[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 52 (Friday, March 15, 2024)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 18831-18832]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-05603]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 648

[Docket No. 231215-0305; RTID 0648-XD808]


Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Summer Flounder 
Fishery; Quota Transfer From Virginia to New Jersey

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

ACTION: Temporary rule; quota transfer.

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SUMMARY: NMFS announces that the Commonwealth of Virginia is 
transferring a portion of its 2024 commercial summer flounder quota to 
the State of New Jersey. This adjustment to the 2024 fishing year quota 
is necessary to comply with the Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea 
Bass Fishery Management Plan (FMP) quota transfer provisions. This 
announcement informs the public of the revised 2024

[[Page 18832]]

commercial quotas for Virginia and New Jersey.

DATES: Effective March 14, 2024, through December 31, 2024.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Laura Deighan, Fishery Management 
Specialist, (978) 281-9184.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Regulations governing the summer flounder 
fishery are found in 50 CFR 648.100 through 648.111. These regulations 
require annual specification of a commercial quota that is apportioned 
among the coastal states from Maine through North Carolina. The process 
to set the annual commercial quota and the percent allocated to each 
state is described in Sec.  648.102 and final 2024 allocations were 
published on December 21, 2023 (88 FR 88266).
    The final rule implementing amendment 5 to the Summer Flounder FMP, 
as published in the Federal Register on December 17, 1993 (58 FR 
65936), provided a mechanism for transferring summer flounder 
commercial quota from one state to another. Two or more states, under 
mutual agreement and with the concurrence of the NMFS Greater Atlantic 
Regional Administrator, can transfer or combine summer flounder 
commercial quota under Sec.  648.102(c)(2). The Regional Administrator 
is required to consider three criteria in the evaluation of requests 
for quota transfers or combinations: (1) the transfers or combinations 
would not preclude the overall annual quota from being fully harvested; 
(2) the transfers address an unforeseen variation or contingency in the 
fishery; and (3) the transfers are consistent with the objectives of 
the FMP and the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management 
Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act). The Regional Administrator has determined 
these three criteria have been met for the transfer approved in this 
notification.
    Virginia is transferring 2,860 pounds (lb; 1,297 kilograms (kg)) to 
New Jersey through a mutual agreement between the states. This transfer 
was requested to repay landings made by an out-of-state permitted 
vessel under a safe harbor agreement. The revised summer flounder 
quotas for 2024 are: Virginia, 1,876,941 lb (851,366 kg); and New 
Jersey, 1,472,958 lb (668,123 kg).

Classification

    NMFS issues this action pursuant to section 305(d) of the Magnuson-
Stevens Act. This action is required by 50 CFR 648.102(c)(2)(i) through 
(iv), which was issued pursuant to section 304(b), and is exempted from 
review under Executive Order 12866.

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

    Dated: March 11, 2024.
Everett Wayne Baxter,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2024-05603 Filed 3-14-24; 8:45 am]
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