[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 97 (Friday, May 18, 2018)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 23250-23251]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-10597]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 679

RIN 0648-BH02


Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Yellowfin 
Sole Management in the Groundfish Fisheries of the Bering Sea and 
Aleutian Islands

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

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

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SUMMARY: The North Pacific Fishery Management Council submitted 
Amendment 116 to the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish of the 
Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area (BSAI FMP) to the 
Secretary of Commerce (Secretary) for review. If approved, Amendment 
116 would limit access to the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) 
Trawl Limited Access Sector (TLAS) yellowfin sole directed fishery by 
vessels delivering to motherships. Amendment 116 would establish 
eligibility criteria based on historical participation in the fishery, 
issue endorsements to groundfish License Limitation Program (LLP) 
licenses that meet eligibility criteria, and authorize delivery of BSAI 
TLAS yellowfin sole to motherships by only those vessels with an 
assigned groundfish LLP license with a BSAI catcher vessel TLAS 
yellowfin sole directed fishery endorsement.
    This action is necessary to provide benefits to historic 
participants, mitigate the risk that a ``race for fish'' could develop, 
and help to maintain the consistently low rates of halibut bycatch in 
the BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole directed fishery. Amendment 116 is 
intended to promote the goals and objectives of the Magnuson-Stevens 
Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the BSAI FMP, and other 
applicable law.

DATES: Comments must be received no later than July 17, 2018.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments on this document, identified by 
NOAA-NMFS-2017-0083, by any of the following methods:
     Electronic Submission: Submit all electronic public 
comments via the Federal e Rulemaking Portal. Go to 
www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=NOAA-NMFS-2017-0083, click the 
``Comment Now!'' icon, complete the required fields, and enter or 
attach your comments.
     Mail: Submit written comments to Glenn Merrill, Assistant 
Regional Administrator, Sustainable Fisheries Division, Alaska Region 
NMFS, Attn: Ellen Sebastian. Mail comments to P.O. Box 21668, Juneau, 
AK 99802-1668.
    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 a part of the 
public record and will generally be posted for public viewing on 
www.regulations.gov without change. All personal identifying 
information (e.g., name, address), confidential business information, 
or otherwise sensitive information submitted voluntarily by the sender 
will be publicly accessible. NMFS will accept anonymous comments (enter 
``N/A'' in the required fields if you wish to remain anonymous).
    Electronic copies of Amendment 116 and the Draft Environmental 
Assessment/Regulatory Impact Review prepared for this action 
(collectively the ``Analysis'') may be obtained from 
www.regulations.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Bridget Mansfield, (907) 586-7228.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation 
and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act) requires that each regional 
fishery management council submit any fishery management plan amendment 
it prepares to NMFS for review and approval, disapproval, or partial 
approval by the Secretary of Commerce. The Magnuson-Stevens Act also 
requires that NMFS, upon receiving a fishery management plan amendment, 
immediately publish a notice in the Federal Register announcing that 
the amendment is available for public review and comment. This notice 
announces that proposed Amendment 116 to the FMP is available for 
public review and comment.
    NMFS manages the groundfish fisheries in the exclusive economic 
zone under the FMPs. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council 
(Council) prepared the FMPs under the authority of the Magnuson-Stevens 
Act, 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq. Regulations governing U.S. fisheries and 
implementing the FMP appear at 50 CFR parts 600 and 679.
    Amendment 116 to the FMP would amend the species and gear 
endorsements on groundfish LLP licenses. The LLP was implemented under 
Amendments 39 and 41 to the

[[Page 23251]]

