[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 146 (Tuesday, August 1, 2017)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 35687-35688]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-16135]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 660

[Docket No. 160614521-7624-02]
RIN 0648-BF96


Fisheries Off West Coast States; Coastal Pelagic Species 
Fisheries; Amendment to Regulations Implementing the Coastal Pelagic 
Species Fishery Management Plan; Change to Pacific Mackerel Management 
Cycle From Annual to Biennial

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

ACTION: Final rule.

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SUMMARY: The Coastal Pelagic Species (CPS) Fishery Management Plan 
(FMP) states that each year the Secretary will publish in the Federal 
Register the final specifications for all stocks in the actively 
managed stock category, which includes Pacific mackerel. NMFS is 
changing the management framework for Pacific mackerel so 
specifications will be set biennially instead of on an annual basis. 
The purpose of this change is to reduce the costs, while providing 
frequent enough reevaluation and adjustment in the specifications to 
manage and conserve Pacific mackerel.

DATES: Effective August 31, 2017.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Joshua Lindsay, West Coast Region, 
NMFS, (562) 980-4034, [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NMFS manages the Pacific mackerel fishery in 
the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) off the Pacific coast 
(California, Oregon, and Washington) in accordance with the CPS FMP. 
The CPS FMP states that each year the Secretary will publish in the 
Federal Register the specifications for all stocks in the actively 
managed stock category, which includes Pacific mackerel. In 2013, the 
Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) recommended that the 
harvest specification process for Pacific mackerel move from a 1-year 
management cycle to a 2-year management cycle beginning in 2015. The 
Council recommended this revision to the management cycle under the CPS 
FMP's framework mechanism, which allows such changes by rulemaking 
without formally amending the fishery management plan itself. NMFS 
published separate annual specifications for Pacific mackerel for the 
2015-16 and the 2016-17 fishing seasons to keep pace with the schedule 
of the fishery, and is now changing the annual notice requirement under 
the framework mechanism of the CPS FMP. From now on, NMFS will 
implement 2 years of harvest specifications with one rulemaking, 
beginning with the 2017 fishing season.
    The CPS FMP and its implementing regulations require NMFS to set 
annual catch levels for the Pacific mackerel fishery based on the 
annual specification framework and control rules in the CPS FMP. These 
control rules include the harvest guideline control rule, which in 
conjunction with the overfishing limit (OFL), acceptable biological 
catch (ABC) and annual catch limit (ACL) rules in the CPS FMP are used 
to manage harvest levels for Pacific mackerel, in accordance with the 
Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, 16 U.S.C. 
1801 et seq. Annual estimates of biomass are an explicit part of these 
various harvest control rules, therefore, annual stock assessments are 
currently conducted for Pacific mackerel to provide annual estimates of 
biomass. Then, during public meetings each year, the estimated biomass 
for Pacific mackerel from these assessments is presented to the 
Council's CPS Management Team (Team), the Council's CPS Advisory 
Subpanel (Subpanel) and the Council's Scientific and Statistical 
Committee (SSC), and the biomass and the status of the fishery are 
reviewed and discussed. The biomass estimate is then presented to the 
Council along with recommendations and comments from the Team, Subpanel 
and SSC. Following review by the Council and after hearing public 
comment, the Council adopts a biomass estimate and makes its catch 
level recommendations to NMFS. Based on these recommendations, NMFS 
implements these catch specifications for each fishing year and 
publishes the specifications annually. Over recent years, little new 
information has been available for informing Pacific mackerel stock 
assessments from one year to the next. Therefore, stock assessment 
scientists at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC), along 
with the SSC, concluded that conducting stock assessments annually is 
not necessary to manage Pacific mackerel sustainably; conducting 
assessments every 2 years can provide the necessary scientific 
information to continue to manage the stock sustainably. Annual 
landings of Pacific mackerel have also remained at historically low 
levels with landings averaging 5,000 mt over the last 10 years, well 
below the annual quotas over this time period. This highlights that the 
biomass of this stock is not being greatly impacted by fishing 
pressure. Low landings since 2011 are also one of the limitations of 
the recent stock assessments because they result in limited fishery-
dependent sample information for use in the stock assessment. Based on 
this information, and in light of the monetary and personnel costs 
associated with conducting and reviewing each stock assessment as well 
as adopting specifications each year, the Council established a new 
Pacific mackerel management and assessment schedule under which full 
stock assessments would be conducted every 4 years, and in the second 
year of each cycle, the assessment will be updated using catch-only 
projection estimates. Each of these assessments would provide the 
biomass estimate for the current year as well as a projection of what 
the biomass will be in the following year. Those biomass estimates 
would then be used in the harvest control rules for Pacific mackerel, 
which the Council would use to provide NMFS with recommendations for 
the OFL, ABC and ACL for the following 2 years.
    This final rule changes the review and implementation schedule for 
setting Pacific mackerel harvest specifications, allowing NMFS to 
implement 2 years of catch specifications with a single notice and 
comment rulemaking. Reviewing biomass estimates and implementing catch 
specifications for 2 years at a time instead of 1 allows NMFS and the 
Council to use available time and resources in a more efficient manner, 
while still preserving the conservation and management goals of the CPS 
FMP, and using the best available science.

