[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 81 (Thursday, April 26, 2018)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 18233-18235]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-08767]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 660

[Docket No. 171031999-8355-02]
RIN 0648-BH40


Fisheries Off West Coast States; West Coast Salmon Fisheries; 
Management Measures To Limit Fishery Impacts on Sacramento River 
Winter-Run Chinook Salmon

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

ACTION: Final rule.

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SUMMARY: NMFS issues a final rule to approve new fishery management 
measures to limit incidental catch of endangered Sacramento River 
winter-run Chinook salmon (SRWC) in fisheries managed under the Pacific 
Fishery Management Council's (Council) Pacific Salmon Fishery 
Management Plan (FMP), as recommended by the Council for use in 
developing annual management measures beginning in 2018. These new 
management measures replace existing measures, which have been in place 
since 2012, with updated salmon abundance modeling methods that utilize 
the best available science and address concerns that the existing 
measures were overly conservative.

DATES: This final rule is effective April 25, 2018.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Peggy Mundy at (206) 526-4323.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background

    Ocean salmon fisheries off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and 
California are managed by the Council and NMFS according to the FMP. 
The FMP includes harvest controls that are used to manage salmon stocks 
sustainably. The FMP also requires that the Council manage fisheries 
consistent with ``consultation standards'' for stocks listed as 
endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) for 
which NMFS has issued biological opinions. At its November 2017 
meeting, the Council adopted a preferred alternative for new management 
measures to limit fishery impacts to endangered SRWC, including a 
harvest control rule, to replace measures that have been in place since 
2012. The Council developed these new management measures over a two-
year period that included discussion at several public meetings, which 
provided opportunity for public comment. These new management measures 
include updated salmon abundance modeling methods that utilize the best 
available science and address concerns that the existing measures were 
overly conservative. The Council transmitted their recommendation to 
NMFS on December 6, 2017. NMFS published a proposed rule on February 
22, 2018 (83 FR 7650) and accepted comments through March 9, 2018. The 
rationale for and effects of the rule are described in more detail in 
the proposed rule.
    The management measures approved in this final rule are unchanged 
from the proposed rule and consist of two parts. Part one is the 
continued use of season and size restrictions that were included in the 
2012 management measures (see Table 1, below). Part two is a harvest 
control rule, recommended by the Council, which uses juvenile survival 
(i.e., fry to the end of age-two in the ocean) to model a forecast of 
age-three escapement absent fishing (escapement). The model used is a 
modification of the approach described in Winship et al. (2014) and is 
detailed in O'Farrell et al. (2016). The harvest control rule uses a 
forward-looking forecast rather than the previously used hind-cast 
methodology. The new harvest control rule sets the maximum allowable 
age-three impact rate based on the forecast escapement. At escapement 
above 3,000, the allowable impact rate is fixed at 20 percent. At 
escapement between 3,000 and 500, the allowable impact rate declines 
linearly from 20 percent to 10 percent. At escapement between 500 and 
0, the allowable impact rate declines linearly from 10 percent to 0 
percent, thus providing fishing opportunity at all levels of SRWC 
abundance. See Figure 1.

                Table 1--Fishing Season and Size Restrictions for Ocean Chinook Salmon Fisheries,
                                        South of Point Arena, California
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                                                                                            Minimum size limit
        Fishery                  Location            Shall open no      Shall close no      (total length \1\)
                                                     earlier than         later than             shall be
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Recreational...........  Between Point Arena and  1st Saturday in     2nd Sunday in       20 inches.
                          Pigeon Point.            April.              November.
                         Between Pigeon Point     1st Saturday in     1st Sunday in
                          and the U.S./Mexico      April.              October.
                          border.
Commercial.............  Between Point Arena and  May 1.............  September 30        26 inches.
                          the U.S./Mexico border                       [dagger].
                          [dagger].
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[dagger] Exception: Between Point Reyes and Point San Pedro, there may be an October commercial fishery
  conducted Monday through Friday, but shall end no later than October 15.
\1\ Total length of salmon means the shortest distance between the tip of the snout or jaw (whichever extends
  furthest while the mouth is closed) and the tip of the longest lobe of the tail, without resort to any force
  or mutilation of the salmon other than fanning or swinging the tail (50 CFR 660.402).


