[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 95 (Thursday, May 16, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 22112-22114]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-10193]
[[Page 22112]]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
RIN 0648-BI10
Atlantic Highly Migratory Species; Spatial Fisheries Management
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of intent (NOI) to prepare a draft environmental impact
analysis and hold scoping meetings; availability of issues and options
paper; request for comments.
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SUMMARY: NMFS announces its intent to prepare a draft environmental
impact analysis for an action to consider options to perform research
and collect data in areas closed to or restricting fishing and gear
types for highly migratory species (HMS) in support of and to evaluate
spatial fisheries management. Strategies to facilitate research and
data collection in these areas could improve sustainable management of
HMS. This action will consider ways to perform such research and data
collection. To gather input from the public, NMFS also announces the
availability of an Issues and Options Paper for Research and Data
Collection in Support of Spatial Fisheries Management (Issues and
Options Paper) that outlines possible strategies to perform research
and collect data in areas that currently prohibit or restrict
commercial and/or recreational fishing for HMS. Fishery-dependent data
is vital in informing and supporting effective fisheries management,
and areas that restrict fishing effort often have a commensurate
decrease in fishery-dependent data collection. In addition, NMFS will
hold scoping meetings to gather public comment on potential research
and data collection options. Because constituents may be interested in
several ongoing related rulemakings, these scoping meetings may be held
in conjunction with scoping meetings for Amendment 13 (review of
bluefin tuna measures including the Individual Bluefin Tuna Quota (IBQ)
Program and quota allocations) and 14 (review of annual catch limits
for sharks) to the 2006 Consolidated Atlantic HMS Fishery Management
Plan. NMFS will announce the date and times for the scoping meetings in
a separate Federal Register notice at a later date. NMFS requests
comments on the approaches presented in the Issues and Options Paper as
well as comments on or identification of other approaches that may
warrant consideration.
DATES: Written comments on this NOI and the Issues and Options Paper
must be received on or before July 31, 2019. NMFS is holding scoping
meetings during the public comment period and will announce the date
and times for the scoping meetings in a separate Federal Register
notice at a later date.
ADDRESSES: Electronic copies of the Issues and Options Paper may also
be obtained on the internet at: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/action/research-and-data-collection-support-spatial-fisheries-management. You
may submit comments, identified by ``NOAA-NMFS-2019-0035'', by either
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-2019-0035, click the
``Comment Now!'' icon, complete the required fields, and enter or
attach your comments.
Mail: Karyl Brewster-Geisz, Highly Migratory Species
Management Division, Office of Sustainable Fisheries (F/SF1), NMFS,
1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910.
Instructions: Comments sent by any other method, or to any other
address or individual, or received after the end of the comment period,
may not be considered. All comments received are a part of the public
record and will generally be posted to http://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).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Karyl Brewster-Geisz by phone at (301)
427-8503 or Tobey Curtis by phone at (978) 281-9260, or online at
https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/topic/atlantic-highly-migratory-species.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act
(Magnuson-Stevens Act) is the principal law governing marine fisheries
in the U.S. and includes ten National Standards to guide fishery
conservation and management. The Magnuson-Stevens Act requires that
conservation and management measures prevent overfishing while
achieving, on a continuing basis, the optimum yield from each fishery
(National Standard 1). It also requires that fishery ``conservation and
management measures shall be based upon the best scientific information
available.'' (National Standard 2). Other laws, such as the Endangered
Species Act (ESA) and the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), require
NMFS to limit interactions with certain species affected by federal
actions, such as permitted fishery operations. NMFS employs a variety
of conservation and management measures to maintain appropriate levels
of catch consistent with applicable science-based quotas or other
management goals, to limit bycatch to the extent practicable, and to
limit interactions with protected species as required. These measures
include ``spatial management techniques,'' which refers to a suite of
fisheries conservation and management measures that are based on
geographic area, such as closed areas. Closed areas are typically
discrete geographic areas where certain types of fishing are restricted
or prohibited for limited periods or the entire year. Ideally, closed
areas overlap in space and time with the species habitat and/or life
stages in need of protection. Closed areas can be particularly
effective for reducing fishing mortality by certain types of fishing to
near zero within the designated areas, because species in need of
protection are not in danger of catch or interaction with those fishing
gears, even incidentally.
Although an effective management tool for achieving certain
objectives, closed areas also reduce access to valuable target species,
and eliminate the ability to gather some fishery-dependent data within
the areas. Fishery-dependent data are information collected during
normal fishing operations (e.g., catch composition, bycatch rates,
fishing effort), and are a vital and cost-effective source of
information for fisheries management. Such data have been critical in
determining stock status, assessing bycatch levels, and in meeting
other fishery management needs. In some instances, fishery-dependent
data may be the only data from a fishery that are cost-effective and
feasible when considering research and budgetary constraints. If normal
fishing operations are curtailed or prohibited, as with closed areas,
fishery-dependent data collection can be negatively affected and create
data gaps that can have implications across multiple fisheries, such as
a reduced understanding of species distribution and stock status.
