[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 225 (Monday, November 23, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 72951-72953]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-29795]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

RIN 0648-XE308


Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Northeast 
Multispecies Fishery Management Plan; Notice of Intent To Prepare an 
Environmental Impact Statement; Scoping Process; Request for Comments

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

ACTION: Notice; intent to prepare an environmental impact statement and 
initiate scoping process; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The New England Fishery Management Council announces its 
intention to prepare, in cooperation with NMFS, an environmental impact 
statement in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act. An 
environmental impact statement may be necessary to provide analytical 
support for Amendment 22 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery 
Management Plan, which would set criteria for a limited entry program 
for the small-mesh multispecies (whiting) fishery. This notice is to 
alert the interested public of the scoping process and potential 
development of a draft environmental impact statement and to outline 
opportunity for public participation in that process.

DATES: Written and electronic scoping comments must be received on or 
before 5 p.m., local time, January 7, 2016.

ADDRESSES: Written scoping comments on Amendment 22 may be sent by any 
of the following methods:
     Email to the following address: [email protected];
     Mail to Thomas A. Nies, Executive Director, New England 
Fishery Management Council, 50 Water Street, Mill 2, Newburyport, MA 
01950; or
     Fax to (978) 465-3116.
    Requests for copies of the Amendment 22 scoping document and other 
information should be directed to Thomas A. Nies, Executive Director, 
New England Fishery Management Council, 50 Water Street, Mill 2, 
Newburyport, MA 01950, telephone (978) 465-0492. The scoping document 
is accessible electronically via the Internet at http://www.nefmc.org.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Thomas A. Nies, Executive Director, 
New England Fishery Management Council, (978) 465-0492.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background

    The New England Fishery Management Council, working through its 
public participatory committee and meeting processes, anticipates the 
development of an amendment that may be analyzed through an 
environmental impact statement (EIS), dependent on addressing 
applicable criteria in the Council on Environmental Quality regulations 
and guidance for implementing the National Environmental Policy Act 
(NEPA). Amendment 22 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management 
Plan (FMP) is anticipated to consider criteria that would restrict 
access to the directed whiting fishery based on past participation by 
vessels in the fishery and possibly other factors through the 
establishment of a limited entry program. Amendment 22 would also 
determine limits and fishery regulations that would apply to qualifying 
and non-qualifying vessels.
    The small-mesh multispecies fishery is managed through a set of 
exemptions from the requirements of the ``large-mesh'' multispecies 
fishery. The current small-mesh exemptions under the FMP were first 
established in Amendment 5 in 1994. Amendment 5 prevented fishing with 
mesh smaller than the established minimum size in Gulf of Maine/Georges 
Bank Regulated Mesh Areas, unless exempted fisheries could be 
established that reduce the bycatch of regulated multispecies to less 
than 5 percent of the total weight of fish on board. Since that time, 
experimental and exempted fisheries for small-mesh multispecies in this 
area have evolved through cooperative experimentation, gear research, 
and gear technologies that significantly reduce bycatch of non-target 
species, especially regulated multispecies.
    A number of amendments and framework adjustments revised management 
of the small-mesh fishery, including the relationships between

[[Page 72952]]

retention limits and net mesh size, created and then modified a 
seasonal raised footrope trawl fishery in Cape Cod Bay, made minor 
modifications to several related measures, and created a raised 
footrope trawl whiting fishery in the inshore Gulf of Maine. Using a 
September 9, 1996, control date, the Council developed and submitted 
Amendment 12 to establish limited access criteria during 1999. Due to 
concerns about equity and overfishing, the limited access criteria in 
this amendment were disapproved (See the final rule (65 FR 6766; March 
29, 2000) for Amendment 12 here: http://www.greateratlantic.fisheries.noaa.gov/sfd/multifr/65FR16765.pdf).
    In 2006, the Council held new scoping hearings for an second 
limited entry amendment, which at the time was known as Amendment 15 
(http://www.greateratlantic.fisheries.noaa.gov/sfd/multifr/65FR16765.pdf) and began development of limited access alternatives 
using March 25, 2003, control date and fishery data (dealer and VTR) 
through 2005. Extensive analyses were completed through May 2007 by 
Whiting Advisors and the Small Mesh Multispecies Committee to develop 
and evaluate alternatives. Concerns were raised, and potential 
solutions generated, to address ``historic'' whiting fisheries that had 
lost access in the mid-2000s due to groundfish restrictions and/or 
changes in availability of small-mesh multispecies. Between the 2006 
scoping hearings and May 2007, substantial progress was made to analyze 
the fishery and develop alternatives, but the Council encountered data, 
enforcement, and compliance problems that compromised any approach that 
could be taken. Because these issues could not be resolved in a timely 
manner, the Council took up higher priority issues in 2008 and work on 
the amendment was discontinued. Many of the issues that were raised at 
that time have not been resolved.
    Amendment 19 (http://s3.amazonaws.com/nefmc.org/Final_Amendment_19.pdf) was approved and implemented on April 4, 2013 
(http://s3.amazonaws.com/nefmc.org/amend19final_rule.pdf), establishing 
allowable biological catch specifications, annual catch limits, and 
accountability measures individually for northern and southern stocks 
of whiting (silver and offshore hakes) and red hake. These limits were 
set using a benchmark stock assessment conducted in 2010 (http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/publications/crd/crd1101/).
    The most recent action was a Specifications Document for Fishing 
Years 2015-2017 (http://www.nefmc.org/library/2015-2017-whiting-specifications), taken in response to an operational assessment that 
updated the stock status and to make a correction to the northern red 
hake accountability measure. The operational assessment determined that 
overfishing of northern red hake was occurring in 2013 (http://s3.amazonaws.com/nefmc.org/SAFE-Report-for-Fishing-Year-2013.pdf), a 
situation that the Council addressed by changing the ABC and reducing 
northern red hake possession limits. The assessment detected a large 
2013 year class, but its size was imprecise and it would not enter the 
fishery until 2015-2016. Because this large year class could cause 
excessive discards with the reduced northern red hake possession 
limits, a new operational red hake assessment was requested and 
presented to the Council in September 2015. The Council is considering 
adjusting the red hake specifications based on that update.

