[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 219 (Tuesday, November 15, 2022)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 68434-68436]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-24490]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 648

[Docket No. 221103-0231; RTID 0648-XC422]


Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Atlantic Bluefish 
Fishery; 2023 Bluefish 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 2023 Atlantic bluefish 
fishery, as recommended by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council. 
This action is necessary to establish allowable harvest levels for the 
stock that will prevent overfishing and promote rebuilding, using the 
best scientific information available. This rule is intended to inform 
the public of the proposed fishery specifications and provide an 
opportunity for comment on the proposed action.

DATES: Comments must be received by November 30, 2022.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments on this document, identified by 
NOAA-NMFS-2022-0102, by the following method:
    Electronic Submission: Submit all electronic public comments via 
the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal.
    1. Go to https://www.regulations.gov, and enter ``NOAA-NMFS-2022-
0102'' in the Search box;
    2. Click the ``Comment'' 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 Cynthia Ferrio, Fishery Policy Analyst, 
[email protected].
    Copies of the Supplemental Information Report (SIR) and other 
supporting documents for this action are available upon request from 
Dr. Christopher M. Moore, Executive Director, Mid-Atlantic Fishery 
Management Council, Suite 201, 800 North State Street, Dover, DE 19901. 
These documents are also accessible via the internet at https://www.mafmc.org/action-archive.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Cynthia Ferrio, Fishery Policy 
Analyst, (978) 281-9180.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council) and the 
Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (Commission) jointly manage 
the Atlantic Bluefish Fishery Management Plan (FMP). The FMP requires 
the specification of annual regulatory limits for up to three years at 
a time, including: an acceptable biological catch (ABC), commercial and 
recreational annual catch limits (ACL), commercial and recreational 
annual catch targets (ACT), a commercial quota, a recreational harvest 
limit (RHL), and other management measures. This action proposes 
adjusted bluefish specifications for the 2023 fishing year, based on 
Council and Commission recommendations.
    The bluefish fishery is operating under multi-year specifications 
for

[[Page 68435]]

fishing years 2022 and 2023 (87 FR 5739; February 2, 2022), which were 
based on a 2021 assessment update and Amendment 7 to the Bluefish FMP 
(86 FR 66977; November 24, 2021). Upon review of a 2022 data update and 
recent catch information, the Council's Scientific and Statistical 
Committee (SSC) and the Council's Bluefish Monitoring Committee agreed 
that no changes are necessary to the previously projected ABC, 
subsequent ACLs and ACTs, or any limits in the commercial sector. Prior 
to two adjustments described below, these 2023 specifications would 
have resulted in a 21-percent increase to the projected commercial 
quota and a 59-percent increase to the projected RHL. However, the 2022 
data update indicated that the initial projection of recreational 
discards (4.19 million lb, 1,901 mt) did not fully account for expected 
discards, so the Monitoring Committee recommended an adjustment to the 
recreational total allowable landings (TAL) to account for higher than 
expected discards (6.64 million lb, 3,012 mt). There was also a 5.59 
million-lb (2,536-mt) overage of the fishery ACL caused by recreational 
catch in 2021. Because the bluefish fishery is overfished, the 
accountability measure (AM) required by the FMP at 50 CFR 648.163(d)(1) 
is a pound-for-pound payback of the overage against the soonest 
possible year's recreational ACT as a single-year adjustment. The 2021 
overage would be applied to the 2023 specifications in this action. No 
changes were recommended to recreational management measures because 
the adjusted RHL remains slightly higher than the current RHL in 2022, 
and there was no compelling reason found to change existing measures.
    The Council and the Commission's Bluefish Management Board (Board) 
approved bluefish catch specifications for fishing year 2023 at a joint 
meeting in August 2022, as recommended by the SSC and Monitoring 
Committee. The Council and Board did not recommend changes to any 
regulations in place for bluefish. Therefore, all other commercial and 
recreational management measures would remain unchanged for the 2023 
fishing year.

Proposed Specifications

    This action proposes the Council's recommendations for 2023 
bluefish catch specifications, which are consistent with the 
recommendations of the SSC and Monitoring Committee (Table 1). Although 
ACLs in both the commercial and recreational sectors would still 
increase by 21 percent as projected, the proposed RHL is adjusted and 
would only increase 1.6 percent from 2022, rather than 59 percent as 
originally projected.

       Table 1--Comparison of Current 2022, Previously Projected 2023, and Proposed Adjusted 2023 Bluefish
                                                Specifications *
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                                        Current 2022              Projected 2023             Proposed 2023
                                --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                  Million lb   Metric tons   Million lb   Metric tons   Million lb   Metric tons
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Overfishing Limit..............        40.56        18,399        45.17        20,490        45.17        20,490
ABC............................        25.26        11,460        30.62        13,890        30.62        13,890
Commercial ACL = Commercial ACT         3.54         1,604         4.29         1,945         4.29         1,945
Recreational ACL = Recreational        21.73         9,856        26.34        11,945        26.34        11,945
 ACT...........................
Recreational AM................         3.65         1,656            0             0         5.59         2,536
Recreational Discards..........         4.19         1,901         4.19         1,901         6.64         3,012
Commercial TAL.................         3.54         1,604         4.29         1,945         4.29         1,945
Recreational TAL...............        13.89         6,298        22.14        10,044        14.11         6,400
Sector Transfer................            0             0            0             0            0             0
Commercial Quota...............         3.54         1,604         4.29         1,945         4.29         1,945
RHL............................        13.89         6,298        22.14        10,044        14.11         6,400
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* Specifications are derived from the ABC in metric tons (mt). When values are converted to millions of pounds
  the numbers may slightly shift due to rounding. The conversion factor used is 1 mt = 2204.6226 lb.