FMP, and NMFS published the final rule to implement these amendments on 
October 1, 1998 (63 FR 52642). The LLP limits access to the groundfish, 
crab, and scallop fisheries in the BSAI and the Gulf of Alaska (GOA), 
by requiring that persons hold and assign a license to each vessel that 
is used to fish in federally managed fisheries, with some limited 
exemptions. The LLP is intended to prevent unlimited entry into 
Federally managed fisheries and to limit the ability of a person to 
assign an LLP license derived from the historic landing activity of a 
vessel in one area, using a specific fishing gear or operational type, 
to be used in other areas, with other gears, or for other operational 
types in a manner that could expand fishing capacity. Licenses issued 
under the LLP authorize, through individual endorsements, fishing 
activities in specific fishing areas, gear types, and vessel operations 
as catcher vessels (CVs) or catcher/processors (CPs). Once issued, the 
components of the LLP license cannot be transferred independently.
    Amendment 116 would implement a new groundfish LLP license 
endorsement to authorize a CV with trawl gear to deliver its catch to a 
mothership (a vessel that receives and processes catch from another 
vessel) in the BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole directed fishery. Vessels 
without this endorsement would not be authorized to deliver catch to 
motherships when participating in the BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole directed 
fishery. The Council determined, and NMFS agrees, that this action is 
an appropriate response to a sharp increase in CV participation 
delivering to motherships in the BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole directed 
fishery beginning in 2015. This increased effort has increased harvest 
pressure in this fully utilized fishery, such that the fishing season 
has been severely foreshortened over the past two years and has caused 
concern over the potential for increased halibut bycatch.
    In June 2017, the Council adopted Amendment 116, which would limit 
access to the offshore BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole fishery by CVs and CPs 
acting as CVs that deliver BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole to motherships. If 
approved, Amendment 116 would amend the FMP to require a vessel be 
designated on a groundfish LLP license with a BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole 
directed fishery endorsement in order to deliver its catch of yellowfin 
sole in the BSAI TLAS fishery to a mothership. A groundfish LLP license 
would receive the endorsement if it is credited with a qualifying 
landing. A groundfish LLP license would be eligible to be credited with 
a qualifying landing if a vessel designated on it was used to make at 
least one legal trip target landing of BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole to a 
mothership in any one year from 2008 through 2015. Under Amendment 116, 
``trip target'' would mean an amount of retained aggregate groundfish 
species that is greater than the retained amount of any other 
groundfish species for that trip. The Council recognized this 
eligibility criteria may qualify more groundfish LLP licenses than 
vessels with a qualifying landing, because some vessels with a 
qualifying landing may have been designated on more than one groundfish 
LLP license during the qualifying period. Therefore, if a vessel 
designated on more than one groundfish LLP license made a qualifying 
landing during the qualifying period, only those groundfish LLP 
licenses on which the vessel was designated when it made a legal trip 
target landing in a BSAI TLAS fishery would be eligible to be credited 
with a qualifying landing. In such cases, Amendment 116 would require 
the vessel owner to specify only one groundfish LLP license that would 
be credited with the qualifying landing(s).
    Amendment 116 would amend four sections of the FMP. First, in Table 
ES-2 in the Executive Summary, row ``License and Permits'' would have a 
sentence added to read, ``Trawl gear vessels engaged in directed 
fishing for BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole and delivering to a mothership 
must qualify for a BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole directed fishery 
endorsement.''
    Second, under section 3.3.1 ``License Limitation Program,'' 
Amendment 116 would add a new subsection entitled ``3.3.1.3 Species and 
Gear Endorsements for Vessels Using Trawl Gear.'' This new subsection 
would state that a vessel engaged in directed fishing for yellowfin 
sole in the trawl limited access sector in the BSAI management area 
using trawl gear and operating as a catcher vessel delivering catch to 
a mothership must hold an area endorsement and general license with a 
trawl limited access sector yellowfin sole directed fishery 
endorsement.
    Finally, a section would be added to Appendix A, summarizing the 
main provisions of Amendment 116, and the Table of Contents would be 
revised.
    The proposed rule to implement proposed Amendments 116 provides the 
details of the eligibility criteria for a BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole 
directed fishery endorsement to a groundfish LLP license, the process 
to establish eligibility of individual groundfish LLP licenses based on 
historical participation in the fishery, and issuance of the 
endorsements. The specific groundfish LLP licenses eligible for such an 
endorsement would be named in the proposed rule and in the regulations 
implementing the rule.
    The Council considered a range of dates and levels of 
participation, as well as conditions to increase participation when 
yellowfin TAC is high, before adopting its preferred alternative for 
Amendment 116. The Council determined and NMFS agrees that the 
eligibility requirements for a BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole directed 
fishery endorsement within Amendment 116 would balance the need to 
limit entry to the BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole directed fishery to control 
the pace of fishing and halibut bycatch with the needs of more recent 
participants by continuing to provide harvest opportunities in this 
fishery for AFA CPs and CVs, and non-AFA CVs.
    NMFS is soliciting public comments on proposed Amendment 116 
through the end of the comment period (see DATES). NMFS intends to 
publish in the Federal Register and seek public comment on a proposed 
rule that would implement Amendments 116, following NMFS' evaluation of 
the proposed rule under the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
    Respondents do not need to submit the same comments on Amendment 
116 and the proposed rule. All relevant written comments received by 
the end of the applicable comment period, whether specifically directed 
to the FMP amendments or the proposed rule will be considered by NMFS 
in the approval/disapproval decision for Amendment 116 and addressed in 
the response to comments in the final decision. Comments received after 
end of the applicable comment period will not be considered in the 
approval/disapproval decision on Amendment 116. To be considered, 
comments must be received, not just postmarked or otherwise 
transmitted, by the last day of the comment period (see DATES).

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

    Dated: May 14, 2018.
Kathleen E. Barrett,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2018-10597 Filed 5-17-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-22-P