Amendment 22

    The purpose of Amendment 22 is to implement measures that would 
prevent unrestrained increases in fishing effort by new entrants to the 
fishery. The need for the amendment is to reduce the potential for a 
rapid escalation of the small-mesh multispecies fishery, possibly 
causing overfishing and having a negative effect on red hake and 
whiting markets. The outcome of both would have negative effects on 
fishery participants. The amendment is intended to ensure that catches 
of the small-mesh multispecies and other non-target species will be at 
or below specifications, reducing the potential for causing 
accountability measures to be triggered and resulting closure of the 
directed fishery.
    The Council's Small-Mesh Multispecies Committee and the Council 
will be identifying the goals and objectives for Amendment 22 following 
the scoping period and will then develop alternatives to meet the 
purpose and need of the action. Following input from these Council 
bodies and the public, the Council will select a range of alternatives 
to consider limited access criteria as well as limits and fishing 
restrictions for qualifying and non-qualifying vessels.

Public Comment

    All persons affected by or otherwise interested in small-mesh 
multispecies management are invited to participate in determining the 
scope and significance of issues to be analyzed by submitting written 
comments (see ADDRESSES) or by attending one of the four scoping 
meetings for this amendment. Scoping consists of identifying the range 
of actions, alternatives, and impacts to be considered. At this time in 
the process, the Council believes that the alternatives considered in 
Amendment 22 would consider limited access criteria based on a vessel's 
history in the fishery and possibly other factors, as well as limits 
and fishing restrictions that would apply to qualifying and non-
qualifying vessels. After the scoping process is completed, the Council 
will begin development of Amendment 22 and will prepare an EIS to 
analyze the impacts of the range of alternatives under consideration.
    Impacts may be direct, indirect, or cumulative. The Council will 
hold public hearings to receive comments on the draft amendment and on 
the analysis of its impacts presented in the Draft EIS. In addition to 
soliciting comment on this notice, the public will have the opportunity 
to comment on the measures and alternatives being considered by the 
Council through public meetings and public comment periods consistent 
with NEPA, the Magnuson-Stevens Act, and the Administrative Procedure 
Act. The following scoping meetings have been scheduled. The Council 
will take and discuss scoping comments on this amendment at the 
following public meetings:
    1. Tuesday, December 1, 2015; 5:30 p.m.; Holiday Inn by the Bay, 88 
Spring Street, Portland, ME 04101; (207) 775-2311.
    2. Monday, December 7, 2015; 7 p.m.; MA DMF of Marine Fisheries; 
Annisquam River Marine Fisheries Station; 30 Emerson Ave; Gloucester, 
MA 01930; (978) 282-0308.
    3. Monday, December 14, 2015; 7 p.m.; Fairfield Inn & Suites, 185 
MacArthur Drive, New Bedford, MA 02740; (774) 634-2000.
    4. Monday, December 21, 2015; 7 p.m.; Montauk Playhouse Community 
Center Foundation; 240 Edgemere St., Montauk, New York 11954; (631) 
668-1124
    5. Webinar; Thursday, December 17, 2015; 3-5 p.m.
    Register to participate: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5272201506328155394; Call in info: Toll: +1 (914) 614-3221; Access 
Code: 539-710-362.

Special Accommodations

    The meetings are accessible to people with physical disabilities. 
Requests for sign language interpretation or other auxiliary aids 
should be directed to

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Thomas A. Nies (see ADDRESSES) at least five days prior to this meeting 
date.

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

    Dated: November 18, 2015.
Emily H. Menashes,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2015-29795 Filed 11-20-15; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-22-P