[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 66 (Monday, April 6, 2020)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 19126-19129]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-07061]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 648

[Docket No. 200331-0095]
RIN 0648-BJ66


Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Recreational 
Management Measures for the Summer Flounder Fishery; Fishing Year 2020

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

ACTION: Proposed rule; request for comments.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: NMFS proposes management measures for the 2020 summer flounder 
recreational fishery. The implementing regulations for this fishery 
require NMFS to publish recreational measures for the fishing year and 
to provide an opportunity for public comment. The intent of this action 
is to constrain recreational catch to the summer flounder recreational 
harvest limit and thereby, prevent overfishing on the summer flounder 
stock.

DATES: Comments must be received by April 21, 2020.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments on this document, identified by 
NOAA-NMFS-2020-0033, 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-2020-
0033,
     Click the ``Comment Now!'' icon, complete the required 
fields, and
     Enter or attach your comments.

--OR--
    Mail: Submit written comments to Michael Pentony, Regional 
Administrator, Greater Atlantic Region, 55 Great Republic Drive, 
Gloucester, MA 01930.
    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, etc.), 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: Emily Keiley, Fishery Policy Analyst, 
(978) 281-9116.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background

    Summer flounder is cooperatively managed by the Mid-Atlantic 
Fishery Management Council (Council) and the Atlantic States Marine 
Fisheries Commission (Commission). The Council and the Commission's 
Summer Flounder Management Board (Board) meet jointly each year to 
recommend recreational management measures for summer flounder. NMFS 
must implement coastwide measures or approve conservation equivalent 
measures per 50 CFR 648.102(d) as soon as possible following the 
Council and Commission's recommendation. This action proposes 
maintaining conservation equivalency for 2020, as jointly recommended 
by the Council and Board.

Recreational Management Measures Process

    The Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Fishery Management 
Plan (FMP) established a Monitoring Committee for summer flounder 
consisting of representatives from the Commission, the Council, state 
marine fishery agencies from Massachusetts to North Carolina, and NMFS. 
The FMP's implementing regulations require the Monitoring Committee to 
review scientific and other relevant information annually. The 
objective of this review is to recommend management measures to the 
Council that will constrain landings within the recreational harvest 
limit (RHL) for the upcoming fishing year. The FMP limits the choices 
for the types of measures to minimum and/or maximum fish size, per 
angler possession limit, and fishing season.
    The Council and the Board then consider the Monitoring Committee's 
recommendations and any public comment in making their recommendations. 
The Council forwards its recommendations to NMFS for review. The 
Commission similarly adopts recommendations for the states. NMFS is 
required to review the Council's recommendations to ensure that they 
are consistent with the target specified for summer flounder in the FMP 
and all applicable laws and Executive Orders before ultimately 
implementing measures for Federal waters. Commission measures are final 
at the time they are adopted.

[[Page 19127]]

Summer Flounder Conservation Equivalency Process

    Conservation equivalency, as established by Framework Adjustment 2 
(66 FR 36208; July 11, 2001), allows each state to establish its own 
recreational management measures (possession limits, size limits, and 
fishing seasons) to achieve its state management target partitioned by 
the Commission from the coastwide RHL, as long as the combined effect 
of all of the states' management measures achieves the same level of 
conservation as would Federal coastwide measures. Framework Adjustment 
6 (71 FR 42315; July 26, 2006) allowed states to form regions for 
conservation equivalency in order to minimize differences in 
regulations for anglers fishing in adjacent waters.
    The Council and Board annually recommend that either state- or 
region-specific recreational measures be developed (conservation 
equivalency) or that coastwide management measures be implemented to 
ensure that the RHL will not be exceeded. Even when the Council and 
Board recommend conservation equivalency, the Council must specify a 
set of non-preferred coastwide measures that would apply if 
conservation equivalency is not approved for use in Federal waters.
    When conservation equivalency is recommended, and following 
confirmation by the Commission that the proposed state or regional 
measures developed through its technical and policy review processes 
achieve conservation equivalency, NMFS may waive, for the duration of 
the fishing year, the permit condition found at 50 CFR 648.4(b), which 
requires Federal permit holders to comply with the more restrictive 
management measures when state and Federal measures differ. In such a 
situation, federally permitted summer flounder charter/party permit 
holders and individuals fishing for summer flounder in the exclusive 
economic zone (EEZ) are subject to the recreational fishing measures 
implemented by the state in which they land summer flounder, rather 
than the coastwide measures. Conservation equivilency expires at the 
end of each fishing year (December 31).
    In addition, the Council and the Board must recommend precautionary 
default measures when recommending conservation equivalency. The 
Commission would require adoption of the precautionary default measures 
by any state that either does not submit a summer flounder management 
proposal to the Commission's Summer Flounder Technical Committee, or 
that submits measures that are not conservationally equivalent to the 
coastwide measures.
    The development of conservation equivalency measures happens at 
both the Commission and the individual state level. The selection of 
appropriate data and analytical techniques for technical review of 
potential state conservation equivalent measures and the process by 
which the Commission evaluates and recommends proposed conservation 
equivalent measures are wholly a function of the Commission and its 
individual member states. Individuals seeking information regarding the 
process to develop specific state or regional measures or the 
Commission process for technical evaluation of proposed measures should 
contact the marine fisheries agency in the state of interest, the 
Commission, or both.
    Once the states and regions select their final 2020 summer flounder 
management measures through their respective development, analytical, 
and review processes and submit them to the Commission, the Commission 
will conduct further review and evaluation of the submitted proposals, 
ultimately notifying NMFS as to which proposals have been approved or 
disapproved. NMFS has no overarching authority in the development of 
state or Commission management measures but is an equal participant 
along with all the member states in the review process. NMFS neither 
approves nor implements individual states' measures, but retains the 
final authority either to approve or to disapprove the use of 
conservation equivalency in place of the coastwide measures in Federal 
waters. NMFS will publish its determination on 2020 conservational 
equivalency as a final rule in the Federal Register following review of 
the Commission's determination and any other public comment on this 
proposed rule.

