[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 100 (Friday, May 23, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 29741-29743]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-12021]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
RIN 0648-XD257
Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone off Alaska; Application
for an Exempted Fishing Permit
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notice; public comment on an application for exempted fishing
permit.
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SUMMARY: This notice announces receipt of an application and the public
comment period for an exempted fishing permit (EFP) from Mr. John
Gauvin of Gauvin and Associates, LLC. If granted, this permit would
allow the applicant to continue the development and testing of a salmon
excluder device for the Bering Sea pollock trawl fishery. This activity
is intended to promote the objectives of the Fishery Management Plan
for Groundfish of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area
(FMP) by reducing salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea pollock trawl
fishery.
DATES: Submit comments on or before June 23, 2014. Interested persons
may comment on the EFP application and on the environmental assessment
(EA) during the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council)
meeting June 2 through June 10, 2014, in Nome, AK.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments on this document, identified by FDMS
Docket Number NOAA-NMFS-2014-0050, by any of the following methods:
Electronic Submission: Submit all electronic public
comments via the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal. Go to
www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D= NOAA-NMFS-2014-0050, click the
``Comment Now!'' icon, complete the required fields, and enter or
attach your comments.
[[Page 29742]]
Mail: Submit written comments to Glenn Merrill, Assistant
Regional Administrator, Sustainable Fisheries Division, Alaska Region
NMFS, Attn: Ellen Sebastian. Mail comments to P.O. Box 21668, Juneau,
AK 99802-1668.
Instructions: 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 by NMFS. All comments received are a part of the
public record and will generally be posted for public viewing on
www.regulations.gov without change. All personal identifying
information (e.g., name, address), confidential business information,
or otherwise sensitive information submitted voluntarily by the sender
will be publicly accessible. 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,
Excel, or Adobe PDF file formats only.
Electronic copies of the Secretarial Review Draft Environmental
Assessment For Issuing an Exempted Fishing Permit for the Purpose of
Testing a Salmon Excluder Device in the Eastern Bering Sea Pollock
Fishery, May 2014, prepared for this action are available from http://www.regulations.gov or from the NMFS Alaska Region Web site at http://alaskafisheries.noaa.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jeff Hartman, 907-586-7442.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NMFS manages the domestic groundfish
fisheries in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area (BSAI)
under the FMP. The Council prepared the FMP under the Magnuson-Stevens
Fishery Conservation and Management Act. Regulations governing the
groundfish fisheries of the BSAI appear at 50 CFR parts 600 and 679.
The FMP and the implementing regulations at Sec. Sec. 600.745(b) and
679.6 authorize issuance of EFPs to allow fishing that would otherwise
be prohibited. Procedures for issuing EFPs are contained in the
implementing regulations.
NMFS received an application for an EFP from Mr. Gauvin in December
2013. The purposes of the EFP project would be to improve the
performance of the salmon excluder device developed under EFP 11-01
from 2011 to 2012, and to validate the performance of this device for
pollock trawl gear used in the BSAI. The EFP project would focus on
testing a redesigned excluder device to reduce chum salmon and Chinook
salmon bycatch and refine the device for use on trawl vessels fishing
for groundfish. The goal is to develop a device for pollock trawl gear
that reduces salmon bycatch without significantly lowering pollock
catch rates. Salmon are prohibited species that are incidentally caught
in the pollock fishery (Sec. 679.21(e) and (f)).
The EFP would allow for testing of the salmon excluder device from
January 2015 through June 2016, for several weeks in each pollock A and
B season. Testing in each season would allow the device to be used
under salmon occurrence and pollock fishing practices specific to each
season. Testing in the A season would catch primarily Chinook salmon
and roe-bearing pollock, while testing in the B season would catch
Chinook and chum salmon and pollock that are not likely to be roe-
bearing. EFP fishing would be conducted by one to two vessels in each
season.
To test the salmon excluder device, exemptions would be necessary
from regulations for salmon bycatch management, observer requirements,
closure areas, total allowable catch amounts (TACs) for groundfish, and
prohibited species catch (PSC) limits for the pollock fishery. Taking
salmon during the experiment is crucial for determining the
effectiveness of the device. Salmon taken during the experiment would
not be counted toward the Chinook and chum salmon PSC limits under
Sec. 679.21(e)(1)(vii), (e)(3)(i)(A)(3), and (f)(2). The amount of
chum salmon PSC taken by the pollock trawl industry during the EFP
period could approach or exceed the chum salmon PSC limits under Sec.
679.21(e)(7)(vii). If the EFP salmon were counted toward the salmon PSC
limits, the EFP salmon may create an additional burden on the pollock
trawl fishermen not participating in an intercooperative agreement for
chum salmon or incentive plan agreement for Chinook salmon bycatch
reduction by causing earlier closures of the Chum Salmon Savings Area
or violating the plan agreement for Chinook salmon. More information
regarding the intercooperative agreement for salmon bycatch reduction
is at 72 FR 61070 (October 29, 2007). Information regarding the
incentive plan agreements under Amendment 91 for Bering Sea Chinook
salmon bycatch management is at 75 FR 53026 (August 30, 2010).
Approximately 2,500 chum salmon and 250 Chinook salmon for the 2015
B season and 500 chum salmon and 1,200 Chinook salmon for the 2015 and
2016 A seasons would be required to support the project. In total, the
applicant would be limited to harvesting 3,000 chum salmon and 1,450
Chinook salmon during the EFP period. The experimental design requires
this quantity of salmon to ensure statistically valid results.
