[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 207 (Friday, October 27, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Page 49787]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-23422]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

RIN 0648-XF780


Pacific Island Fisheries; Western Pacific Stock Assessment 
Review; Public Meeting

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

ACTION: Notice; public meeting.

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SUMMARY: NMFS and the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council 
(Council) will convene a Western Pacific Stock Assessment Review 
(WPSAR) of a 2017 Benchmark Stock Assessment for the Main Hawaiian 
Islands (MHI) Deep 7 Bottomfish Complex.

DATES: See SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION for meeting dates and times and 
daily agenda.

ADDRESSES: The meeting will be held at the NMFS Honolulu Service Center 
at Pier 38, 1129 N. Nimitz Hwy., Suite 220, Honolulu, HI 96817.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael Seki, Director--Pacific 
Islands Fisheries Science Center, telephone: (808) 725-5360, or 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Scientists from the NMFS Pacific Islands 
Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) conducted a benchmark stock assessment 
of the MHI Deep 7 bottomfish complex. This benchmark assessment 
incorporated new data in the form of fishery-independent biomass 
estimates, and also followed data filtering recommendations from a 
series of five community workshops that involved fishermen, managers, 
and scientists on best practices for filtering bottomfish commercial 
catch and effort data from State of Hawaii commercial catch reports. 
Because of these workshops, PIFSC scientists are now able to better 
link individual fishermen's catch reports further back in time, and 
this linking is newly applied in this benchmark stock assessment.
    This assessment used commercial data for the years 1948-2015, and 
assessed Deep 7 bottomfish by building on the modeling framework from 
the previous three assessments, but with improved data and data 
filtering as previously described, along with improvements to catch-
per-unit-effort (CPUE) standardization, and other modeling approaches. 
The assessment also estimates unreported catches using catch and effort 
data following methods similar to those applied in previous 
assessments. After applying best practices from the workshop 
recommendations for filtering for CPUE calculation, PIFSC scientists 
applied model selection techniques to select the best structural form 
to standardize CPUE. CPUE in the model was split into two time series, 
fishing years 1948-2003, and fishing years 2003-2015 to accommodate new 
effort reporting from a change in reporting form by the State in 
October 2002.

Meeting Agenda for WPSAR Review

    The meeting schedule and agenda are as follows (8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. 
every day):

Monday, November 13, 2017

1. Welcome and Introductions
2. Background information--Objectives and Terms of Reference
3. Fishery
    a. Operation
    b. Management
4. History of stock assessments and reviews
5. Data
    a. State of Hawaii Fisher and Dealer Reporting Systems
    b. Life history information
    c. Fishery-independent survey

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

6. Presentation and review of stock assessment

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

7. Continue review of stock assessment

Thursday, November 16, 2017

8. Continue review of stock assessment
9. Public comment period
10. Panel discussions (Closed to the public)

Friday, November 17, 2017

11. Continue panel discussions (Closed; morning)
12. Present results (afternoon)
13. Adjourn

    The agenda order may change. The meeting will run as late as 
necessary to complete scheduled business.

Special Accommodations

    This meeting is physically accessible to people with disabilities. 
Please direct requests for sign language interpretation or other 
auxiliary aids to Michael Seki, Director--Pacific Islands Fisheries 
Science Center, (808) 725-5360 (phone) (808) 725-5360 (fax), at least 5 
days prior to the meeting date.

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

    Dated: October 24, 2017.
Emily H. Menashes,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2017-23422 Filed 10-26-17; 8:45 am]
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