[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 147 (Tuesday, August 2, 2022)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 47181-47182]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-16511]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 648

[Docket No. 220726-0164; RTID 0648-XB952]


Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Mid-Atlantic 
Blueline Tilefish Fishery; 2022 and Projected 2023 and 2024 
Specifications

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 2022 blueline tilefish 
fishery north of the North Carolina/Virginia border and projected 
specifications for 2023 and 2024. The proposed action is necessary 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. It is also intended to inform the 
public of these proposed specifications for the 2022 fishing year and 
projected specifications for 2023 and 2024.

DATES: Comments must be received on August 17, 2022.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments on this document, identified by 
NOAA-NMFS-2022-0071, by any of the following methods:
     Electronic Submission: Submit all electronic public 
comments via the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal. Go to https://www.regulations.gov and enter NOAA-NMFS-2022-0071 in the Search box. 
Click on the ``Comment'' icon, complete the required fields, and 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 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).
    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, Suite 201, Dover, DE 19901. These documents are also accessible 
via the internet at http://www.mafmc.org.

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

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    The blueline tilefish fishery north of the North Carolina/Virginia 
border is managed by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council under 
the Tilefish Fishery Management Plan (FMP), which outlines the 
Council's process for establishing annual specifications. Blueline 
tilefish south of the North Carolina/Virginia border are managed by the 
South Atlantic Fishery Management Council under the Snapper Grouper 
FMP.
    The Tilefish FMP requires the Mid-Atlantic Council to recommend 
acceptable biological catch (ABC), annual catch limit (ACL), annual 
catch target (ACT), total allowable landings (TAL), and other 
management measures for the commercial and recreational sectors of the 
fishery, for up to three years at a time. 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. We 
are responsible for reviewing these recommendations to ensure that they 
achieve the FMP objectives and are consistent with all applicable laws. 
Following review, NMFS publishes the final specifications in the 
Federal Register.
    In 2017, a benchmark assessment of the blueline tilefish population 
along the entire East Coast was conducted through the Southeast Data, 
Assessment, and Review process (SEDAR 50). Due to data limitations, the 
coast-wide population was modeled separately north and south of Cape 
Hatteras, NC. To assist in developing a recommendation for acceptable 
biological catch (ABC), the Mid- and South Atlantic Councils' 
Scientific and Statistical Committees (SSC), as well as staff from the 
Northeast and Southeast Fisheries Science Centers, formed a joint 
subcommittee to examine available information for the region north of 
Cape Hatteras, and to develop separate catch advice for each Councils' 
jurisdiction.
    At its March 2018 meeting, the Mid-Atlantic SSC reviewed the output 
from the SEDAR 50 benchmark stock assessment as well as additional work 
using the Data-Limited Methods Toolkit (DLMTool) and derived an ABC 
recommendation using the Mid-Atlantic Council's risk policy. The 
resulting ABC was 179,500 lb (81.4 mt) for 2019-2021 for the region 
north of Cape Hatteras. The SSC then followed the recommendation of the 
Joint Mid- and South Atlantic Blueline Tilefish

[[Page 47182]]

Subcommittee to distribute 56 percent of that ABC to the Mid-Atlantic 
Council (north of the VA/NC border) and 44 percent to the South 
Atlantic Council. This percentage breakdown is based on the catch 
distribution from the 2017 Pilot Blueline Tilefish Longline Survey.
    At its March 2021 meeting, the Mid-Atlantic SSC used the 2018 
approach to recommend a status quo ABC of 100,520 lb (45.6 mt) for the 
2022-2024 fishing years for the region north of Cape Hatteras. The SSC 
made this recommendation under consideration of recent fishery 
performance, lack of an updated assessment, the need to synchronize the 
Mid-Atlantic specifications cycle with a SEDAR assessment scheduled for 
2024/2025, and the high degree of uncertainty within the recreational 
sector. A summary of the Council's recommended specifications is shown 
below in Table 1.

Proposed Specifications

    The Council's recommendations are consistent with the SSC's 
recommended ABC.

    Table 1--Proposed and Projected Blueline Tilefish Specifications
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                  Proposed 2022      Projected 2023-2024
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ABC--North of NC/VA line....  100,520 lb (45.6 mt)  100,520 lb (45.6
                                                     mt).
Recreational ACL/ACT........  73,380 (33.3 mt)....  73,380 (33.3 mt).
Commercial ACL/ACT..........  27,140 lb (12.3 mt).  27,140 lb (12.3 mt).
Recreational TAL............  71,912 lb (32.6 mt).  71,912 lb (32.6 mt).
Commercial TAL..............  26,869 lb (12.2 mt).  26,869 lb (12.2 mt).
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    There were no other recommended changes to commercial or 
recreational management measures. The 2022 fishing year began on 
January 1, 2022, and the fishery is operating under a rollover 
provision.

Classification

    Pursuant to section 304(b)(1)(A) of the Magnuson Stevens Fishery 
Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act), 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.
    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.
    For Regulatory Flexibility Act purposes, NMFS has established a 
size standard for small businesses, including their affiliated 
operations, whose primary industry is commercial fishing (see 50 CFR 
200.2). A business primarily engaged in commercial fishing (NAICS code 
11411) is classified as small if it is independently owned and 
operated, is not dominant in its field of operation (including its 
affiliates), and has combined annual receipts not in excess of $11.0 
million for all its affiliated operations worldwide. The determination 
as to whether the entity is large or small is based on the average 
annual revenue for the three years from 2018 through 2020. Data was 
used from 2018 to 2020, not 2021, because 2020 is the most recent full 
year of ownership data available. The Small Business Administration has 
established size standards for all other major industry sectors in the 
U.S., including defining for-hire fishing firms (NAICS code 487210) as 
small when their receipts are equal to or less than $8 million.
    The measures proposed in this action apply to vessels that hold a 
federal permit for blueline tilefish. Some entities own multiple 
vessels with tilefish permits. The most recent ownership data indicates 
that 1,096 business entities hold at least one permit that the proposed 
action potentially regulations. All 1,096 business entities identified 
could be directly regulated by this proposed action. Of these, 1,096 
entities are commercial entities. Based on 2018-2020 revenues, 1,087 of 
the commercial entities are classified as small businesses and 9 are 
classified as large businesses. All 222 for-hire entities are 
categorized as small businesses.
    The specifications are not proposed to change, so there should be 
no negative impacts on these small businesses compared to recent 
operations, and this action will not have a significant economic impact 
on a substantial number of small entities.

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

    Dated: July 28, 2022.
Samuel D. Rauch, III,
Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Programs, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2022-16511 Filed 8-1-22; 8:45 am]
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