[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 136 (Tuesday, July 16, 2024)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 57793-57794]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-15587]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 648

[Docket No.: 240314-0080; RTID 0648-XE110]


Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Atlantic Sea Scallop 
Fishery; Closure of the Area I, Area II, and New York Bight Scallop 
Access Areas to General Category Individual Fishing Quota Scallop 
Vessels

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

ACTION: Temporary rule; closure.

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SUMMARY: NMFS announces that the Area I, Area II, and New York Bight 
Scallop Access Areas are closed to Limited Access General Category 
Individual Fishing Quota scallop vessels for the remainder of the 2024 
fishing year. Regulations require this action once it is projected that 
100 percent of trips allocated to the Limited Access General Category 
Individual Fishing Quota scallop vessels for the Area I, Area II, and 
New York Bight Scallop Access Areas will be taken. This action is 
intended to prevent the number of trips in the Area I, Area II, and New 
York Bight Scallop Access Areas from exceeding what is allowed under 
the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan.

DATES:  Effective 0001 hr local time, July 13, 2024, through March 31, 
2025.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Travis Ford, Fishery Policy Analyst, 
(978) 281-9233.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Regulations governing fishing activity in 
the Sea Scallop Access Areas can be found in 50 CFR 648.59 and 648.60. 
These regulations authorize vessels issued a valid Limited Access 
General Category (LAGC) Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) scallop permit 
to fish in the Area I, Area II, and New York Bight Scallop Access Areas 
under specific conditions, including a total of 856 trips, combined, 
that may be taken during the 2024 fishing year. Section 
648.59(g)(3)(iii) requires NMFS to close an Access Area to LAGC IFQ 
permitted vessels for the remainder of the fishing year once it 
determines that the allocated number of trips for the fishing year are 
projected to be taken.
    NMFS is required to monitor LAGC IFQ quota at a trip basis. The 
best scientific information available shows that July 13, 2024, is the 
appropriate date to close the areas given the current trip count, and 
likely mathematical extrapolations of trip counts until the closure 
date. We have taken into account that upon announcement of this 
closure, vessels are able to declare into the fishery before the 
closure date. LAGC IFQ scallop vessels provided trip declarations for 
fishing in the Area I, Area II, and New York Bight Scallop Access Areas 
to NMFS through the Vessel Monitoring System. NMFS performed a 
projection analysis using fishing effort data and determined that 856 
trips would likely be taken by July 13, 2024.
    Therefore, in accordance with Sec.  648.59(g)(3)(iii), NMFS is 
closing the Area I, Area II, and New York Bight Scallop Access Areas to 
all LAGC IFQ scallop vessels as of July 13, 2024. No vessel issued an 
LAGC IFQ permit may fish for, possess, or land scallops in or from the 
Area I, Area II, or New York Bight Scallop Access Areas after 0001 hr 
local time, July 13, 2024. Any LAGC IFQ vessel that has declared into 
the Area I, Area II, or New York Bight Access Areas scallop fishery, 
complies with all trip notification and observer requirements, and 
crossed the Vessel Monitoring System demarcation line on the way to the 
area before 0001 hr, July 13, 2024, may complete its trip without being 
subject to this closure. This closure is in effect for the remainder of 
the 2024 scallop fishing year, through March 31, 2025.

Classification

    NMFS issues this action pursuant to section 305(d) of the Magnuson-
Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. This action is 
required by 50 CFR part 648, which was issued pursuant to section 
304(b), and is exempt from review under Executive Order 12866.
    Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B), there is good cause to waive prior 
notice and an opportunity for public comment on this action, as notice 
and comment would be impracticable and contrary to the public interest. 
The Area I, Area II, and New York Bight Scallop Access Areas opened for 
the 2024 fishing year on April 1, 2024. This closure is not 
discretionary under Sec.  648.59(g)(3)(iii); NMFS must close the areas 
once when it determines the trip allocation will be reached. This 
closure ensures that LAGC IFQ scallop vessels do not take

[[Page 57794]]

more than their allocated number of trips in the area. The projected 
date on which the LAGC IFQ fleet will have taken all of its allocated 
trips in an Access Area becomes apparent only as trips into the area(s) 
occur on a real-time basis and as activity trends begin to appear. 
Current trip counts are regularly posted to the monitoring website 
(https://www.greateratlantic.fisheries.noaa.gov/ro/fso/reports/ScallopProgram/CURRENT_REPORTS/LAGC_AA_TRIPS.html), giving regulated 
entities near-real time access to the status of impending closures. 
Nevertheless, NMFS can only make an accurate projection of a specific 
closure date very close in time to when the fleet has taken all of its 
allocated trips. If NMFS solicited public comment on this mandatory 
closure action then the LAGC IFQ scallop vessels would exceed their 
allocated number of trips in the Area I, Area II, and New York Bight 
Scallop Access Areas. Excessive trips and harvest from the Area I, Area 
II, and New York Bight Scallop Access Areas would result in excessive 
fishing effort in the area, where precise effort controls are critical, 
thereby undermining conservation objectives of the Atlantic Sea Scallop 
Fishery Management Plan and requiring more restrictive future 
management measures to prevent overfishing. Accordingly, delaying this 
action to provide prior notice and a comment period would harm scallop 
resources and the scallop fishing industry. The public had prior notice 
and full opportunity to comment on this closure process in Amendment 11 
to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan (FMP) (73 FR 20090; 
April 14, 2008). The public also had prior notice and full opportunity 
to comment on the action to set specifications for the 2024 fishing 
year in Framework Adjustment 38 to the Scallop FMP (89 FR 20341; March 
22, 2024). Regulated parties and stakeholders, were given a meaningful 
opportunity to comment on the regulatory scheme, and they are on notice 
to anticipate this specific closure action. For these reasons, NMFS has 
good cause to waive notice and comment for this action, which flows 
from and was specifically required by regulations that underwent notice 
and comment rulemaking. For these same reasons, NMFS further finds, 
under 5 U.S.C. 553(d)(3), good cause to waive the 30-day delayed 
effectiveness period.

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

    Dated: July 11, 2024.
Lindsay Fullenkamp,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2024-15587 Filed 7-12-24; 8:45 am]
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