
(ACTs) would be used to account for management uncertainty, and would 
be set at a proportion of the ACL (75 percent, for example). Discards 
would be deducted from the ACT to establish the total allowable 
landings (TAL). The differences among the options would be the 
allocation of the TALs.
    1. ACLs, ACTs, TALs by stock: This option would establish ACLs, 
ACTs, and TALs for each of the four stocks or stock grouping for which 
the Council's SSC set an ABC. The Whiting AP recently recommended this 
approach for the southern TALs (southern red hake and the southern 
combined whiting TAL), but not for the northern TALs (northern red hake 
and northern silver hake).
    2. Northern TALs subdivided by area according to historic landings 
proportion: The Whiting AP suggested this approach at a recent meeting. 
The ACLs, ACTs, and TALs would be set as in Option 1, but the northern 
area TALs would be further subdivided into three TALs: Cultivator Shoal 
Exemption Area TAL, Other Exemption Areas TAL, and an incidental TAL. 
The ``Other Exemption Areas'' would consist of the Gulf of Maine Grate 
Raised Footrope Trawl Area, Small Mesh Areas I and II, and the Raised 
Footrope Trawl Areas near Cape Cod. The allocation would be made by 
historic landing proportion so that each area is given the opportunity 
to land proportionally the same amount of the overall catch limit as it 
has in recent years. The AP recommended using fishing years 2004-2010 
to determine the appropriate proportions.
    3. TALs subdivided equally by exemption area: The ACLs, ACTs, and 
TALs would be set as in Option 2, but the northern area TALs would be 
further subdivided by equally across the three areas.
    4. AMs: NMFS is considering a combination of ``proactive'' and 
``reactive'' accountability measures. The proactive AMs would be the 
use of ACTs and in-season closure authority when a TAL is projected to 
be reached. The reactive AM would be ACL and TAL specific pound-for-
pound pay back of any overage above the catch limit or target.
    5. NMFS is suggesting that no other management measures be 
introduced or modified through the Secretarial Amendment, in order to 
keep the measures as simple as possible while meeting the action's 
objectives.

Special Accommodations

    The public meeting will be accessible to people with physical 
disabilities. Request for sign language interpretation or other 
auxiliary aids should be directed to Debra Lambert (301-713-2341), at 
least 7 days prior to the meeting.

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

    Dated: September 13, 2011.
Samuel D. Rauch, III,
Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Programs, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2011-24013 Filed 9-16-11; 8:45 am]
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