[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 194 (Thursday, October 6, 2011)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 61996-61998]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-25908]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 679

RIN 0648-XA421


Fishery Management Plan for the Scallop Fishery Off Alaska; 
Amendment 13

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

ACTION: Notice of agency decision.

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SUMMARY: The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) announces 
approval of Amendment 13 to the Fishery Management Plan for the Scallop 
fishery off Alaska (FMP). Amendment 13 implements an annual catch limit 
(ACL) and accountability measures (AMs) to prevent overfishing in the 
target fishery for weathervane scallops. Implementing these measures 
requires revising the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) and the optimum 
yield (OY) for weathervane scallops to account for total catch. 
Amendment 13 also clarifies that, in the absence of a statewide 
estimate of spawning biomass for weathervane scallops, the overfishing 
level (OFL) is

[[Page 61997]]

specified as the MSY. Under Amendment 13, scallop species not targeted 
in the fishery are classified as Ecosystem Component (EC) species. 
Amendment 13 is intended to promote the goals and objectives of the 
Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-
Stevens Act), the FMP, and other applicable laws. No changes in Federal 
regulations are implemented by this amendment.

DATES: The amendment was approved on September 30, 2011.

ADDRESSES: Electronic copies of Amendment 13 and the Environmental 
Assessment prepared for this action may be obtained from the NMFS 
Alaska Region Web site at http://alaskafisheries.noaa.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Peggy Murphy or Gretchen Harrington, 
907-586-7228.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation 
and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act) requires that each regional 
fishery management council submit any fishery management plan or 
fishery management plan amendment it prepares to NMFS for review and 
approval, disapproval, or partial approval by the Secretary of 
Commerce. The Magnuson-Stevens Act also requires that NMFS, upon 
receiving a fishery management plan amendment, immediately publish a 
notice in the Federal Register announcing that the amendment is 
available for public review and comment.
    NMFS published the notice of availability for Amendment 13 to the 
FMP on July 11, 2011 (76 FR 40674), with a comment period that ended on 
September 9, 2011. NMFS received no comments on Amendment 13.
    NMFS determined that Amendment 13 to the FMP is consistent with the 
Magnuson-Stevens Act and other applicable laws and approved Amendment 
13 on September 30, 2011. The July 11, 2011, notice of availability (76 
FR 40674) contains additional information on this action. No changes to 
Federal regulations are necessary to implement this FMP amendment.
    The Council developed the FMP under the authority of the Magnuson-
Stevens Act (16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.), and it was approved by the 
Secretary on July 26, 1995. The scallop fisheries in the U.S. exclusive 
economic zone off Alaska are jointly managed according to the FMP and 
implementing regulations issued by NMFS or the State of Alaska (State). 
The FMP delegates many management measures for the scallop fisheries to 
the State with Federal oversight. Under the FMP, the State sets a 
guideline harvest level (GHL) for each scallop registration area and 
manages each fishery inseason to the corresponding GHL. The GHL is an 
amount of harvest the managers determine acceptable for the upcoming 
fishing year. The GHL for each scallop fishery is set within the 
applicable guideline harvest range, which the State has established in 
regulations.
    The FMP covers all scallop stocks off Alaska. Weathervane scallops 
are currently the only scallop species targeted in commercial 
fisheries. All other scallop species, including pink, spiny, and rock 
scallops, are not targeted but occasionally occur as bycatch in the 
weathervane scallop fisheries.
    Amendment 13 was unanimously adopted by the Council in October 
2010. Amendment 13 (1) Revises the MSY and OY to include all fishing 
mortality; (2) specifies that the OFL equals the MSY in the absence of 
a statewide estimate of spawning biomass for weathervane scallops; (3) 
