[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 139 (Friday, July 19, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 58720-58721]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-15956]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

[RTID 0648-XE101]


Pacific Fishery Management Council; Public Meeting

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

ACTION: Notice of a public online meeting.

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SUMMARY: The Ecosystem-Based Management Subcommittee (SSC ES) of the 
Pacific Fishery Management Council's (Pacific Council) Scientific and 
Statistical Committee (SSC) will convene an online meeting to review 
the use of ecosystem risk evaluation tables and any other Ecosystem and 
Climate Information for Species, Fisheries, and Fishery Management Plan 
(Initiative 4) materials provided by the Council's Ecosystem Workgroup. 
In addition, they may review new analyses conducted by the NMFS 
California Current Integrated Ecosystem Assessment Team that may 
potentially inform future annual reports to the Pacific Council on the 
state of the California Current Ecosystem. The SSC ES meeting is open 
to the public.

DATES: The SSC ES meeting will be held Monday, August 5, 2024, from 1 
p.m. until 5 p.m. (Pacific Time) or until business for the day has been 
completed.

ADDRESSES: This meeting will be conducted as an online meeting. 
Specific meeting information, including the agenda and directions on 
how to join the meeting and system requirements, will be provided in 
the workshop announcement on the Pacific Council's website (see 
www.pcouncil.org). You may send an email to Kris Kleinschmidt 
([email protected]) or contact him at (503) 820-2412 for 
technical assistance.
    Council address: Pacific Fishery Management Council, 7700 NE 
Ambassador Place, Suite 101, Portland, OR 97220.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Marlene A. Bellman, Staff Officer, 
Pacific Council; telephone: (503) 820-2414; email: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The purpose of the SSC ES meeting is to 
review a methodological framework to incorporate ecosystem risk 
evaluation tables in the current Council process and any intersection 
with the SSC's scientific uncertainty buffers and stock category 
designations which result from the stock assessment process. Ecosystem 
risk evaluation tables were developed by the Council's Ecosystem 
Workgroup for several example groundfish species (i.e. sablefish and 
petrale sole), and the approach was reviewed by the SSC Ecosystem-Based 
Management and Groundfish Subcommittees in September 2023. At this 
meeting, the SSC ES will review any new developments to the risk table 
approach, including methodological frameworks for evaluating the 
ecosystem, assessment uncertainty, and population dynamics 
considerations the risk tables contain, and provide example 
applications for fisheries management. In March 2024, the Pacific 
Council also requested a retrospective analysis of how risk tables 
would have impacted

[[Page 58721]]

decision-making in past groundfish assessments if they had been used in 
the manner currently envisioned. Sablefish was selected for a full 
assessment and petrale sole for a catch-only projection in the 2025 
stock assessment cycle. Thus, the Subcommittee may focus on 
consideration or pathways for incorporation of these species risk 
tables in the upcoming stock assessment cycle and 2027-2028 harvest 
specification process.
    In addition, they may review new analyses conducted by the NMFS 
California Current Integrated Ecosystem Assessment Team that may 
potentially inform future annual reports to the Pacific Council on the 
state of the California Current Ecosystem.
    No management actions will be decided by the meeting participants. 
The participants' role will be development of recommendations and 
reports for consideration by the SSC and the Pacific Council at a 
future Council meeting. The Pacific Council and SSC are scheduled to 
consider the Ecosystem and Climate Information for Species, Fisheries, 
and Fishery Management Plan Initiative 4 at their September 2024 
meeting in Spokane, WA, and to consider the California Current 
Ecosystem Status Report at their March 2025 meeting in Vancouver, WA.
    Although nonemergency issues not contained in the meeting agenda 
may be discussed, those issues may not be the subject of formal action 
during this meeting. Action will be restricted to those issues 
specifically listed in this notice and any issues arising after 
publication of this notice that require emergency action under Section 
305(c) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, 
provided the public has been notified of the intent of the workshop 
participants to take final action to address the emergency.

Special Accommodations

    Requests for sign language interpretation or other auxiliary aids 
should be directed to Kris Kleinschmidt ([email protected]; 
(503) 820-2412) at least 10 days prior to the meeting date.
    Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.

    Dated: July 16, 2024.
Rey Israel Marquez,
Acting Deputy Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National 
Marine Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2024-15956 Filed 7-18-24; 8:45 am]
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