2020 Summer Flounder Recreational Management Measures

    The 2020 summer flounder RHL is 7.69 million lb (3,488 mt), which 
is the same as the 2019 RHL. Based on preliminary Marine Recreational 
Information Program (MRIP) data through October 2019 (wave 5) summer 
flounder landings are projected to be 7.74 million lb (3,510 mt), which 
is 1 percent above the 2019 and 2020 RHL of 7.69 million lb (3,488 mt). 
At the time the Council and Board approved 2020 recreational measures, 
data were only available through wave 4 (August 2019), which resulted 
in projected harvest of 7.06 million lb (3,202 mt), 8 percent below the 
2020 RHL. The Council and Board consider the uncertainty around the 
recreational harvest estimates by maintaining status quo measures if 
the coastwide percent standard error (PSE) around the recreational 
estimate encompasses the following year's RHL. This was the case using 
projections through wave 4, and, therefore, the Council and Board did 
not approve a liberalization in measures for 2020. The revised 
projections using data through wave 5 are also within the PSE; 
therefore, no -adjustments are needed.
    Based on the Council's and the Board's recommendations, and as part 
of the conservation equivalency process, NMFS also proposes a suite of 
non-preferred coastwide measures identified by the Council and Board, 
which would be in effect should NMFS not approve conservation 
equivalency. These measures are expected to constrain the overall 
recreational landings to the 2020 recreational harvest limit, should 
conservation equivalency be disapproved based on the Commission's 
recommendation letter. For 2020, non-preferred coastwide measures 
approved by the Council and Board are a 19-inch (48.3-cm) minimum fish 
size, a four-fish per person possession limit, and an open season from 
May 15-September 15. These measures are identical to the non-preferred 
2019 coastwide measures. The coastwide measures become the default 
management measures in the subsequent fishing year, in this case 2021, 
until the joint process establishes either coastwide or conservation 
equivalency measures for the next year.
    The 2020 precautionary default measures recommended by the Council 
and Board are identical to those in place for 2019: A 20.0-inch (50.8-
cm) minimum fish size; a two-fish per person possession limit; and an 
open season of July 1-August 31, 2020. These measures may be assigned 
by the Commission if conservation equivalency is approved but a state 
or region does not submit a conservationally equivilent proposal.
    Similar to 2016-2019, the 2020 management program adopted by the 
Commission divides the coastline into six management regions: (1) 
Massachusetts; (2) Rhode Island; (3) Connecticut-New York; (4) New 
Jersey; (5) Delaware-Virginia; and (6) North Carolina. Each state 
within a region must implement identical or equivalent measures (size 
limits, bag limit, and fishing season length), and the combination of 
those measures must be sufficient to constrain landings to the 
recreational harvest limit.
    Through the Commission process, states may submit proposals for 
conservationally equivalent measures that would maintain status quo 
harvest levels relative to the preliminary 2019

[[Page 19128]]

recreational harvest. Proposals for conservationally equivalent state 
measures will be reviewed by the Board's Technical Committee in late 
March, and the Board will consider final approval in early April 2020. 
Following the Board's consideration of final 2019 state measures, the 
Commission must submit a letter to NMFS stating whether the states have 
met the conservation objectives under Addendum XXXII to the 
Commission's Interstate FMP and that catch is expected to constrain 
catch to the 2020 recreational harvest limit. Once that letter is 
received, NMFS will be able to publish a final recreational management 
measures rule with a conservation equivalency determination for 2020.