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Ideally, when a fishery closure is implemented, fishery-independent
monitoring can continue to take place in the closed area in order to
assess the closure's success and continued appropriateness over time.
Unfortunately, fishery-independent monitoring programs can be
expensive, and resources to fund such research may not be readily
available. In such cases, it may be appropriate to find ways to gather
fishery-dependent data from active fisheries to make determinations
about the effectiveness and appropriateness of a closed area, even
though otherwise-applicable closed area restrictions may not allow such
fishing. Nevertheless, prudent management requires that the benefits of
closed areas be periodically reviewed to evaluate if a closed area's
objectives are still being met, considering changes in fishery
conditions, such as changes in fishing effort, fleet composition, stock
status, and environmental changes. The ocean is a highly dynamic
environment and long-term shifts in fish and habitat distributions can
potentially undermine conservation and management effectiveness in
these closed areas if they remain static.
NMFS has implemented a number of closed areas that curtail or
prohibit fishing for Atlantic HMS (tunas, sharks, swordfish, and
billfish). These include areas that restrict all gears targeting HMS
such as the Edges 40-Fathom Contour, areas that restrict pelagic
longline gear such as the Charleston Bump, areas that restrict bottom
longline gear such as the Mid-Atlantic Closure, areas that restrict
gillnet gear such as the Southeast U.S. Restricted Area, and areas that
restrict some recreational HMS fishing such as Madison-Swanson and
Steamboat Lumps Marine Protected Areas. Some goals of certain closed
areas are still relevant, such as conserving protected resources under
the ESA or MMPA or effectively managing and rebuilding overfished
stocks under the Magnuson-Stevens Act. However, some goals may no
longer be as relevant, such as reducing fishing pressure on now-rebuilt
stocks (such as North Atlantic swordfish), or the introduction of other
management measures that achieve the intended conservation goals may
reduce the need for the closed areas. Furthermore, reductions in
fishing effort in one area can displace fishing effort to other areas,
with possible adverse impacts. HMS closed areas should be periodically
evaluated for their utility in meeting management goals and legal
obligations, including those under the ESA, MMPA, and the Magnuson-
Stevens Act. Such a review would include ensuring that closed areas are
appropriately placed to achieve current conservation objectives and
remain appropriate in light of other management measures.
The Issues and Options Paper explores different approaches to
conduct research and collect data in closed areas in support of HMS
management. As described above, closed area data collection is needed
for several reasons. First, in most cases, no fisheries data has been
collected in the closed areas using affected HMS gears during times
when the closures are in effect. This lack of data complicates, and may
compromise, effective management of HMS. To maintain a sustainable
fishery that maximizes access to fishery resources while achieving
conservation goals, fishery managers need current and relevant catch
data, along with protected resource interaction information. While
closed areas can be effective at achieving management goals and
objectives, such as curtailing or eliminating fishing mortality and
bycatch interactions within the area, fishery managers need information
to assess the continued effectiveness of the closed areas in meeting
the objectives. These closures may need to be moved, reduced, or
expanded to meet the original goals. However, without recent catch and
interaction data, it is difficult to measure management success or
shortcomings.
Second, the original goals of the closure may no longer be
relevant. For example, if a closure was implemented to reduce fishing
mortality of an overfished stock, the closure may no longer be needed
if that stock is rebuilt. Without data from the closed areas, fishery
managers cannot assess whether the closed areas are still needed to
provide ancillary benefits to other species or whether the areas need
to be modified.
Third, closed areas may be redundant or obsolete in the context of
new management measures. If the original management goals of the
closure are being met through more recent management measures, it is
possible that the closure warrants reconsideration or modification.
Data collection can help to determine whether closed area modifications
are needed in light of more recent management measures.
Fourth, assessing the impact of closed areas through data
collection can help achieve other Agency goals. For example, it is
NMFS' goal to more fully utilize swordfish quota allocated by the
International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas
(ICCAT). If some existing closed areas affect the U.S. fleet's ability
to harvest the resource without offering needed conservation benefits,
due to one of the above reasons, those closed areas may warrant
modification. The seafood trade imbalance is another Agency priority
that could be impacted by inefficient closed areas. If closed areas
reduce domestic catch without providing conservation benefits, and that
reduced catch increases demand for foreign imports, the areas may
warrant modification. While addressing goals such as full utilization
of the swordfish quota or reducing the seafood trade imbalance,
consideration must be given to possible adverse impacts, such as
increased gear conflicts. Answering these questions depends on high-
quality data collection in the relevant areas with the relevant gears
during the relevant times.
The Issues and Options Paper explores different approaches to
collect data in areas closed to HMS fishing in support of HMS
management. The first step in considering ways to collect data and
perform research in closed areas is publication of the Issues and
Options Paper, which summarizes current spatial management of HMS and
presents possible strategies to collect data and perform research in
closed areas that affect HMS fishing. NMFS requests comments on the
presented approaches as well as other approaches that should be
considered.
