[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 36 (Wednesday, February 24, 2016)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 9159-9160]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-03870]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 648

RIN 0648-BF04


Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Amendment 17 to the 
Atlantic Surfclam and Ocean Quahog Fishery Management Plan

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

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

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SUMMARY: NMFS announces that the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management 
Council has submitted Amendment 17 to the Atlantic Surfclam and Ocean 
Quahog Fishery Management Plan for review and approval by the Secretary 
of Commerce. We are requesting comments from the public on the 
amendment. Amendment 17 would establish cost recovery provisions for 
these individual transferable quota clam fisheries, modify how 
biological reference points

[[Page 9160]]

are incorporated into the Fishery Management Plan, and remove the 
Plan's optimum yield range.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before April 25, 2016.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by NOAA-NMFS-2015-0057, 
by any one of the following methods:
     Electronic Submissions: Submit all electronic public 
comments via the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal. Go to 
www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=NOAA-NMFS-2015-0057, click the 
``Comment Now!'' icon, complete the required fields, and enter or 
attach your comments.
     Mail: John K. Bullard, Regional Administrator, NMFS, 
Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office, 55 Great Republic Drive, 
Gloucester, MA 01930. Mark the outside of the envelope: ``Comments on 
Surfclam/Ocean Quahog Amendment 17.''
    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 part of the 
public record and will generally be posted to www.regulations.gov 
without change. All personal identifying information (e.g., name, 
address, etc.) voluntarily submitted by the commenter may be publicly 
accessible. Do not submit confidential business information or 
otherwise sensitive or protected information.
    NMFS will accept anonymous comments. Attachments to electronic 
comments will be accepted via Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, 
WordPerfect, or Adobe PDF file formats only.
    Copies of Amendment 17, and of the draft Environmental Assessment 
and preliminary Regulatory Impact Review (EA/RIR), are available from 
the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, 800 North State Street, 
Suite 201, Dover, DE 19901. The EA/RIR is also accessible via the 
Internet at: www.greateratlantic.fisheries.noaa.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Douglas Potts, Fishery Policy Analyst, 
978-281-9341.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: We are soliciting public comments on 
Amendment 17 and its incorporated documents through the end of the 
comment period stated in this notice of availability. We will publish a 
proposed rule in the Federal Register that would implement the 
amendment's management measures for additional public comment, 
following NMFS's evaluation of the proposed rule under the procedures 
of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. Public 
comments must be received by the end of the comment period provided in 
this notice of availability to be considered in the approval/
disapproval decision on the amendment. All comments received by April 
25, 2016, will be considered in the approval/disapproval decision on 
the amendment. To be considered, comments must be received by close of 
business on the last day of the comment period. Comments received after 
that date will not be considered in the decision to approve or 
disapprove Amendment 17, including those postmarked or otherwise 
transmitted by the last day of the comment period.
    The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council developed this 
amendment to establish a program to recover the costs of managing the 
surfclam and ocean quahog individual transferable quota (ITQ) 
fisheries, as required by the Magnuson-Stevens Act, and to make 
administrative changes to improve the efficiency of the FMP. The 
Amendment would create a cost recovery program for the surfclam and 
ocean quahog ITQ fisheries modeled on the Council's existing cost 
recovery program for the Tilefish Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) 
Program. Under the proposed program, any surfclam or ocean quahog ITQ 
permit holder who has quota share (i.e., receives an initial allocation 
of cage tags each year) would be responsible for paying a fee at the 
end of the year based on the number of their cage tags that were 
ultimately used to land clams that year. Amendment 17 would also modify 
how the FMP defines when the surfclam and ocean quahog stocks are 
overfished or experiencing overfishing so the definitions remain 
current to the best scientific information available. This action would 
also remove the optimum yield range from the FMP. Additional details of 
the proposed measures are available in the amendment document.

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

    Dated: February 19, 2016.
Jennifer M. Wallace,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2016-03870 Filed 2-23-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-22-P