[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 162 (Thursday, August 21, 2014)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 49487-49490]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-19839]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 679

RIN 0648-BC34


Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Pacific Cod 
Pot Gear Fishing Closure in the Pribilof Islands Habitat Conservation 
Zone in the Bering Sea and Rebuilding Pribilof Islands Blue King Crab

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and

[[Page 49488]]

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of availability of fishery management plan amendments; 
request for comments.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The North Pacific Fishery Management Council has submitted 
Amendment 103 to the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish of the 
Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area (BSAI FMP) and 
Amendment 43 to the Fishery Management Plan for Bering Sea/Aleutian 
Islands King and Tanner Crabs (Crab FMP). If approved, Amendment 103 
would close year-round the Pribilof Islands Habitat Conservation Zone 
(PIHCZ) to directed fishing for Pacific cod with pot gear. Prohibiting 
directed fishing for Pacific cod with pot gear in the PIHCZ would 
reduce the bycatch of Pribilof Islands blue king crab (PIBKC), prevent 
overfishing, and support rebuilding of the PIBKC stock. If approved, 
Amendment 43 would amend the Crab FMP to revise the rebuilding plan for 
PIBKC. These actions are intended to promote the goals and objectives 
of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the 
FMPs, and other applicable law. Comments from the public are 
encouraged.

DATES: Comments on the amendment must be received on or before 1700 
hours, Alaska local time (A.l.t.), October 20, 2014.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments on this document, identified by 
NOAA-NMFS-2012-0141, 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-2012-0141, click the 
``Comment Now!'' icon, complete the required fields, and enter or 
attach your comments.
     Mail: Address 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 Amendment 103 to the BSAI FMP, Amendment 43 to 
the Crab FMP, the Environmental Assessment (EA), and the Regulatory 
Impact Review/Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis (RIR/IRFA) 
prepared for this proposed action are available from 
www.regulations.gov or from the NMFS Alaska Region Web site at http://alaskafisheries.noaa.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sarah Ellgen, 907-586-7228.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NMFS manages the Bering Sea and Aleutian 
Islands Management Area (BSAI) groundfish fisheries in the exclusive 
economic zone off Alaska under the BSAI FMP. The Fishery Management 
Plan for Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands King and Tanner Crabs (Crab FMP) 
establishes a State and Federal cooperative management regime that 
defers crab fisheries management to the State of Alaska with Federal 
oversight. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) 
prepared the FMPs under the authority of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery 
Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act), 16 U.S.C. 1801 
et seq. Regulations governing U.S. fisheries and implementing the FMPs 
appear at 50 CFR parts 600, 679, and 680. State regulations for 
managing the BSAI king and Tanner crab fisheries are subject to the 
provisions of the Crab FMP, including its goals and objectives, the 
Magnuson-Stevens Act, and other applicable Federal laws.
    The Magnuson-Stevens Act requires that each regional fishery 
management council submit any FMP 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 an FMP amendment, immediately publish a document in the 
Federal Register announcing that the amendment is available for public 
review and comment. This document announces that proposed Amendment 103 
to the BSAI FMP and proposed Amendment 43 to the Crab FMP are available 
for public review and comment.
    If approved, Amendment 103 to the BSAI FMP would revise the fishing 
prohibition for the PIHCZ (Figure 1) to prohibit directed fishing for 
Pacific cod with pot gear. If approved, Amendment 43 to the Crab FMP 
would revise the rebuilding plan for the PIBKC.

