[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 15 (Thursday, January 23, 2020)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 3855-3856]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-01083]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 648

[Docket No. 190312234-9412-01]
RTID 0648-XX036


Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Summer Flounder 
Fishery; Quota Transfer From VA to NY

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

ACTION: Notification of quota transfer.

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SUMMARY: NMFS announces that the Commonwealth of Virginia is 
transferring a portion of its 2019 commercial summer flounder quota to 
the State of New York. This retroactive adjustment to the 2019 fishing 
year quota is necessary to comply with the Summer Flounder, Scup, and 
Black Sea Bass Fishery Management Plan quota transfer provisions. This 
announcement informs the public of the retroactively revised 2019 
commercial quotas for Virginia and New York.

DATES: Effective January 17, 2020, until December 31, 2020.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Laura Hansen, Fishery Management 
Specialist, (978) 281-9225.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Regulations governing the summer flounder 
fishery are found in 50 CFR 648.100 through 648.110. These regulations 
require annual specification of a commercial quota that is apportioned 
among the coastal states from Maine through North Carolina. The process 
to set the annual commercial quota and the percent allocated to each

[[Page 3856]]

state is described in Sec.  648.102 and final 2019 allocations were 
published on May 17, 2019 (84 FR 22392).
    The final rule implementing Amendment 5 to the Summer Flounder 
Fishery Management Plan (FMP), as published in the Federal Register on 
December 17, 1993 (58 FR 65936), provided a mechanism for transferring 
summer flounder commercial quota from one state to another. Two or more 
states, under mutual agreement and with the concurrence of the NMFS 
Greater Atlantic Regional Administrator, can transfer or combine summer 
flounder commercial quota under Sec.  648.102(c)(2). The Regional 
Administrator is required to consider three criteria in the evaluation 
of requests for quota transfers or combinations: The transfer or 
combinations would not preclude the overall annual quota from being 
fully harvested; the transfer addresses an unforeseen variation or 
contingency in the fishery; and, the transfer is consistent with the 
objectives of the FMP and the Magnuson-Stevens Act. The Regional 
Administrator has determined these three criteria have been met for the 
transfer approved in this notice.
    Virginia is transferring 8,787 lb (3,986 kg) of 2019 summer 
flounder commercial quota to New York. This transfer was requested to 
repay 2019 landings made by a Virginia-permitted vessel in New York 
under a safe harbor agreement. The transfer will retroactively apply to 
the state's 2019 summer flounder quota. Based on the revised 2019 
Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Specifications, the summer 
flounder quotas for 2019 are now: Virginia, 2,397,129 lb (1,087,319 
kg); and, New York, 848,656 lb (384,943 kg). Given the time of the 
request, we were unable to process the transfer before the end of the 
2019 fishing year that ended on December 31, 2019. The revised quotas 
will be used to calculate overages for the 2019 fishing year and 
adjust, as needed, 2020 summer flounder quotas.

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

    Dated: January 16, 2020.
Karyl K. Brewster-Geisz,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2020-01083 Filed 1-17-20; 4:15 pm]
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