NMFS has several ongoing actions affecting HMS management that are,
or soon will be, available for public comment. While each of these
actions are separate, they are related in some ways, and the comment
periods may overlap. Depending on the outcomes, each action could have
impacts on the other actions. To the extent any closed areas or other
spatial management measures are affected or altered by these other
actions, NMFS will take that into account and appropriately update the
areas under consideration in this action.
NMFS recently released its ``Draft Three-Year Review of the
Individual Bluefin Quota (IBQ) Program.'' The IBQ Program, adopted in
Amendment 7 to the 2006 Consolidated HMS FMP (Amendment 7), is a catch
share program that introduced individual vessel accountability for
bluefin bycatch in the pelagic longline fishery. Formal reviews of such
catch share programs are required to evaluate whether their objectives
are met. In Amendment 7, NMFS proposed and finalized a plan to formally
evaluate the success and performance of the IBQ Program after three
years of operation and to provide
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the HMS Advisory Panel with a publicly-available written document with
its findings. This is review is expected to be finalized in September
2019 after consideration by the HMS Advisory Panel.
NMFS also recently released a document (Amendment 13 Issues and
Options Paper) for use in 2019 for scoping, a public process during
which NMFS will consider a range of issues and objectives, as well as
possible options for bluefin tuna management. The options being
presented in the Issues and Options Paper consider the preliminary
results of the Draft Three-Year Review and respond to recent changes in
the bluefin fishery and input from the public and HMS Advisory Panel.
The options include refining the IBQ Program; reassessing allocation of
bluefin tuna quotas (including the potential elimination or phasing out
of the Purse Seine category); and other regulatory provisions regarding
bluefin directed fisheries and bycatch in the pelagic longline fishery,
to determine if existing measures are the best means of achieving
current management objectives for bluefin tuna management. During
scoping, public feedback will be accepted via written comments or
scoping meetings as described in separate Federal Register notices.
NMFS also is currently in the process of developing a Proposed Rule
Modifying Pelagic Longline Bluefin Tuna Area-Based and Weak Hook
Management Measures. To analyze the potential environmental effects of
a range of alternatives, NMFS recently released a Draft Environmental
Impact Statement (DEIS). The DEIS evaluates whether current area-based
and gear management measures remain necessary to reduce and/or maintain
low numbers of bluefin tuna discards and interactions in the pelagic
longline fishery, given more recent management measures, including the
IBQ Program. The DEIS prefers alternatives that undertake a process to
evaluate the need for the Northeastern United States Closed Area and
the Gulf of Mexico Gear Restricted Area; removes the Cape Hatteras Gear
Restricted Area; and adjusts the Gulf of Mexico weak hook effective
period from year-round to seasonal (January-June). The comment period
for the DEIS and proposed rule are open through July 31, 2019. NMFS is
holding four public hearings across the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Coast. There will also be two webinars that will serve as public
hearings for interested members of the public from all geographic
locations. After consideration of public comment, NMFS expects to
finalize the rule in the late Fall of 2019. The proposed rule related
to this DEIS is expected to be released shortly.
Finally, NMFS has also recently published an Issues and Options
Paper for Amendment 14, which will review annual catch limits and
reference points for sharks. This action could result in a different
process for establishing the annual catch limits for sharks, and
therefore could affect all fishermen, commercial and recreational, that
target or incidentally catch sharks. During scoping, public feedback
will be accepted via written comments or at scoping meetings as
described in separate Federal Register notices.
Scoping Process
NMFS encourages participation, by all persons affected or otherwise
interested in recreational and commercial HMS fishing, in the process
to determine the scope and significance of options to be analyzed and
considered in a draft environmental impact analysis and regulatory
action. All such persons are encouraged to submit written comments (see
ADDRESSES), or comment at one of the scoping meetings or public
webinar. Persons submitting comments are welcome to address the
specific measures in the Issues and Options Paper.
NMFS intends to hold scoping meetings in the geographic areas that
may be affected by these measures, including locations on the Atlantic
and Gulf of Mexico coasts. NMFS will announce the date and times for
the scoping meetings in a separate Federal Register notice at a later
date. After public comment has been gathered and analyzed, NMFS will
determine if it is necessary to proceed with preparation of a draft
environmental impact analysis and proposed rule, which would include
additional opportunities for public comment. The scope of the draft
environmental impact analysis (whether an environmental assessment or
environmental impact statement) would depend on the scope and potential
effects of the agency action being considered and would consist of the
range of actions, alternatives, and impacts to be considered. This
scoping process also will identify, and possibly eliminate from further
detailed analysis, issues that may not meet the purpose and need of the
action.
The process of developing any resulting regulatory action is
expected to take approximately two years. Until the draft environmental
impact analysis and proposed rule are finalized or until other
regulations are put into place, the current regulations remain in
effect.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 971 et seq.; 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: May 13, 2019.
Kelly L. Denit,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2019-10193 Filed 5-15-19; 8:45 am]
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