    The coastwide commercial quota is allocated to coastal states from 
Maine to Florida based on percent shares specified in the FMP. These 
proposed state allocations for 2023 (Table 2) are unchanged from what 
was previously projected, as this action makes no changes to the 
commercial sector or the final coastwide commercial quota. In addition, 
no states exceeded their allocated quota in 2021, or are projected to 
do so in 2022; therefore, no AMs for the commercial fishery are 
required for the 2023 fishing year based on the data available at this 
time.

                       Table 2--Proposed 2023 Bluefish State Commercial Quota Allocations
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                              State                                Percent share    Quota (lb)      Quota (kg)
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Maine...........................................................            0.51          21,807           9,892
New Hampshire...................................................            0.36          15,331           6,954
Massachusetts...................................................            7.69         329,578         149,494
Rhode Island....................................................            7.61         326,165         147,946
Connecticut.....................................................            1.22          52,094          23,629
New York........................................................           13.06         560,031         254,026
New Jersey......................................................           14.54         623,295         282,722
Delaware........................................................            1.48          63,572          28,836
Maryland........................................................            2.69         115,409          52,349
Virginia........................................................           10.16         435,625         197,596
North Carolina..................................................           32.05       1,374,077         623,271
South Carolina..................................................            0.05           2,344           1,063
Georgia.........................................................            0.04           1,544             700

[[Page 68436]]

 
Florida.........................................................            8.55         366,585         166,280
                                                                 -----------------------------------------------
    Total.......................................................          100.01       4,287,109       1,944,600
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    No changes were recommended to recreational management measures as 
a part of these specifications. Therefore, all management measures, 
including the recreational daily bag limit of three fish per person for 
private anglers and five fish per person for for-hire (charter/party) 
vessels, would remain unchanged for 2023.

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 Atlantic Bluefish FMP, other provisions of the 
Magnuson-Stevens Act, and other applicable law, subject to further 
consideration after public comment.
    This action is exempt from review under E.O. 12866 because it 
contains no implementing regulations.
    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.
    The Councils conducted an evaluation of the potential socioeconomic 
impacts of the proposed measures in conjunction with a SIR. There are 
no proposed regulatory changes in this bluefish action, so none are 
considered in the evaluation. The proposed action would implement the 
previously projected 2023 bluefish specifications, with an adjusted RHL 
to account for a recreational overage in 2021 and updated recreational 
discard data. Compared to the 2022 specifications, the coastwide 
commercial quota would increase 21 percent to 4.29 million lb (1,945 
mt), and the RHL would increase 1.6 percent to 14.11 million lb (6,400 
mt).
    This proposed action would affect entities that hold federal for-
hire (party/charter) recreational fishing permits for bluefish. Vessels 
may hold multiple fishing permits and some entities own multiple 
vessels and/or permits. According to the Northeast Fisheries Science 
Center commercial ownership database, 384 for-hire affiliate firms 
generated revenues from recreational fishing for various species during 
the 2019-2021 period (the most recent and complete data available). All 
of those business affiliates are categorized as small businesses, but 
it is not possible to derive the proportion of overall revenues for 
these for-hire firms resulting from fishing activities for an 
individual species such as bluefish. Nevertheless, given the popularity 
of bluefish as a recreational species in the Mid-Atlantic and New 
England, it is likely that revenues generated from bluefish may be 
somewhat important for many of these firms at certain times of the 
year. Although this action wouldn't affect the commercial sector beyond 
what was considered in the prior specifications action (providing an 
increase in fishing opportunity), 526 commercial fishing affiliate 
firms landed bluefish during this data period, with 521 of those 
commercial entities categorized as small businesses, and 5 categorized 
as large businesses. Analyses indicate that bluefish revenues 
contributed approximately 0.46 percent of the total gross receipts for 
these small entities.
    The proposed specifications are expected to provide similar fishing 
opportunities in the recreational sector when compared to the previous 
year, as the RHL is increasing by less than two percent, and because 
the management measures (bag limit, season, etc.) would remain 
unchanged. As noted in the prior specifications action, entities issued 
a commercial bluefish permit may experience a slight positive impact 
related to potentially higher landings throughout the course of the 
entire year. However, because state allocations are changing in 
accordance with Amendment 7, there may be different amounts of quota 
available regionally compared to past years. Often fishing behavior and 
short-term landings are based on market conditions, which are not 
expected to substantially change as a result of these specifications. 
As such, this proposed action is not expected to have an impact on the 
way the fishery operates or the revenue of small entities.
    Overall, analyses indicate that the proposed specifications will 
not substantially change fishing effort, the risk of overfishing, 
prices/revenues, or fishery behavior. Therefore, the Council concluded, 
and NMFS agrees, that this action would not have a significant adverse 
impact on a substantial number of small businesses. As a result, an 
initial regulatory flexibility analysis is not required and none has 
been prepared.
    This action would not establish any new reporting or record-keeping 
requirements.
    This proposed rule contains no new information collection 
requirements under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

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

    Dated: November 3, 2022.
Samuel D. Rauch, III,
Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Programs, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2022-24490 Filed 11-14-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P