[[Page 35688]]

NMFS will set biennial specifications from the 2017 fishing season 
forward in the Code of Federal Regulations.
    The proposed rule stated that this rulemaking would change the 
review and implementation schedule for Pacific mackerel, and the stock 
assessment cycle. That was an error: NMFS did not intend to propose to 
change the stock assessment cycle by rulemaking, as the Council already 
acted on that change. The action by this rule is only to allow the 
agency to implement 2 separate years of harvest specifications through 
a single notice and comment rulemaking process.
    On January 4, 2017, a proposed rule was published for this action 
and public comments solicited (82 FR 812) with a comment period that 
ended on February 3, 2017. NMFS received three comments regarding the 
amendment to change Pacific mackerel specifications to be set 
biennially instead of on an annual basis. No changes were made in 
response to the comments received. NMFS summarizes and responds to 
those comments below.

Comments and Responses

    Comment 1: Two of the comments voiced a similar concern that, in 
moving from an annual stock assessment process to a biennial process, 
the harvest specifications would not be based on the best possible 
information. One commenter stated that keeping the current system of 
setting management specifications every year would provide better 
information to manage Pacific mackerel and allow the agency to be 
better positioned if more rapid adjustments are needed to either 
protect against overfishing, while the second commenter was concerned 
that if the stock greatly increased during one of the interim 
assessment years, that the industry might endure a missed opportunity.
    Response: As described above, based on recommendations from its SSC 
and scientists from the SWFSC, the Council has determined that as a 
matter of practice doing new stock assessments every year for Pacific 
mackerel was not providing significantly better information with which 
to manage the stock and prevent overfishing compared to the proposed 
approach. Based on this determination, the Council established a 
Pacific mackerel management and assessment schedule under which full 
stock assessments will be conducted every 4 years, and in the second 
year of each cycle the assessment will be updated using catch-only 
projection estimates. Each of these assessments would provide the 
biomass estimate for the current year as well as a projection of what 
the biomass will be in the following year. Those biomass estimates 
would then be used in the harvest control rules for Pacific mackerel 
and the Council provides NMFS with recommendations for the OFL, ABC and 
ACL for the following 2 years. The action being taken by NMFS through 
this rule is to allow the agency to implement those 2 separate years of 
harvest specifications through a single notice and comment rulemaking 
process. Additionally, this action does not change the control rules 
used to set the annual catch limits, including the ABC control rule 
under which scientific uncertainty in the OFL is considered in 
estimating ABC at a level that is intended to buffer against 
overfishing.
    Comment 2: The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) 
submitted a comment expressing general support for the proposed rule 
and streamlining the process for setting specifications for Pacific 
mackerel.
    Response: CDFW is an important co-manager of CPS and NMFS 
appreciates its input. NMFS agrees with the CDFW that annual stock 
assessments are not necessary to manage Pacific mackerel 
sustainability. NMFS is supportive of the expanded efforts by CDFW to 
collect baseline biological and fishery data through their dockside 
sampling program to help inform ongoing and future assessment efforts 
of the various CPS stocks.

Classification

    The Administrator, West Coast Region, NMFS, determined that the FMP 
Amendment to Regulations Implementing the CPS FMP; Change to Pacific 
Mackerel Management Cycle from Annual to Biennial is necessary for the 
conservation and management of the Pacific mackerel fishery and that it 
is consistent with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and 
Management Act and other applicable laws.
    This final rule has been determined to be not significant for 
purposes of Executive Order 12866.
    The Chief Counsel for Regulation of the Department of Commerce 
certified to the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Business 
Administration during the proposed rule stage that this action would 
not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small 
entities. The factual basis for the certification was published in the 
proposed rule and is not repeated here. No comments were received 
regarding this certification. As a result, a regulatory flexibility 
analysis was not required and none was prepared.
    This action does not contain a collection-of-information 
requirement for purposes of the Paperwork Reduction Act.

List of Subjects in 50 CFR Part 660

    Fisheries, Fishing, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.

    Dated: July 26, 2017.
Samuel D. Rauch III,
Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Programs, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
    For the reasons set out in the preamble, NMFS is amending 50 CFR 
part 660 as follows:

PART 660--FISHERIES OFF WEST COAST STATES

0
1. The authority citation for part 660 continues to read as follows:

    Authority:  16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq., 16 U.S.C. 773 et seq., and 
16 U.S.C. 7001 et seq.

0
2. In Sec.  660.508, add paragraph (e) to read as follows:


Sec.  660.508   Annual specifications.

* * * * *
    (e) Pacific mackerel. Every 2 years the Regional Administrator will 
determine, and publish in the Federal Register, harvest specifications 
for 2 consecutive fishing seasons for Pacific mackerel.

[FR Doc. 2017-16135 Filed 7-31-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-22-P