[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 82 (Tuesday, April 29, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 23940-23941]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-09742]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

RIN 0648-XD259


Magnuson-Stevens Act Provisions; General Provisions for Domestic 
Fisheries; Application for Exempted Fishing Permits

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

ACTION: Notice; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The Assistant Regional Administrator for Sustainable 
Fisheries, Greater Atlantic Region, NMFS (Assistant Regional 
Administrator), has made a preliminary determination that an Exempted 
Fishing Permit (EFP) application contains all of the required 
information and warrants further consideration. This EFP would allow up 
to three commercial fishing vessels to conduct exploratory fishing in 
year-round groundfish closed areas (Closed Areas (CAs) I and II) for 
the purposes of obtaining fisheries dependent catch information. This 
research is being conducted by Atlantic Trawlers Fishing, Inc.
    Regulations under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and 
Management Act require publication of this notification to provide 
interested parties the opportunity to comment on applications for 
proposed EFPs.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before May 14, 2014.

ADDRESSES: You may submit written comments by any of the following 
methods:
     Email: [email protected]. Include in the subject line 
``Comments on Exploratory Closed Area Fishing EFP.''
     Mail: John K. Bullard, Regional Administrator, NMFS, NE 
Regional Office, 55 Great Republic Drive, Gloucester, MA 01930. Mark 
the outside of the envelope ``Comments on Closed Area Exploratory 
Fishing EFP.''
     Fax: (978) 281-9135.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Brett Alger, Fisheries Management 
Specialist, 978-675-2153, [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In a proposed rule for Northeast 
Multispecies Sector vessels that would allow vessels using selective 
trawl gear into portions of year-round Georges Bank (GB) groundfish CAs 
I and II in fishing year (FY) 2014, NMFS announced interest in 
gathering catch data from these areas through EFPs (79 FR 14639, March 
17, 2014). This would provide NMFS with fisheries dependent data from 
these areas, which have been closed to groundfish bottom trawling for 
nearly 20 years, to help inform whether to allow conditional access to 
CAs I and II to sector vessels through the sector exemption process. 
Data from vessels operating under an EFP would be used to characterize 
catch rates of target and non-target species in the CAs, as well as 
help inform industry on the economic feasibility of industry-funded 
monitoring for trips into CAs I and II in FY 2014. Atlantic Trawlers 
Fishing, Inc. submitted a complete application for an EFP to conduct 
commercial fishing activities that the regulations would otherwise 
restrict. The EFP would authorize three vessels to fish during the 
entire fishing year, and inside portions of groundfish CA I and CA II 
during specified times of the fishing year. Under this EFP, vessels 
would be allowed to use nets with codend mesh as small as 5.1-inch (13 
cm) square mesh when fishing with a haddock separator or Ruhle trawl. 
In addition, for sampling purposes, vessels would be authorized to 
temporarily retain sub-legal fish, and fish in excess of possession 
limits. All under-size fish and fish in excess of possession limits 
would be discarded as soon as practicable following data collection.
    The GB haddock fishery has historically been a specialized fishery 
where a sub-subset of groundfish fishery participants accounted for a 
large proportion of the landings. GB haddock are found across a wide 
range of depths, substrates and sub-areas of GB. The applicant notes 
that haddock behavior and movement patterns are highly variable; and 
that catchability is dictated by many environmental factors, including 
tide, current, moon phase, and diurnal cycles. These highly variable 
haddock catch rates pose a relatively high economic risk for vessels 
targeting this species, which would be further compounded by having to 
pay for an at-sea monitor. Due to the variable catch rates, the 
applicant states that a large portion of catch from a trip is often 
caught in one or two very large tows, and that successful haddock 
fishermen must spend significant time trying to locate haddock 
concentrations. Consequently, the applicant has stated that vessels 
must have consistent access to CAs I and II to effectively characterize 
target and non-target catch rates.
    The EFP applicant seeks to address five objectives in this EFP as 
follows: (1) Generate data on the composition of catch, including 
presence and absence of target (e.g., GB haddock) and non-