Background

    Blue king crabs are found in isolated populations and do not exist 
uniformly across the Bering Sea. NMFS and the Alaska Department of Fish 
and Game (ADF&G) manage these isolated populations as distinct stocks 
where they occur. The PIBKC stock occurs around the islands of Saint 
Paul and Saint George in the Bering Sea. The PIBKC fishery was first 
opened in 1973. Total biomass and abundance peaked in the early 1980s. 
Over the last 20 years, the PIBKC stock abundance decreased relative to 
its peak abundance, and NMFS and ADF&G have implemented a number of 
increasingly conservative management measures to limit potentially 
adverse fishery effects on the stock.
    Since 1999, as part of the joint management of the crab stocks 
under the Crab FMP, the ADF&G has closed the PIBKC fishery and the 
Pribilof Islands red king crab fishery to minimize the bycatch of PIBKC 
in that fishery. On an annual basis, ADF&G also closes specific State 
statistical areas where PIBKC are known to occur during the Bristol Bay 
red king crab, snow crab, and Tanner crab fisheries to minimize PIBKC 
bycatch in those fisheries.
    In 1995, NMFS implemented Amendment 21a to the BSAI FMP to 
establish a trawl gear closure in the PIHCZ, to protect blue king crab 
(60 FR 4110, January 20, 1995). The PIHCZ was established to protect a 
majority of the crab habitat in the Pribilof Islands area based on the 
distribution and habitat of the blue king crab in the NMFS annual trawl 
surveys and on observer data.
    The BSAI FMP and implementing regulations at Sec.  679.21 require 
that the incidental catch of PIBKC as a prohibited species must be 
avoided while fishing for groundfish. When PIBKC is caught in 
groundfish fisheries, it is known as bycatch and must be immediately 
returned to sea with a minimum of injury. In addition, regulations at 
Sec.  679.7 prohibit PIBKC bycatch in groundfish fisheries from being 
sold or kept for personal use.
    On September 23, 2002, the Secretary of Commerce notified the 
Council that the PIBKC stock biomass was below its minimum stock size 
threshold and was overfished. Rebuilding overfished stocks is required 
by section 304 the Magnuson-Stevens Act. A rebuilding plan was 
implemented in 2004 that included a provision that prohibited directed 
fishing on PIBKC until the stock was rebuilt (69 FR 17651, April 5,

[[Page 49489]]

2004). This Federal regulatory prohibition mirrored the directed 
fishing closure already established by ADF&G in 1999. The rebuilding 
plan estimated that the stock had a 50 percent probability to be 
rebuilt within 10 years, by 2014, in compliance with section 
304(e)(4)(A)(ii) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
    Due to chronic low abundance, this stock remains overfished despite 
the measures to minimize catch of blue king crab. The cause of the 
continued low PIBKC stock abundance and failure to recover is not well 
understood. Information included in the EA (see ADDRESSES) and Stock 
Assessment and Fishery Evaluation (SAFE) reports suggest that 
environmental conditions such as changing ocean currents, changing 
water temperatures, and changing spatial distributions among king crab 
stocks may contribute to the failure of this stock to recover. While 
there are no apparent physical barriers to adult dispersal, crab larval 
dispersal may be affected by local oceanography, which may in turn 
affect recruitment of the PIBKC stock (see Table 4-4 of the EA). 
Environmental conditions may also play a role in female crab 
reproduction and growth; however this relationship is poorly understood 
(Section 5 of the EA).
    NMFS notified the Council on September 29, 2009, that the current 
rebuilding plan for PIBKC was not achieving adequate progress to 
rebuild the stock by 2014. To comply with section 304(e)(7) of the 
Magnuson-Stevens Act, the Council recommended further conservation and 
management measures in Amendment 103 to reduce bycatch in groundfish 
fisheries: the primary source of fishing mortality for PIBKC. The 
Council also recommended Amendment 43 to revise to the rebuilding plan 
in the Crab FMP.

