[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 64 (Monday, April 4, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 19136-19137]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-07557]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

RIN 0648-XE548


New England Fishery Management Council; Public Meeting

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

ACTION: Notice of public meeting.

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SUMMARY: The New England Fishery Management Council (Council, NEFMC) 
will hold a three-day meeting to consider actions affecting New England 
fisheries in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

DATES: The meeting will be held on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, 
April 19, 20, and 21, 2016. It will start at 9 a.m. on April 19, and at 
8:30 a.m. on both April 20 and 21.

ADDRESSES: The meeting will be held at the Mystic Hilton Hotel, 20 
Coogan Boulevard, Mystic, CT 06355; telephone: (860) 572-0731, or 
online at http://hiltonmystic.com/.
    Council address: New England Fishery Management Council, 50 Water 
Street, Mill 2, Newburyport, MA 01950; telephone: (978) 465-0492.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Thomas A. Nies, Executive Director, 
New England Fishery Management Council; telephone: (978) 465-0492, ext. 
113.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Agenda

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

    After introductions and any announcements, the Council meeting will 
open with brief reports from the NEFMC Chairman and Executive Director, 
the NOAA Regional Administrator for the Greater Atlantic Region (GAR), 
Northeast Fisheries Science Center and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management 
Council liaisons, NOAA General Counsel and Office of Law Enforcement 
representatives, and staff from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries 
Commission and the U.S Coast Guard. Following these reports, the 
Council will receive two others from representatives of the Northeast 
Fisheries Science Center; the first is on the status of the Northeast 
continental shelf ecosystem; and a second will cover scientific efforts 
to assess the vulnerability of fish stocks to climate change. Next, the 
NEFMC's Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management Committee will provide an 
update on its progress to develop a working example of a fisheries 
ecosystem plan. After a lunch break, the Council will discuss and 
prepare comments on NOAA Fisheries draft National Bycatch Strategy and 
the agency's proposed draft Standardized Bycatch Reporting Methodology.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

    The second day of the meeting will begin with an overview of 
progress to develop Amendment 22 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery 
Management Plan.

[[Page 19137]]

The Council is considering a limited access program for the whiting/
hake fishery via this action. A public comment period is then scheduled 
during which any member of the public may bring issues forward that 
relate to Council business but are not included on the published agenda 
for this meeting. During this morning session, the Atlantic Herring 
Committee will provide a briefing on progress on Amendment 8 to the 
Herring FMP, an action that would address: (1) Localized depletion; and 
(2) long-term harvest strategies for Atlantic herring, including an 
acceptable biological catch (ABC) control rule that explicitly accounts 
for herring's role in the ecosystem. The Committee report will also 
include discussion of plans for a workshop on a management strategy 
evaluation of the herring ABC control rule and a request that the 
Council initiate a framework adjustment to revise the Georges Bank 
haddock catch cap accountability measures. After a lunch break and 
during a discussion about NOAA's Omnibus Industry-Funded Monitoring 
Amendment, the Council also will, in cooperation with NOAA, discuss and 
refine existing alternatives and possibly select preferred alternatives 
for target levels of monitoring coverage in the Atlantic herring 
fishery. Approval of the associated draft Environmental Assessment will 
occur at the NEFMC's June Council meeting. Under the Sea Scallop 
Committee's agenda item, discussions are planned in which NEFMC members 
will review results of the Council[hyphen]sponsored workshop to address 
concerns about scallop fishing pressure in nearshore areas. They will 
also review a draft outline and work plan for the five-year performance 
review of the limited access general category IFQ program and hear 
information about increased fishing activity in the Northern Gulf of 
Maine management area. If warranted, the NEFMC may initiate an action 
at this meeting to address this last topic.

Thursday, April 21, 2016

    The final meeting day will begin with a report from the Council's 
Habitat Committee Chair. After a review of work to date, the committee 
will ask for Council approval of the Omnibus Deep-Sea Coral Amendment 
management alternatives for the purpose of further development and 
analyses. A presentation is then scheduled on the draft Northeast 
Regional Ocean Plan. The next report will address plans for a peer 
review (fall 2016) of the in-season discard methodology to be used by 
NOAA Fisheries. The report will include a discussion of the terms of 
reference approved by the Northeast Regional Coordinating Committee. 
Following a mid-day lunch break, and under the auspices of the 
Groundfish Committee, there will be: a progress report on work to 
evaluate the groundfish monitoring program, and an update on other 
groundfish priorities for 2016, including windowpane flounder 
management measures and improving the process to develop recreational 
fishery management measures. The Council will adjourn after it 
addresses any other outstanding business during the afternoon of April 
21st.
    Although other non-emergency issues not contained in this agenda 
may come before this Council for discussion, those issues may not be 
the subject of formal action during this meeting. Council action will 
be restricted to those issues specifically listed in this notice and 
any issues arising after publication of this notice that require 
emergency action under section 305(c) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, 
provided that the public has been notified of the Council's intent to 
take final action to address the emergency.

Special Accommodations

    This meeting is physically accessible to people with disabilities. 
Requests for sign language interpretation or other auxiliary aids 
should be directed to Thomas A. Nies (see ADDRESSES) at least 5 days 
prior to the meeting date.

    Dated: March 29, 2016.
Tracey L. Thompson,
Acting Deputy Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National 
Marine Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2016-07557 Filed 4-1-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-22-P