[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 220 (Friday, November 13, 2020)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 72616-72619]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-25042]



[[Page 72616]]

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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 648

[Docket No. 201106-0294]
RIN 0648-BJ98


Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Golden Tilefish 
Fishery; 2021 and Projected 2022 Specifications and Emergency Action

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

ACTION: Proposed rule; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: NMFS proposes specifications for the 2021 commercial golden 
tilefish fishery and projected specifications for 2022. This action 
also proposes to implement emergency measures for the golden tilefish 
fishery at the request of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council. 
The proposed action is intended to establish allowable harvest levels 
and other management measures to prevent overfishing while allowing 
optimum yield, consistent with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery 
Conservation and Management Act and the Tilefish Fishery Management 
Plan. The proposed emergency measures would allow a limited one-time 
carryover of up to 5 percent of unharvested fishing quota from the 2020 
fishing year into the 2021 fishing year. This action also informs the 
public of the proposed specifications and emergency measures and 
provides opportunity for public comment.

DATES: Comments must be received by November 30, 2020.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments on this document, identified by 
NOAA-NMFS-2020-0113, by either of the following method:
    Electronic Submission: Submit all electronic public comments via 
the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal.
    1. Go to www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=NOAA-NMFS-2020-0113,
    2. Click the ``Comment Now!'' icon, complete the required fields, 
and
    3. Enter or attach your comments.
    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 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). If you are unable to submit your comment through 
www.regulations.gov, contact Douglas Potts, Fishery Policy Analyst, 
[email protected].
    Copies of the Supplemental Information Report (SIR) prepared for 
this action, and other supporting documents for these proposed 
specifications, are available from Dr. Christopher M. Moore, Executive 
Director, Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, 800 North State 
Street, Dover, Suite 201, DE 19901. These documents are also accessible 
via the internet at http://www.mafmc.org.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Douglas Potts, Fishery Policy Analyst, 
(978) 281-9341.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council manages the golden 
tilefish fishery under the Tilefish Fishery Management Plan (FMP), 
which outlines the Council's process for establishing annual 
specifications. The FMP requires the Council to recommend acceptable 
biological catch (ABC), annual catch limit (ACL), annual catch target 
(ACT), total allowable landings (TAL), and other management measures, 
for up to 3 years at a time. The directed fishery is managed under an 
individual fishing quota (IFQ) program, with small amounts of non-IFQ 
catch allowed under an incidental permit. The Council's Scientific and 
Statistical Committee (SSC) provides an ABC recommendation to the 
Council to derive these catch limits. The Council makes recommendations 
to NMFS that cannot exceed the recommendation of its SSC. The Council's 
recommendations must include supporting documentation concerning the 
environmental, economic, and social impacts of the recommendations. 
NMFS is responsible for reviewing these recommendations to ensure that 
they achieve the FMP objectives and are consistent with all applicable 
laws. Following this review, NMFS publishes the final specifications in 
the Federal Register.
    A 2017 stock assessment update found the tilefish stock is not 
overfished or experiencing overfishing. Based on this report and 
recommendations made by the Council's SSC, the Council voted in April 
2020 to recommend quota specifications for the golden tilefish fishery 
for fishing years 2021 and 2022. A summary of the Council's recommended 
specifications is shown below in Table 1. A management track stock 
assessment is scheduled to be completed in 2021 that could inform a new 
specifications action to replace the projected 2022 specifications 
included in this action. At the April 2020 meeting, the Council also 
voted to request that NMFS implement emergency measures, under the 
authority provided in section 305(c) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, for a 
one-time carryover of up to 5 percent of unharvested IFQ allocation 
from the 2020 fishing year into the 2021 fishing year. This request was 
intended to mitigate the severe negative impacts to the tilefish 
fishery (e.g., market conditions) as a result of COVID-19.
    The tilefish IFQ program does not normally allow any carryover of 
unharvested allocation from one fishing year into the next. The 
Council's request for emergency measures is discussed in more detail 
below.

