[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 145 (Monday, July 29, 2024)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Page 60835]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-16639]



[[Page 60835]]

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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 648

[Docket No. 231221-0314; RTID 0648-XE132]


Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Atlantic Bluefish 
Fishery; Quota Transfers From New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia to 
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, and North Carolina

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

ACTION: Temporary rule; quota transfers.

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SUMMARY: NMFS announces that the States of New Jersey and Maryland and 
the Commonwealth of Virginia are transferring a portion of their 2024 
commercial bluefish quota to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the 
States of Rhode Island, New York, and North Carolina. These adjustments 
to the 2024 fishing year quotas are necessary to comply with the 
Atlantic Bluefish Fishery Management Plan quota transfer provisions. 
This announcement informs the public of the revised 2024 commercial 
bluefish quotas for New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Massachusetts, 
Rhode Island, New York, and North Carolina.

DATES: Effective July 26, 2024, through December 31, 2024.

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

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Regulations governing the Atlantic bluefish 
fishery are found in 50 CFR 648.160 through 648.167. These regulations 
require annual specification of a commercial quota that is apportioned 
among the coastal states from Maine through Florida. The process to set 
the annual commercial quota and the percent allocated to each state is 
described in Sec.  648.162, and the final 2024 allocations were 
published on January 2, 2024 (89 FR 34).
    The final rule implementing Amendment 1 to the Bluefish Fishery 
Management Plan (FMP), as published in the Federal Register on July 26, 
2000 (65 FR 45844), provided a mechanism for transferring bluefish 
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 request approval to transfer or combine 
bluefish commercial quota under Sec.  648.162(e). The Regional 
Administrator is required to consider three criteria in the evaluation 
of requests for quota transfers or combinations: (1) the transfers 
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 criteria have been met for the transfers approved in this 
notification.
    The donor and recipient states mutually agreed to a multistate 
transfer divided among the recipient states proportional to their 2024 
bluefish allocations (table 1) to ensure that the recipient states 
would not exceed their 2024 state quotas. Table 1 provides the 
participating states' revised bluefish quotas for 2024.

                         Table 1--State Quota Transfer Amounts and Revised State Quotas
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                                                     Transfer        Transfer      Revised quota   Revised quota
                                                    amount (lb)     amount (kg)        (lb)            (kg)
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Donor States:
    New Jersey..................................        -100,000         -45,359         248,898         112,898
    Maryland....................................         -25,000         -11,340          36,471          16,543
    Virginia....................................         -50,000         -22,680         175,380          79,551
Recipient States:
    Massachusetts...............................          22,837          10,359         220,862         100,181
    Rhode Island................................          22,376          10,150         216,401          98,158
    New York....................................          40,243          18,254         389,190         176,534
    North Carolina..............................          89,544          40,616         865,996         392,809
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Classification

    NMFS issues this action pursuant to section 305(d) of the Magnuson-
Stevens Act. This action is required by 50 CFR 648.162(e)(1)(i) through 
(iii), 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: July 24, 2024.
Lindsay Fullenkamp,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2024-16639 Filed 7-26-24; 8:45 am]
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