[[Page 18234]]

[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TR26AP18.001

Response to Comments

    NMFS accepted comments on the proposed rule to approve new fishery 
management measures through March 9, 2018. We received no comments on 
the proposed rule. NMFS is not proposing any changes from the proposed 
rule.

References Cited

O'Farrell, M., N. Hendrix, and M. Mohr. 2016. An evaluation of 
preseason abundance forecasts for Sacramento River winter Chinook 
salmon. Pacific Fishery Management Council Briefing Book for 
November 2016, 35p.
SRWC Workgroup. 2017. Further evaluation of Sacramento River winter 
Chinook control rules, dated October 18, 2017. Pacific Fishery 
Management Council Briefing Book for November 2017, 9 p.
Winship, A. J., M. R. O'Farrell, and M. S. Mohr. 2014. Fishery and 
hatchery effects on an endangered salmon population with low 
productivity. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 143, 
957-971.

Classification

    Pursuant to section 304(b)(1)(A) of the MSA, the Assistant 
Administrator for Fisheries (AA) has determined that this final rule is 
consistent with the Pacific Salmon Fishery Management Plan, the MSA, 
and other applicable law.
    The actions taken through this final rule have been analyzed in an 
environmental assessment, under the National Environmental Policy Act 
(NEPA). The West Coast Regional Administrator determined that the 
actions of this final rule will not significantly impact the quality of 
the human environment and has signed a finding of no significant 
impact.
    This rule has been determined to be not significant for purposes of 
Executive Order 12866.
    As required by section 603 of the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA), 
a Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis (FRFA) was prepared. The FRFA 
describes the economic impact this final rule will have on small 
entities. A summary of the analysis follows. A copy of this analysis is 
available from NMFS.
    Provision is made under SBA's regulations for an agency to develop 
its own industry-specific size standards after consultation with 
Advocacy and an opportunity for public comment (see 13 CFR 121.903(c)). 
NMFS has established a small business size standard for businesses, 
including their affiliates, whose primary industry is commercial 
fishing (80 FR 81194, December 29, 2015). This standard is only for use 
by NMFS and only for the purpose of conducting an analysis of economic 
effects in fulfillment of the agency's obligations under the RFA.
    NMFS' small business size standard for businesses, including their 
affiliates, whose primary industry is commercial fishing is $11 million 
in annual gross receipts. This standard applies to all businesses 
classified under North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) 
code 11411 for commercial fishing, including all businesses classified 
as commercial finfish fishing (NAICS 114111), commercial shellfish 
fishing (NAICS 114112), and other commercial marine fishing (NAICS 
114119) businesses (50 CFR 200.2; 13 CFR 121.201).
    The final rule approves a harvest control rule that specifies the 
annual amount of fishery impact that will be allowed on ESA-listed SRWC 
and, thereby, affect the fishing opportunity available in the area 
south of Point Arena, CA. This will affect commercial and recreational 
fisheries. Using the high from the last 3 years, 153 commercial 
trollers are likely to be impacted by this rule, all of whom would be 
considered small businesses. The 16-25 commercial vessels who have 
greater than 75 percent of their annual revenue from Chinook salmon 
south of Point Arena would be most impacted by this rule. Charter 
license holders operating south of Point Arena will be directly 
regulated under the updated harvest control rule. The number of license 
holders has fluctuated with harvest levels, varying from 70 in 2010 to 
93 in 2014. Of these, 20-50 vessels could be considered ``active'', 
landing more than 100 salmon in the year. The final rule impacts about 
90 charter boat entities, about 50 of whom were ``active'' in peak 
years (2013-2014). In summary, this rule will directly impact about 250 
entities made up of commercial and charter vessels, with about 75 of 
these highly active in the fishery and likely to experience the largest 
impacts, in proportion to their total participation.
    The action includes a de minimis provision and would allow impacts 
at