specifies an acceptable biological catch (ABC) control rule to account 
for uncertainty in the OFL; (4) sets the ACL equal to the ABC; (5) 
specifies accountability measures to prevent catch from exceeding the 
ACL and to correct for an overage if the ACL is exceeded; and (6) 
creates an EC category for non-target scallop species. With adoption of 
Amendment 13, NMFS determines that the FMP complies with the new 
requirements of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and 
Management Reauthorization Act of 2007.
    The Magnuson-Stevens Act establishes, either expressly or by 
logical extension, four basic requirements that prompted the Council's 
recommendation to amend the FMP. The Guidelines for National Standard 1 
of the Magnuson-Stevens Act (50 CFR 600.310; NS 1 Guidelines) provide 
guidance to regional fishery management councils about how to satisfy 
the obligations of the Magnuson-Stevens Act relative to preventing 
overfishing and establishing an ABC and ACL. The following is a summary 
of these four requirements.
    1. For stocks in the fishery, the FMP must establish a mechanism 
for specifying an ACL that will prevent overfishing;
    2. For each stock or stock complex in the fishery, the FMP must 
establish an ABC control rule that accounts for relevant sources of 
scientific uncertainty;
    3. The Council's Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) must 
provide the Council with scientific advice on the ABC control rule and 
periodic recommendations for specifying the ABC for each stock or stock 
complex in the fishery; and
    4. The FMP must establish accountability measures that prevent 
exceeding the ACL and correct overages of the ACL if they do occur.
    The Council designed Amendment 13 to address these requirements 
while maintaining the FMP's cooperative State and Federal management 
structure, to the extent possible. Maximum Sustainable Yield, Optimum 
Yield, and Overfishing Level.
    Previously, the FMP specified an MSY and OY range that reflect only 
the retained catch in the weathervane scallop fishery. Amendment 13 
revises the retained catch MSY and OY range to reflect total catch by 
encompassing all sources of scallop fishing mortality, including 
discards in the directed scallop fishery, bycatch in the groundfish 
fisheries, and mortality associated with research surveys. The 
statewide weathervane scallop MSY is revised from 1.24 million pounds 
(562 metric tons) to 1.284 million pounds (582 metric tons) of shucked 
meats. The OY is estimated statewide with an upper bound of the MSY. 
Amendment 13 revises the weathervane scallop OY range to be 0 to 1.284 
million pounds (582 metric tons) of shucked meats.
    Previously, the FMP specified an overfishing control rule for 
weathervane scallops stocks as a fishing rate in excess of the natural 
mortality rate. If an estimate of the statewide weathervane scallop 
spawning biomass becomes available, the overfishing control rule would 
be applied to that estimate to determine the OFL. An estimate of the 
statewide weathervane scallop spawning biomass is not currently 
available, however, which prevents application of the overfishing 
control rule to annually determine the OFL. Therefore, until such an 
estimate of spawning biomass is available, Amendment 13 specifies a 
default OFL equal to the MSY of 1.284 million pounds. The OFL will be 
set statewide because the best available information indicates that 
there is one statewide stock of weathervane scallops and the 
information necessary to set regional OFLs is not available. In 
practice, the statewide MSY has functioned as the OFL since 1996. The 
average annual weathervane scallop catch since 1996 has been less than 
half of the MSY.

Acceptable Biological Catch and Annual Catch Limit

    Amendment 13 establishes an ABC control rule and sets the ACL equal 
to the ABC. Annually, the ABC control

[[Page 61998]]

rule will be used to set the maximum ABC for the statewide weathervane 
scallop stock at 90 percent of the OFL. This 10-percent buffer reduces 
the risk of overfishing occurring in the weathervane scallop fishery.
    The ABC is set to account for the scientific uncertainty in the 
estimate of the OFL. Lacking a stock assessment model, the sources of 
scientific uncertainty in the scallop OFL estimate are not directly 
quantifiable at this time. Therefore, under Amendment 13, scientific 
uncertainty in the OFL estimate is incorporated in the size of the 
buffer between the OFL and the ABC.