Proposed Specifications

    The Council's recommendations are consistent with the SSC's 
recommended ABCs, and represent a status quo ABC compared to 2020. The 
proposed initial IFQ TAL of 1,554,259 lb (705 mt) is also status quo 
compared to 2020. However, the incidental TAL of 70,548 lb (32 mt) is a 
1 mt reduction from 2020 to account for updated discard information. 
The proposed incidental sector typically lands less than half of its 
allocated quota each year, so this reduction is unlikely to have a 
significant impact.

                                             Table 1--Summary of Recommended Golden Tilefish Specifications
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                                                                       2020                            2021                       Projected 2022
                                                         -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                            million lb          mt          million lb          mt          million lb          mt
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ABC.....................................................           1.636             742           1.636             742           1.636             742

[[Page 72617]]

 
ACL.....................................................           1.636             742           1.636             742           1.636             742
IFQ ACT.................................................           1.554             705           1.554             705           1.554             705
Incidental ACT..........................................           0.082              37           0.082              37           0.082              37
IFQ TAL.................................................           1.554             705           1.554             705           1.554             705
Incidental TAL..........................................           0.073              33           0.070              32           0.070              32
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The Council recommended an ABC equal to the ACL. Under the FMP, 95 
percent of the ACL is allocated for the IFQ fishery, and the remaining 
5 percent is allocated for the incidental fishery. This results in the 
ACT for each. The TAL for each of these sectors of the fishery is 
derived by deducting anticipated discards of tilefish from the ACT.
    The golden tilefish industry strongly supports consistency in 
annual harvest quotas, and has operated under a constant landings 
strategy since 2001. Continuing this strategy, the Council opted to 
recommend the same quota for the 2021 and 2022, with the understanding 
that the specifications will be reviewed next year and the 2022 
specifications may be changed based on the results of the planned 2021 
stock assessment. We are proposing the 2021 specifications along with 
the projected specifications 2022 so the public is aware. We will 
publish a notice in the Federal Register to confirm the projected 
specifications or announce any necessary changes to the specifications 
for 2022. The Council did not recommend changes to other regulations 
for this fishery. We propose, based on this recommendation, that all 
other management measures in the golden tilefish fishery will remain 
unchanged for the 2021-2022 fishing years. The incidental trip limit 
will stay 500 lb (226.8 kg) (live weight), or 50 percent of the weight 
of all fish being landed, whichever is less, and the recreational catch 
limit will remain eight fish per angler per trip. Annual IFQ 
allocations will be issued to individual quota shareholders in advance 
of the November 1 start of the fishing year.

Emergency Action

    After approving the proposed 2021-2022 specifications, the Council 
approved the following motion at its April 2020 meeting, which requests 
that NMFS take emergency action to allow carryover of 5 percent of 
unused IFQ quota from fishing year 2020 to 2021.

    Move that given the COVID-19 national emergency, to request the 
service to consider an emergency action to allow a 5% rollover of 
unused IFQ 2020 quota allocation for the golden tilefish fishing 
year November 1, 2020, thru October 31, 2021.