Proposed Amendment 103 to the BSAI FMP

    Amendment 103 to the BSAI FMP, and the proposed implementing 
regulations, would close year-round the PIHCZ to directed fishing for 
Pacific cod with pot gear to minimize bycatch of PIBKC in groundfish 
fisheries and prevent overfishing. The term ``directed fishing'' is 
defined in the groundfish fisheries regulation at Sec.  679.2.
    Federal fisheries management is required to be consistent with the 
ten National Standards in the Magnuson-Stevens Act (16 U.S.C. 1851). 
Amendment 103 addresses primarily two national standards under the 
Magnuson-Stevens Act. The first standard is National Standard 1, which 
requires that ``Conservation and management measures shall prevent 
overfishing while achieving, on a continuing basis, the optimum yield 
from each fishery for the U.S. fishing industry.'' The second standard 
is National Standard 9, which requires that ``Conservation and 
management measures shall, to the extent practicable, (a) minimize 
bycatch and (b) to the extent bycatch cannot be avoided, minimize the 
mortality of such bycatch.''
    Amendment 103 would be consistent with National Standard 1 by 
preventing overfishing of PIBKC while allowing the Pacific cod pot 
allocation to be fully harvested in the BSAI. Bycatch of PIBKC in all 
groundfish fisheries is below the PIBKC overfishing level; however, 
groundfish fisheries catch of PIBKC has the potential to exceed the 
annual PIBKC overfishing level. Therefore, the Council recommended 
additional conservation and management measures to further minimize 
bycatch and prevent overfishing with the goal to rebuild PIBKC.
    Amendment 103 would also be consistent with National Standard 9 by 
minimizing bycatch to the extent practicable. The Council recommended 
closing the PIHCZ to directed fishing for Pacific cod with pot gear 
based primarily on the high observed rate of PIBKC bycatch in the PIHCZ 
relative to areas outside of the PIHCZ, and the high observed rate of 
PIBKC bycatch within the PIHCZ in the directed Pacific cod pot gear 
fishery relative to other groundfish fisheries occurring within the 
PIHCZ.
    The RIR/IRFA prepared for this action indicates that under 
Amendment 103 the catch of Pacific cod by pot gear would not be 
reduced, and the Pacific cod pot fisheries would be able to fully 
harvest their annual allocation. The RIR/IRFA suggests that fairly high 
Pacific cod catch by vessels using pot gear that occurs within the 
PIHCZ could be effectively harvested outside of the boundary of the 
PIHCZ with limited potential for additional costs on the affected 
fishery participants. (See Section 1.4.2 of the RIR/IRFA for additional 
detail).
    Pot gear has the highest observed bycatch rates of PIBKC across all 
gear types from 2005 to 2011. The 2005 through 2011 reference period 
uses the best available information on PIBKC bycatch rates by 
groundfish fisheries. The average PIBKC bycatch rate observed for pot 
gear for this time period in the entire PIHCZ was 0.052 crab per metric 
ton. The areas located to the northeast and to the east of St. Paul 
Island, within the PIHCZ, had the highest and second-highest PIBKC 
bycatch rates in the BSAI, respectively. Nearly all of the observed 
PIBKC bycatch was within the PIHCZ. Thus a closure of the PIHCZ to pot 
gear would close the area with the highest observed bycatch rate of 
PIBKC. The next highest PIBKC bycatch rates were observed in the hook-
and-line Pacific cod fishery in the PIHCZ with an average rate of 
0.0176 crab per metric ton from 2005 to 2011, a rate of roughly one-
third of that observed in the Pacific cod pot fishery.
    Trawl gear is currently prohibited within the PIHCZ and does not 
contribute to PIBKC bycatch within the PIHCZ. Hook-and-line and pot 
fisheries within the PIHCZ for groundfish species other than Pacific 
cod do not comprise more than a minimal amount of PIBKC bycatch. 
Extending the closure in the PIHCZ beyond the trawl and Pacific cod pot 
gear fisheries was not practicable based on the much lower observed 
rate of PIBKC bycatch in the PIHCZ for those groundfish fisheries and 
the minimal impact of those additional closures on PIBKC stock 
abundance. See Section 4.5.5 of the EA for additional detail.
    The Council considered a range of alternative closure areas to 
reduce the bycatch of PIBKC. Ultimately, the Council recommended 
closing the PIHCZ to directed fishing for Pacific cod with pot gear 
based on: 1) the high rate of PIBKC bycatch in the PIHCZ relative to 
other areas outside of the PIHCZ; 2) the high concentration of PIBKC in 
the PIHCZ; 3) the occurrence of known PIBKC habitat within the PIHCZ; 
4) the high rate of PIBKC bycatch in the Pacific cod pot fishery 
relative to other groundfish fisheries; and 5) the limited impact the 
Pacific cod pot gear closure in the PIHCZ would have on the Pacific cod 
pot fishery relative to other closures in other groundfish fisheries. 
See Section 2.9 of the EA for additional detail of the alternatives 
considered and not selected.

