[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 69 (Thursday, April 9, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 19931-19932]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-07473]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

[RTID 0648-XX048]


Magnuson-Stevens Act Provisions; General Provisions for Domestic 
Fisheries; Application for Exempted Fishing Permits

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

ACTION: Notice; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The Assistant Regional Administrator for Sustainable 
Fisheries, Greater Atlantic Region, NMFS, has made a preliminary 
determination that an exempted fishing permit application submitted by 
the Gulf of Maine Research Institute contains all of the required 
information and warrants further consideration. The exempted fishing 
permit would allow the use of electronic monitoring and dockside 
monitoring to support testing a maximized retention model in the 
groundfish fishery. Vessels would be exempt from minimum fish sizes and 
groundfish sector at-sea monitoring requirements. Additionally, vessels 
would be authorized to access portions of Closed Area II during certain 
times of year, and use trawl gear below the minimum mesh size. 
Regulations under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and 
Management Act require publication of this notification to provide 
interested parties the opportunity to comment on applications for 
proposed exempted fishing permits.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before April 24, 2020.

ADDRESSES: You may submit written comments by either of the following 
methods:
     Email: [email protected]. Include in the subject line 
``GMRI MREM EFP.''
     Mail: Michael Pentony, Regional Administrator, NMFS, 
Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office, 55 Great Republic Drive, 
Gloucester, MA 01930. Mark the outside of the envelope ``GMRI MREM 
EFP.''
    Copies of the supplemental information report (SIR) developed in 
support of this project may be obtained by contacting Claire Fitz-
Gerald, Fishery Policy Analyst at the Greater Atlantic Regional 
Fisheries Office, 978-281-9255.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Claire Fitz-Gerald, Fishery Policy 
Analyst, 978-281-9255.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Groundfish sectors must implement and fund 
an at-sea monitoring (ASM) program, and the Northeast Multispecies 
Fishery Management Plan allows sectors to use electronic monitoring 
(EM) to satisfy this monitoring requirement, provided that NMFS deems 
the technology sufficient for catch monitoring. NMFS recently notified 
the Council of its intent to allow sectors to submit EM plans instead 
of, or in addition to, ASM plans as part of the fishing year 2021 and 
2022 sector operations plans approval process. For the 2020 fishing 
year, lessons learned through this exempted fishing permit (EFP) will 
allow NMFS to continue developing standards and requirements for the 
groundfish EM program. Project partners include the Gulf of Maine 
Research Institute (GMRI) and fishermen.
    GMRI submitted an EFP application to test a maximized retention 
electronic monitoring (MREM) model and an accompanying dockside 
monitoring (DSM) program to monitor high-volume bottom-trawl vessels in 
the groundfish fleet. Vessels would be outfitted with EM systems 
(cameras and gear sensors), and the cameras would be on for 100 percent 
of groundfish trips. The EFP

[[Page 19932]]

would require participating vessels to retain and land all catch of 
allocated groundfish, including undersized fish that they would 
normally be required to discard. All other species would be handled per 
normal commercial fishing operations. An EM service provider would 
review 100 percent of the video footage to verify that the vessels did 
not discard allocated groundfish. Northeast Fisheries Science Center 
(Center) staff would conduct a secondary review of the video footage on 
a subset of trips.
    All catch would be assessed shoreside via an accompanying DSM 
program. Dockside monitors would: (1) Collect biological information 
for undersized catch, including length-frequency data and age 
structures on a subset of fish in this market category; (2) verify 
dealer-reported weights for all species and market categories; and (3) 
inspect fish holds. Vessels would be authorized to sell catch, 
including undersized fish, to a limited number of dealers. The vessel 
and dealer would work collaboratively with the Center to ensure that a 
dockside monitor is present to observe 100 percent of offloads for this 
project. Participating dealers would be required to accommodate 
monitors' sampling protocols and all totes containing undersized fish 
would be accompanied by a tag identifying the program and the vessel 
trip report (VTR) number.
    Because vessels would be fully monitored, GMRI also requested 
exemptions to incentivize participation in the project and increase 
fishing opportunities for healthy stocks. The EFP would allow vessels 
to use the codend configuration used in the Canadian haddock fishery 
(5.1-inch (13.0-cm) square mesh codend with modifier haddock separator 
device or Ruhle trawl) and/or the codend configuration tested in the 
REDNET project (4.5-inch (11.4-cm) diamond mesh codend). The latter 
mesh size would be restricted to the Redfish Exemption Area and all 
standard sector exemption requirements would still apply. These 
exemptions are intended to improve size selectivity and increase catch 
of target species, while avoiding groundfish species of concern.
    The applicant also requested access to portions of Closed Area II. 
Vessels would be allowed to fish in the non-essential fish habitat 
portions of Closed Area II from April 16 through January 31. Vessels 
would not be allowed to fish in the area from February 1 through April 
15 as fishing activity during this time may negatively affect Georges 
Bank cod and haddock spawning. The applicant states that, due to the 
distribution and movement of groundfish stocks, this exemption would 
improve vessels' ability to selectively target healthy groundfish 
stocks.
    The applicant also requested an exemption from sector third-party 
ASM requirements. Under the current MREM program EFP, ASM data is used 
to build discard rates for unallocated groundfish stocks and non-
groundfish species for MREM vessels. ASM data is not used to build 
discard rates for allocated groundfish stocks because the vessels are 
required to retain and land this catch. Therefore, we intend to reduce 
the ASM coverage target under this EFP to the level necessary to meet 
the coefficient of variation (CV30) precision standard for the 
unallocated groundfish stocks. For fishing year 2020, the ASM coverage 
target would be 9 percent, driven by ocean pout. Although the ASM 
coverage level should not be based solely on the results of the CV30 
standard methodology for the fishery as a whole, we determined that the 
CV30 methodology is appropriate for this program because the same 
circumstances do not apply. MREM vessels are not allowed to discard 
allocated stocks and are fully monitored to ensure compliance. These 
vessels would only be discarding unallocated stocks, which do not 
present the same potential for bias. Northeast Fishery Observer Program 
(NEFOP) observers would not be deployed on these vessels because their 
fishing activity is not consistent with the Standardized Bycatch 
Reporting Methodology (SBRM) sampling design. Under an operational 
program, NMFS would build an SBRM stratum for MREM vessels and these 
data would be used to build discard rates for unallocated species. 
Participating vessels would use cameras in lieu of ASM and in 
additional to NEFOP observers. Because vessels participating in the EFP 
are not subject to NEFOP coverage, a limited amount of ASM is 
necessary.
    This EFP would be effective for the 2020 and 2021 fishing years. 
NMFS would authorize a maximum of eight bottom-trawl vessels to 
participate. MREM vessels would take roughly 240-315 trips per year and 
would land an estimated 1-3 million pounds (454--1,361 mt) of fish 
annually. All catch of allocated groundfish stocks would be deducted 
from the appropriate sector's allocation. Because this is a maximized 
retention program, vessels would not be permitted to discard legal 
unmarketable fish for allocated groundfish stocks, regardless of 
whether the vessel holds a sector exemption to do so through its 
operations plan.
    If approved, the applicant may request minor modifications and 
extensions to the EFP throughout the year. EFP modifications and 
extensions may be granted without further notice if they are deemed 
essential to facilitate completion of the proposed research and have 
minimal impacts that do not change the scope or impact of the initially 
approved EFP request. Any fishing activity conducted outside the scope 
of the exempted fishing activity would be prohibited.

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

    Dated: April 6, 2020.
H[eacute]l[egrave]ne M.N. Scalliet,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2020-07473 Filed 4-8-20; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-22-P