    The tilefish IFQ program does not normally allow any carryover of 
unharvested allocation from one fishing year into the next. Unforeseen 
changes in the market for seafood resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, 
particularly the loss of restaurant sales due to local closure orders, 
have substantially reduced demand for golden tilefish. A review of 
golden tilefish IFQ landings from November 1, 2019, through June 30, 
2020, shows that landings were approximately 18.5-percent below the 
same date in 2018 and 2019. Because of this unprecedented impact on the 
fishery, we are proposing to grant this one-time carry over under our 
emergency rulemaking authority specified in section 305(c) of the 
Magnuson-Stevens Act.
    We are interpreting this request to mean each IFQ quota shareholder 
could carry over all 2020 IFQ quota pounds that are not used to land 
tilefish before the end of the fishing year, up to a maximum amount of 
5 percent of their initial 2020 IFQ quota pounds. Final IFQ accounting 
is normally completed in December or January, after all landings data 
has been submitted and undergone normal reviews for quality control and 
quality assurance. Following that accounting, IFQ quota shareholders 
that land less than 95 percent of their initial 2020 quota pounds would 
be eligible for the full 5-percent carryover. Those that land between 
95 and 100 percent of their initial 2020 quota pounds could carryover 
the amount they were under. Revised 2020 allocation permits indicating 
the amount of any carryover would be issued to IFQ quota shareholders. 
Although carryover IFQ pounds would be added to accounts after the 
start of the November 1, 2020, start of the fishing year, the effective 
date would be retroactive to November 1.
    If every IFQ quota shareholder were to receive the maximum 5-
percent carryover it would result in a maximum potential IFQ TAL for 
2021 of 1.631 million lb (740 mt), compared to the 1.554-million lb 
(705-mt) TAL proposed above. However, it is expected that actual 
carryover would end up being less because not all quota shareholders 
will carry over the full 5-percent allowance. Any increase in the 2021 
IFQ TAL would reflect 2020 IFQ TAL that was not harvested. Thus, total 
landings for 2020 and 2021 would remain at or below the combined IFQ 
TAL for the 2 years. In addition, the Council's SSC takes a 
precautionary approach when setting ABC recommendations incorporating a 
substantial buffer between the ABC recommendation and the level of 
harvest thought to result in overfishing. The ABC recommendation for 
2018-2020 of 742 mt was 300 mt below the average overfishing limit for 
those years. The 35 mt maximum possible carryover is relatively small 
by comparison. These factors minimize any potential risk that allowing 
this one-time carryover could result in overfishing.
    NMFS's policy guidelines for the use of emergency rules (62 FR 
44421; August 21, 1997) specify the following three criteria that 
define what an emergency situation is, and justification for final 
rulemaking: (1) The emergency results from recent, unforeseen events or 
recently discovered circumstances; (2) the emergency presents serious 
conservation or management problems in the fishery; and (3) the 
emergency can be addressed through emergency regulations for which the 
immediate benefits outweigh the value of advance notice, public 
comment, and deliberative consideration of the impacts on participants 
to the same extent as would be expected under the normal rulemaking 
process. NMFS's policy guidelines further provide that emergency action 
is justified for certain situations where emergency action would 
prevent significant direct economic loss, or to preserve a significant 
economic opportunity that otherwise might be foregone. NMFS has 
preliminarily determined, subject to public comment on this proposed 
rule, that allowing the carryover of

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unharvested tilefish IFQ quota pounds as described above meets the 
three criteria for emergency action for the reasons outlined below.
    The emergency results from recent, unforeseen events or recently 
discovered circumstances. On March 13, 2020, a national emergency was 
declared in response to the global spread of a novel coronavirus (SARS-
CoV-2), and the outbreaks of the disease caused by this virus, COVID-
19. Days earlier, state governors across the Greater Atlantic region 
had begun declaring states of emergency in recognition of the growing 
impacts and risks of COVID-19. The tilefish industry began to 
experience impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. These 
impacts were unforeseen during the development of management measures 
for the 2020 fishing year that began on November 1, 2019.
    The emergency presents serious conservation or management problems 
in the fishery. When state governors across the Greater Atlantic region 
declared states of emergency it became exceedingly difficult for 
members of the tilefish industry to complete fishing trips and sell 
their catch to federally permitted tilefish dealers. Even after some 
tilefish dealer activity resumed, the ability of tilefish IFQ quota 
holders to harvest their quota remained very limited, and it is 
expected that a number of fishermen will be unable to harvest their 
full quota for this fishing year. This emergency action would help 
prevent additional economic losses to industry participants, shoreside 
businesses, and fishing communities, and help offset lost fishing 
opportunities during the 2020 fishing year.
    Although the Council has the authority to develop a management 
action to authorize carryover, an emergency action can be developed and 
implemented by NMFS more swiftly than a Council action that is subject 
to requirements not applicable to the Secretary. If the normal Council 
process is used to implement carryover provisions, it would take 
substantially longer for those provisions to be implemented and could 
prevent vessels from harvesting carryover at an opportune time in the 
upcoming fishing year. It is not possible to implement these changes 
for the start of the 2021 fishing year through rulemaking following the 
normal Council process because of time required for the Council to 
develop a FMP amendment or framework adjustment. If implemented through 
emergency action, it may be possible for any carryover to be authorized 
early in the tilefish fishing year, which may be advantageous to some 
fishermen. While considering the Council's request, we are also taking 
into account the importance of any carryover quota being available for 
the full year to allow tilefish permit holders to plan their operations 
to be able to use additional quota when it is most beneficial to them. 
Section 305(c) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act specifies that emergency 
regulations may only remain in effect for 180 days from the date of 
publication and may be extended for one additional period of not more 
than 186 days. Including the Council's request in this proposed rule 
also allows the opportunity to accept public comment on the emergency 
measures, which is not usually available for an emergency action.