[[Page 23941]]

target species; (2) test the effectiveness of utilizing gear comparable 
to the Canadian haddock fishery on Georges Bank (e.g., haddock 
separator trawl with 5.1 inch (13 cm) square mesh codend) to improve 
haddock selectivity, catch ratios, and improved annual catch limit 
(ACL) utilization rates; (3) collect data to examine the economic 
feasibility of an industry funded monitoring program for CA trips; (4) 
test the effectiveness of providing access to portions of the existing 
CAs for improving utilization rates of GB haddock; and (5) collect 
information from CAs I and II so that NMFS may conduct analyses to 
determine whether fishing can be allowed at a level of observer 
coverage of less than 100 percent, should an exemption be approved.
    To fulfill these objectives, vessels would be accompanied by a 
technician with an at-sea-monitor certification, and would be required 
to fish with either a haddock separator trawl or a Ruhle trawl, fitted 
with either a 6-inch (15.2 cm) diamond mesh codend (currently allowed 
in the fishery) or a 5.1-inch (13-cm) square mesh codend. The applicant 
claims that the 5.1-inch (13-cm) square mesh codend will improve their 
ability to target legal-size haddock while maintaining the ability to 
filter out small non-target catch, including sub-legal haddock. All 
three vessels will be equipped with echo sounders that operate on 
multiple frequencies, which provide the capability of revealing fish 
size distribution and bottom hardness.
    For CA I, vessels would be given access to all areas within CA1 
that are not existing Habitat Management Areas or contained in the New 
England Fisheries Management Council's (Council) draft Omnibus Habitat 
Amendment as Habitat Management Area alternatives as of April 30, 2014, 
from the date that the EFP is issued, through February 15, 2015. NMFS 
has raised concerns about spawning in CA I from January 1 to February 
15, but the applicant has requested access for this period to collect 
information to address questions about spawning fish.
    In CA II, vessels would be given access to all areas within CA II 
that are not existing Habitat Management Areas or contained in the 
Council's draft Omnibus Habitat Amendment as Habitat Management Area 
alternatives as of April 30, 2014. Vessels would have access from the 
date that the EFP is issued, through June 15, 2014, and then from 
November 1, 2014 through February 15, 2015. Similar to CA I, NMFS has 
raised concerns about spawning in CA II from January 1 to February 15, 
but the applicant has requested access for this period to collect 
information to address questions about spawning fish. The dates for CA 
II access reflect an agreement between sector trawl fishermen and the 
lobster industry, which was developed in anticipation of sectors being 
granted CA II access through an exemption in FY 2013. The agreement was 
established to avoid gear conflicts between lobster and groundfish 
vessels. The applicant and members of the lobster industry remain 
concerned about gear conflicts that could arise from this, or any other 
EFP, that are accessing CA II. Therefore, the applicant would not 
access portions of CA II from June 15 through November 1, the time 
period that the lobster industry is allowed access.
    The applicant requests issuance of the EFP for the entire fishing 
year in order to use a smaller mesh codend throughout the year, but 
access to the closed areas would be for only portions of the year. 
Fishing effort under the EFP would be heavily dependent upon 
operational decisions dictating whether to fish within CAs I and II, as 
compared to outside the areas. As previously described, the applicant 
has stated that the directed haddock fishery is highly dynamic and 
requires a high degree of mobility. If approved, the applicant has 
stated that the three participating vessels would focus on the directed 
haddock fishery throughout the study period, and makes tows both inside 
and outside the CAs on the same trip. Vessel tow duration would vary 
from 30 minutes to 3 hours and trawling would occur up to 18 hours per 
fishing day. An average trip duration would be seven days, consisting 
of five days fishing and two days steaming, and there would be an 
average of three trips total, per month. All legal sized fish will be 
landed and sold with all proceeds retained by the vessel owner. All 
three vessels are members of the Sustainable Harvest Sector (SHS) and 
all catch of allocated stocks (e.g., haddock, cod) would be accounted 
for under the annual catch entitlements (ACEs) of the SHS. If the SHS 
exceeds its ACE for an allocated stock, it would need to lease in 
additional ACE in order to continue fishing.
    If approved, the applicant may request minor modifications and 
extensions to the EFP throughout the year. EFP modifications and 
extensions may be granted without further notice if they are deemed 
essential to facilitate completion of the proposed research and have 
minimal impacts that do not change the scope or impact of the initially 
approved EFP request. Any fishing activity conducted outside the scope 
of the exempted fishing activity would be prohibited.

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

    Dated: April 24, 2014.
Emily H. Menashes,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2014-09742 Filed 4-28-14; 8:45 am]
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