Regulatory Corrections

    Additionally, this proposed rule includes a revision to the 
regulations implementing the FMP to update text that is unnecessary, 
outdated, unclear, or otherwise could be improved. NMFS proposes these 
changes consistent with section 305(d) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery 
Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act), which provides 
that the Secretary of Commerce may promulgate regulations necessary to 
ensure that amendments to a fishery management plan (FMP) are carried 
out in accordance with the FMP and the Magnuson-Stevens Act. The 
regulation at Sec.  648.102(d)(2) describes conservationally equivalent 
measures that states or regions would develop for summer flounder. In a 
prior action promulgating regulations for Framework Adjustment 14 (84 
FR 65699; November 29, 2019), we intended to replace ``minimum fish 
sizes'' in this regulation with ``minimum and/or maximum fish sizes'' 
to reflect Framework Adjustment 14's addition of maximum size limits as 
a management measure available for summer flounder recreational 
fisheries. This change was inadvertently left out of the rule. To 
correct this error this action proposes to replace ``minimum fish 
sizes'' with ``minimum and/or maximum fish sizes.''

Classification

    Pursuant to section 304(b)(1)(A) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the 
Assistant Administrator has determined that this proposed rule is 
consistent with the Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass FMP, 
other provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, and other applicable law, 
subject to further consideration after public comment.
    This proposed rule has been determined to be not significant for 
purposes of Executive Order 12866.
    This proposed rule is not an Executive Order 13771 regulatory 
action because this rule is not significant under Executive Order 
12866.
    The Chief Counsel for Regulation of the Department of Commerce 
certified to the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Business 
Administration (SBA) that this proposed rule, if adopted, would not 
have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small 
entities. The Council conducted an evaluation of the potential 
socioeconomic impacts of the proposed measures. According to the 
commercial ownership database, 389 for-hire affiliate firms generated 
revenues from recreational fishing for various species during the 2016-
2018 period. All of those business affiliates are categorized as small 
businesses. The SBA defines a small for-hire recreational fishing 
business is defined as a firm with receipts of up to $7.5 million. 
Estimating what proportion of the overall revenues for these for-hire 
firms came from fishing activities for an individual species is not 
possible. Nevertheless, given the popularity of summer flounder as a 
recreational species in the Mid-Atlantic and New England, generated 
revenues are likely very important for many of these firms at certain 
times of the year. The 3-year average (2016-2018) combined gross 
receipts (all for-hire fishing activity combined) for these small 
entities was $52,156,152, ranging from less than $10,000 for 119 
entities (lowest value $124) to over $1,000,000 for 8 entities (highest 
value $2.9 million).
    This proposed action would waive Federal measures in lieu of state 
measures designed to reach the 2020 harvest limit. The economic impacts 
of the proposed measures in this action will be affected in part by the 
specific set of measures implemented at the state level for summer 
flounder conservation equivalency. The impacts are likely to vary by 
state, but are expected to be very similar to measures that were in 
place in 2019. The summer flounder recreational measures under 
conservation equivalency are expected to neither reduce nor increase 
recreational satisfaction or for-hire revenues when compared to 2019. 
Demand for for-hire trips is expected to remain approximately the same 
as in 2019. Thus, market demand is expected to be similar in 2020, 
although this is likely to vary by state depending on each state's 
current measures and how they choose to modify them in 2020.
    Because the 2020 measures are expected to be mostly identical to 
2019, this rule will not have a significant economic impact on a 
substantial number of small entities. Therefore, an initial regulatory 
flexibility analysis is not required and none has been prepared.
    There are no new reporting or recordkeeping requirements contained 
in any of the alternatives considered for this action.

List of Subjects in 50 CFR Part 648

    Fisheries, Fishing, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.

    Dated: March 31, 2020.
Samuel D. Rauch III,
Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Programs, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.

    For the reasons set out in the preamble, 50 CFR part 648 is 
proposed to be amended as follows:

PART 648--FISHERIES OF THE NORTHEASTERN UNITED STATES

0
1. The authority citation for part 648 continues to read as follows:

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

0
2. In Sec.  648.102, paragraph (d)(2) is revised to read as follows:


Sec.  648.102  Summer flounder specifications.

* * * * *
    (d) * * *
    (2) Conservation equivalent measures. Individual states, or regions 
formed voluntarily by adjacent states (i.e., multi-state conservation 
equivalency regions), may implement different combinations of minimum 
and/or maximum fish sizes, possession limits, and closed seasons that 
achieve equivalent conservation as the coastwide measures established 
under paragraph (e)(1) of this section. Each state or multi-state 
conservation equivalency region may implement measures by mode or area 
only if the proportional standard error of recreational landing 
estimates by mode or area for that state is less than 30 percent.
* * * * *
0
3. In Sec.  648.107, the introductory text to paragraph (a) is revised 
to read as follows:


Sec.  648.107  Conservation equivalent measures for the summer flounder 
fishery.

    (a) The Regional Administrator has determined that the recreational 
fishing measures proposed to be implemented by the states of Maine 
through North Carolina for 2020 are the conservation equivalent of the 
season, size limits, and possession limit prescribed in Sec. Sec.  
648.104(b), 648.105, and 648.106. This determination is based on a 
recommendation from the Summer

[[Page 19129]]

Flounder Board of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.
* * * * *
[FR Doc. 2020-07061 Filed 4-3-20; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-22-P