The applicant also has requested an exemption from the Chum Salmon
Savings Area (Sec. Sec. 679.21(e)(7)(vii) and 679.22(a)(10)), the
Bering Sea Pollock Restriction Area (Sec. 679.22(a)(7)(ii)), and the
Steller Sea Lion Conservation Area (Sec. 679.22(a)(7)(vii)). These
overlapping areas occur in locations of salmon concentration. The
experiment must be conducted in areas of salmon concentration
sufficient to ensure a statistically adequate sample size. These
locations are ideal for conducting the experiment and ensuring that the
vessel encounters sufficient concentrations of salmon and pollock for
meeting the experimental design.
Groundfish taken under the EFP would be exempt from the TACs
specified in the annual harvest specifications (Sec. 679.20). A total
of 2,500 metric tons (mt) of groundfish (primarily pollock) would be
taken during each A season of 2015 and 2016, and 2,500 mt of groundfish
would be taken in the B season of 2016 for a total of 7,500 mt over the
duration of the EFP. Approximately 96 percent of the groundfish
harvested is expected to be pollock. The experimental design requires
this quantity of pollock to ensure a statistically adequate sample size
for measuring pollock escapement through the salmon excluder device.
The EFP groundfish harvest would not be included in the harvest
applied against the Bering Sea groundfish TACs. The preliminary 2015
TAC for Bering Sea pollock is equal to the acceptable biological catch
(ABC) at 1,258,000 mt, but the TAC is likely to be adjusted during the
2015/2016 harvest specifications process and may result in a TAC less
than ABC (79 FR 12108, March 4, 2014). TAC and ABC have not been
specified for the 2016 fishing year at this time. The EFP fishing will
be permitted for this proposed action if the ABC for Bering Sea pollock
exceeds the TAC by at least 5,000 mt in 2015 and 2,500 mt in 2016.
Because of very little groundfish incidental catch in the pollock
fishery, the harvest of other fish species during the EFP fishing is
expected to be 50 mt to 80 mt per season. The majority of these other
species harvested under the EFP likely would be Pacific cod, skates,
flatfish, halibut, and jellyfish. The amount of groundfish harvest
under the EFP and by the commercial groundfish fisheries is not
expected to cause ABCs for groundfish species to be exceeded in either
2015 or 2016 because other BSAI
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groundfish TACs are set with a sufficient difference between ABC and
TAC to accommodate EFP fishing catch of groundfish species other than
pollock.
The EFP is expected to take approximately 12 mt of halibut per
season for a total of 12 mt of halibut in 2015 and 24 mt of halibut in
2016. The EFP would require an exemption from halibut PSC limits under
Sec. 679.21(e)(3)(ii)(C). The halibut taken under the EFP in
combination with the groundfish fisheries is not expected to exceed the
halibut PSC harvest specifications in 2015 or 2016.
Using a catcher/processor for the EFP study would require exemption
from the Catcher Vessel Operational Area (CVOA) restriction (Sec.
679.22(a)(5)) because of the location of the Chinook salmon
concentration in the CVOA. Catcher/processors are prohibited from
operating in the CVOA during the B season. The EFP fishing may be done
by either a catcher vessel or a catcher/processor. It may be necessary
for the EFP applicant to use a catcher/processor to conduct tows in
this area to ensure encountering sufficient pollock and salmon
concentrations to meet the experimental design.
The EFP would exempt vessels that are EFP fishing from closures of
the Chum Salmon Savings Area. This is necessary because the
experimental design for this EFP is based on testing in areas with high
incidental catch rates of salmon that may occur in the Chum Salmon
Savings Area.
The EFP would include an exemption from selected observer
requirements at Sec. Sec. 679.50, 679.51, and 679.55. Participating
vessels would use ``sea samplers'' who are NMFS-trained observers. They
would not be deployed as NMFS observers, however, at the time of the
EFP fishing. The ``sea samplers'' would conduct the EFP data collection
and perform other observer duties that normally would be required for
vessels directed fishing for pollock. EFP fishing trips also would be
exempted from observer requirements for trip selection and fee
collection.
The activities under the EFP are not expected to have a significant
impact on the human environment as analyzed in the EA for this action
(see ADDRESSES). The EFP would be subject to modifications pending any
new relevant information regarding the 2015 and 2016 fishery, including
the groundfish harvest specifications.
In accordance with 50 CFR 679.6 and 600 CFR 745(b)(3)(ii), NMFS has
determined that the proposal warrants further consideration and has
forwarded the application to the Council to initiate consultation. The
Council will consider the EFP application during its meeting June 2
through June 10, 2014, which will be held at the Nome Mini Convention
Center, 409 River St., Nome, AK. The applicant has been invited to
appear in support of the application.
Public Comments
Public comments are being solicited on the application and the EA
through the end of the comment period stated in this notice. To be
considered, comments must be received on or before the last day of the
comment period; that does not mean postmarked or otherwise transmitted
by that date. Copies of the application and EA are available for review
from NMFS (see ADDRESSES). Interested persons also may comment on the
application and on the EA at the June 2014 Council meeting during
public testimony.
Information regarding the meeting is available at the Council's Web
site at http://www.alaskafisheries.noaa.gov/npfmc/.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: May 20, 2014.
James P. Burgess,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2014-12021 Filed 5-22-14; 8:45 am]
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