Classification

    NMFS is issuing this rule pursuant to sections and 304(b)(1)(A) and 
305(c) of the Magnuson Stevens Act, which provide specific authority 
and procedure for implementing this action. Section 304(b) authorizes 
NMFS to implement regulations implementing a fishery management plan or 
plan amendment. Section 305(c) authorizes NMFS to implement regulations 
at the request of the Council to address an emergency in the fishery. 
The NMFS Assistant Administrator has determined that this proposed rule 
is consistent with the Tilefish 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 that this proposed rule, if adopted, would not have a 
significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. 
The factual basis for this determination is as follows.
    For Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) purposes only, NMFS defines a 
small business in the commercial fishing industry as a firm with total 
annual receipts (gross revenues) not in excess of $11.0 million.
    The proposed action consists of a slight decrease to the incidental 
quota to account for updated discard data, status quo initial 
individual fishing quota (IFQ) allocation, and one-time carryover of a 
small amount of unharvested IFQ allocation from 2020 into 2021 fishing 
year. The measures proposed in this action apply to vessels that hold a 
Federal permit for golden tilefish, including the 10 entities currently 
(2019) holding golden tilefish IFQ allocations.
    For the purposes of the RFA analysis, the ownership entities (or 
firms), not the individual vessels, are considered to be the regulated 
entities. Ownership entities are defined as those entities or firms 
with common ownership personnel as listed on the permit application. 
Because of this, some vessels with golden tilefish permits may be 
considered to be part of the same firm because they may have the same 
owners.
    According to the ownership database, 176 affiliate firms landed 
golden tilefish during the 2016-2018 period, with 172 of those business 
affiliates categorized as small business and 4 categorized as large 
business. The 3-year average (2016-2018) combined gross receipts (all 
species combined) for all small entities was $148,189,557 and the 
average golden tilefish receipts was $4,583,593; this indicates that 
golden tilefish revenues contributed approximately 3.09 percent of the 
total gross receipts for these small entities. The four firms that were 
categorized as large entities had combined gross receipts of 
$77,944,741 and average golden tilefish receipts of $740. As such, 
golden tilefish receipts as a proportion of gross receipts is <0.01 
percent.
    The golden tilefish fleet landed between 96 and 99 percent of the 
quota in the most recent two years of the current multi-year 
specifications cycle (2018 and 2019). The average ex-vessel price per 
pound of golden tilefish reported by processors was $3.81 in 2019, 
slightly higher than the $3.31 per pound in 2018. The total ex-vessel 
value of the 2019 harvest was approximately $5.4 million, slightly 
higher than $4.9 million in 2019. Because the 2021-2022 IFQ quota under 
the proposed action is identical to the quota implemented in the past 
few years, it is not expected that its implementation will affect the 
way the fishery operates or adversely impact future fishing landings 
compared to recent years.
    The incidental fishery does not catch its quota each year, so a 
small decrease (2,205 pounds (1 mt) or 3.1-percent lower than 2020) is 
not expected to have any impact on that sector of the fishery. The 
small amount of carryover that would be allowed under this action 
represents under harvest in the 2020 fishing year. Any resulting 
increase in revenue in 2021 is likely offset by a corresponding 
decrease in revenue in 2020. The amount of additional tilefish

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IFQ quota pounds any single quota shareholder might receive is not 
expected to be large enough to affect the way the fishery operates. 
Therefore, this action is not expected to have a significant economic 
impact on a substantial number of small entities. As a result, an 
initial regulatory flexibility analysis is not required and none has 
been prepared.
    This proposed rule contains no information collection requirements 
under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

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

    Dated: November 6, 2020.
Samuel D. Rauch III,
Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Programs, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2020-25042 Filed 11-12-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P