[[Page 49490]]

[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TP21AU14.004

Proposed Amendment 43 to the Crab FMP

    The current rebuilding plan in the Crab FMP for PIBKC describes 
measures taken to reduce mortality to PIBKC to support rebuilding the 
stock, including actions taken under the BSAI FMP. With the 
implementation of Amendment 103 to the BSAI FMP, all fishery management 
measures practicable have been taken to greatly eliminate PIBKC catch 
and protect PIBKC habitat. These measures are intended to ensure that 
the rebuilding time period is as short as possible in compliance with 
section 304(e)(4)(A) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act. Amendment 43 to the 
Crab FMP would amend the current rebuilding plan and incorporate the 
new information available on the rebuilding time period that takes into 
account the status and biology of PIBKC and environmental conditions.
    Based on the best available information on the biology of the stock 
and environmental conditions, NMFS estimates that the time period to 
rebuild the stock will exceed 10 years, as allowed under section 
304(e)(4)(A)(ii) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act (see Section 4.5.2 of the 
EA for more information). The causes of the stock decline are thought 
to be predominantly due to environmental changes that inhibit blue king 
crab reproduction. For this stock to rebuild, the stock would likely 
require multiple years of above average recruitment and/or a change in 
environmental conditions to increase larval productivity around the 
Pribilof Islands. It is not possible to predict future recruitment 
success; however, changes in stock abundance are assessed annually in 
the SAFE report.
    NMFS developed a draft stock assessment model that predicted that 
the PIBKC stock may be rebuilt in 50 years. However, NMFS does not have 
confidence in these model results. The low numbers of PIBKC encountered 
in biomass surveys and the poor ability to predict recruitment results 
in high imprecision in the projected biomass. The model imprecision, 
coupled with poorly understood environmental influences on the blue 
king crab stock, did not lead to high confidence in biomass projections 
during the 50-year period. As a result, NMFS is unable to predict 
whether the PIBKC stock can be rebuilt in the foreseeable future.
    In addition, the draft model results showed no statistically 
significant difference in the rebuilding timeframe under any of the 
bycatch reduction scenarios. While NMFS could not determine whether 
reducing bycatch would alter rebuilding timeframes using the stock 
assessment model, NMFS and the Council are proposing Amendment 103 and 
the proposed rule to further minimize bycatch.
Public Comments
    NMFS is soliciting public comments on the proposed FMP amendments 
through October 20, 2014. A proposed rule that would implement 
Amendment 103 to the BSAI FMP will be published in the Federal Register 
for public comment at a later date, following NMFS' evaluation pursuant 
to the Magnuson-Stevens Act. Public comments on the proposed rule must 
be received by the end of the comment period on Amendment 103 to the 
BSAI FMP in order to be considered in the approval/disapproval decision 
on the amendment. All comments received on the amendments by the end of 
the comment period, whether specifically directed to the amendments or 
to the proposed rule for Amendment 103, will be considered in the 
approval/disapproval decision. Comments received after that date will 
not be considered in the approval/disapproval decision on the 
amendments. To be considered, comments must be received--not just 
postmarked or otherwise transmitted--by 1700 hours, A.l.t., on the last 
day of the comment period (See DATES and ADDRESSES).

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

    Dated: August 18, 2014.
Emily H. Menashes,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2014-19839 Filed 8-20-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P