Scientific and Statistical Committee

    The Council's SSC annually establishes the ABC for weathervane 
scallops through the following process. The Scallop Plan Team meets 
shortly after the scallop fishing season concludes to compile the Stock 
Assessment and Fishery Evaluation (SAFE) report. The SAFE includes 
stock assessments, fishery information, and reference points. The 
Scallop Plan Team will evaluate whether the total catch exceeded the 
ACL in the previous fishing season. The Scallop Plan Team will then 
calculate the maximum ABC using the ABC control rule for the upcoming 
fishing season. The Scallop Plan Team may recommend that the SSC set an 
ABC lower than the maximum ABC, but it should provide an explanation 
for such a recommendation.
    The SSC will then review the SAFE and recommendations from the 
Scallop Plan Team. The SSC will set a statewide ABC for the directed 
weathervane scallop fishery prior to the beginning of the fishing 
season. The SSC may set an ABC lower than the maximum ABC calculated 
using the ABC control rule, but it must provide an explanation for why 
a lower ABC was set.

Accountability Measures

    Amendment 13 establishes AMs to prevent ACLs from being exceeded 
and to correct overages of the ACL if they do occur. First, under 
Amendment 13, the State establishes the annual GHL for each scallop 
management area at a level sufficiently below the ACL so that the sum 
of the directed scallop fishery removals and estimated discard 
mortality in directed scallop and groundfish fisheries does not exceed 
the ACL.
    Second, NMFS expects that the inseason management measures that 
prevent catch from exceeding the GHL, and have been a part of 
management of the weathervane scallop fishery since the inception of 
this FMP, will also prevent catch from exceeding the ACL. State 
management requires 100-percent observer coverage of all vessels in the 
weathervane scallop fishery. Fishery observers provide inseason data on 
catch and bycatch. Managers monitor inseason fisheries landings and 
observer data, and have the authority to close a fishery inseason to 
prevent catch from exceeding the GHL.
    Third, if total catch does exceed the ACL, State managers will 
account for the overage through a downward adjustment to the GHL in the 
following season by an amount sufficient to remedy the biological 
consequences of the overage.

Ecosystem Component

    Under the NS 1 Guidelines, all stocks in an FMP are considered to 
be ``in the fishery,'' unless they are identified as EC species through 
an FMP amendment process. Council review of the FMP determined that 
weathervane scallops are ``in the fishery'' as they are targeted and 
retained for sale. Amendment 13 establishes an EC category in the FMP 
that contains all non-targeted scallop species, including pink or 
reddish scallops, spiny scallops, and rock scallops.
    Non-targeted scallops have been managed under the scallop FMP but 
are not generally retained in commercial scallop fisheries off Alaska. 
These non-target scallop species occupy habitats at different depths 
than the targeted weathervane scallops; therefore, NMFS does not 
anticipate that incidental catch in the weathervane scallop fishery 
would pose a serious risk to these stocks. The best available 
scientific information does not indicate that any of the non-target 
scallop species are overfished, subject to overfishing or approaching 
an overfished condition, or likely to become overfished if placed in 
the EC category.
    According to the NS 1 Guidelines, no reference points are required 
for EC species; however, under Amendment 13, these species will be 
monitored to ensure they are not targeted and that incidental catch 
does not reach a point where there are concerns for the sustainability 
of these stocks. Harvest limits and related management measures would 
be developed and implemented prior to developing a fishery for any of 
these species.
    An Environmental Assessment was prepared for Amendment 13 that 
provides detailed descriptions of the scallop fishery management 
background, the purpose and need for action, the management 
alternatives evaluated to address this action, and the environmental, 
social, and economic impacts of the alternatives (see ADDRESSES).

Response to Comments

    NMFS did not receive any comments on Amendment 13.

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

    Dated: September 30, 2011.
Eric C. Schwaab,
Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries 
Service.
[FR Doc. 2011-25908 Filed 10-5-11; 8:45 am]
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