[[Page 18235]]

all non-zero forecast abundance. Because of this feature, this action 
is unlikely to result in fishery closure in the analysis area. The 
selected alternative also provides increased certainty to operators 
over the status quo, in which the Council has elected lower impact 
rates than specified by the current control rule. Therefore, this 
action would be expected to have a positive impact of low magnitude on 
economic benefits to fishery-dependent communities that would vary 
year-to-year, but not likely to be significant.
    Commercial trollers and charter operators face a variety of 
constraining stocks. In no year has SWRC been the only constraining 
stock. Entities are constrained by both ESA-listed and non-listed 
species; the years that had the most constrained fisheries in the last 
decade were 2008 and 2009, when fisheries in the analysis area were 
closed to limit impacts to Sacramento River fall Chinook, not an ESA-
listed species, rather than the ESA-listed species SRWC. Thus, while 
entities will likely continue to face constraints relative to fishing 
opportunities, because the action is expected to provide low-positive 
benefits to both commercial and charter operators, NMFS does not expect 
the rule to impose significant negative economic effects.
    This final rule does not establish any new reporting or 
recordkeeping requirements. This final rule does not include a 
collection of information. No Federal rules have been identified that 
duplicate, overlap, or conflict with this action.
    This action is the subject of a consultation under section 7 of the 
ESA. NMFS has prepared a biological opinion on the effects of this 
action on SRWC. The biological opinion concluded that the action does 
not jeopardize SRWC. This action is not expected to have adverse 
effects on any other species listed under the ESA or designated 
critical habitat. This action implements a new harvest control rule to 
limit impacts on SRWC from the ocean salmon fishery and will be used in 
the setting of annual management measures for West Coast salmon 
fisheries. NMFS has current ESA biological opinions that cover fishing 
under annual regulations adopted under the FMP on all ESA-listed salmon 
species. Some of NMFS past biological opinions have found no jeopardy, 
and others have found jeopardy, but provided reasonable and prudent 
alternatives to avoid jeopardy. The annual management measures are 
designed to be consistent with the biological opinions that found no 
jeopardy, and with the reasonable and prudent alternatives in the 
jeopardy biological opinions.
    The AA finds that good cause exists under 5 U.S.C. 553(d)(3), to 
waive the 30-day delay in effectiveness. This rule implements changes 
in management measures to limit incidental catch of endangered SRWC in 
fisheries managed under the Council's FMP; these management measures 
will be used in setting ocean salmon fisheries, beginning in 2018. As 
previously discussed, the actions in this rule were developed through 
the Council process. The actions were adopted by the Council over 
multiple Council meetings and the final recommendation was transmitted 
to NMFS in December 2017. Subsequently, NMFS completed a draft NEPA 
analysis to accompany the proposed rule. In order to complete this work 
and include a meaningful public comment opportunity on the proposed 
rule, this rulemaking could not be completed sooner. The Council 
developed 2018 ocean salmon fishery management measures at their April 
5-11, 2018 meeting based on the new management framework described in 
this rule. Delaying the effectiveness of the actions in this rule by 30 
days would complicate NMFS' ability to make determinations regarding 
those ocean salmon fishery management measures that manage fishery 
impacts on SRWC consistent with the best available science prior to May 
1, 2018, when significant salmon fisheries start. Because delaying the 
effectiveness of this rule would mean delaying the effectiveness of 
salmon fishery management measures based on the best available science, 
it would undermine the purposes of this agency action and the 
requirements of the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA). Specifically, the 
management framework described in this rule relies on new abundance 
forecasting methodology that is forward-looking and thus takes into 
account environmental conditions that could affect abundance in the 
future. This is the best available science on which to base decisions 
about fishery impacts on SRWC.
    This final rule was developed after meaningful collaboration with 
West Coast tribes, through the Council process. Under the MSA at 16 
U.S.C. 1852(b)(5), one of the voting members of the Council must be a 
representative of an Indian Tribe with Federally recognized fishing 
rights from the area of the Council's jurisdiction. No tribes with 
Federally recognized fishing rights are expected to be affected by this 
rule.

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

    Dated: April 23, 2018.
Samuel D. Rauch, III,
Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Programs, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2018-08767 Filed 4-25-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-22-P