Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Atlantic Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish Fisheries; Specifications and Management Measures
Federal Register, Volume 77 Issue 223 (Monday, November 19, 2012)
Federal Register Volume 77, Number 223 (Monday, November 19, 2012)
Proposed Rules
Pages 69426-69433
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office www.gpo.gov
FR Doc No: 2012-28057
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
50 CFR Part 648
Docket No. 120731291-2522-01
RIN 0648-BC40
Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Atlantic Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish Fisheries; Specifications and Management Measures
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 2013-2015 specifications and management measures for Atlantic mackerel, and 2013 specifications for butterfish. Specifications for longfin squid and Illex squid were set for 3 years in 2012 (2012-2014) and therefore will not be included in this year's specification rulemaking. The proposed specifications would make regulatory changes to the longfin squid fishery, as well as the butterfish mortality cap to avoid 1-2 week closures at the end of a Trimester. Compared to 2012, this proposed action would increase the butterfish quota by 236 percent (recommended 2013 quota of 2,570 mt), and increase the butterfish mortality cap by 184 percent (recommended 2013 quota of 4,500 mt). Due to the increase in the proposed butterfish quota, this action also proposes a variety of management measures for controlling effort in the directed butterfish fishery, including changes to trip limits, the closure threshold for the directed fishery, and post-closure trip limits. Finally, this rule proposes minor corrections to existing regulatory text, to clarify the intent of the regulations. These proposed specifications and management measures promote the utilization and conservation of the Atlantic mackerel, squid, and butterfish resource.
DATES: Public comments must be received no later than 5 p.m., eastern standard time, on December 10, 2012.
ADDRESSES: Copies of supporting documents used by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council), including the Environmental Assessment (EA) and Regulatory Impact Review (RIR)/Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis (IRFA), are available from: Dr. Christopher M. Moore, Executive Director, Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, Suite 201, 800 N. State Street, Dover, DE 19901. The EA/RIR/IRFA is accessible via the Internet at http://www.nero.noaa.gov.
You may submit comments, identified by NOAA-NMFS-2012-0184, by any one of the following methods:
Electronic Submission: Submit all electronic public comments via the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal www.regulations.gov. To submit comments via the e-Rulemaking Portal, first click the ``submit a comment'' icon, then enter NOAA-NMFS-2012-0184 in the keyword search. Locate the document you wish to comment on from the resulting list and click on the ``Submit a Comment'' icon on the right of that line.
Mail to NOAA Fisheries, Northeast Regional Office, 55 Great Republic Dr, Gloucester, MA 01930. Mark the outside of the envelope ``Comments on 2013 MSB Specifications.''
Fax: (978) 281-9135, Attn: Lindsey Feldman;
Instructions: Comments must be submitted by one of the above methods to ensure that the comments are received, documented, and considered by NMFS. 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. All comments received are a 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.) submitted voluntarily by the sender will be publicly accessible. Do not submit confidential business information, or otherwise sensitive or protected information. NMFS will accept anonymous comments (enter ``N/A'' in the required fields if you wish to remain anonymous). Attachments to electronic comments will be accepted in Microsoft Word or Excel, WordPerfect, or Adobe PDF file formats only.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Lindsey Feldman, Fishery Management Specialist, 978-675-2179, fax 978-281-9135.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
This rule proposes specifications, which are the combined suite of commercial and recreational catch levels established for one or more fishing years. The specification process also allows for the modification of a select number of management measures, such as closure thresholds, gear restrictions, and possession limits. The Council's process for establishing specifications relies on provisions within the Atlantic Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish (MSB) Fishery Management Plan (FMP) and its implementing regulations, as well as requirements established by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act). Specifically, section 302(g)(1)(B) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act states that the Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) for each Regional Fishery Management Council shall provide its Council ongoing scientific advice for fishery management decisions, including recommendations for acceptable biological catch (ABC), preventing overfishing, maximum sustainable yield, and achieving
Page 69427
rebuilding targets. The ABC is a level of catch that accounts for the scientific uncertainty in the estimate of the stock's defined overfishing level (OFL). The Council's SSC met on May 23 and 24, 2012, confirming 2013 specifications for Illex and longfin squid and recommending ABCs for the 2013 Atlantic mackerel (mackerel) and butterfish specifications.
The MSB FMP's implementing regulations require the involvement of a monitoring committee in the specification process for each species. Since the Magnuson-Stevens Act requirements for the SSC to recommend ABC became effective, the monitoring committees' role has largely been to recommend any reduction in catch limits from the SSC-recommended ABCs to offset management uncertainty, and to recommend other management measures (e.g., gear and/or possession restrictions) needed for the efficient management of the fisheries. The MSB Monitoring Committee met on May 31, 2012, to discuss specification related recommendations for the 2013-2015 mackerel fishery, 2013 butterfish fishery, and changes in management measures for the longfin squid fishery and butterfish mortality cap.
Following the SSC and MSB Monitoring Committee meetings described above, the Council considered the committees' recommendations and public comments at its June 12-14, 2012, meeting in New York, NY, and made their specification recommendations. The Council submitted these recommendations, along with the required analyses, for agency review on July 31, 2012, with final submission on September 30, 2012. NMFS must review the Council's recommendations to ensure that they comply with the FMP and applicable law, and conduct notice-and-comment rulemaking to propose and implement the final recommendations.
The MSB regulations require the specification of annual catch limits (ACL) and accountability measure (AM) provisions for mackerel and butterfish (both squid species are exempt form the ACL/AM requirements because they have a life cycle of less than 1 year). In addition, the regulations require the specification of domestic annual harvest (DAH), domestic annual processing (DAP), and total allowable level of foreign fishing (TALFF), along with joint venture processing for (JVP) and commercial and recreational annual catch totals (ACT) for mackerel, the butterfish mortality cap in the longfin squid fishery, and initial optimum yield (IOY) for both squid species.
Table 1--Proposed Specifications, in Metric Tons (mt), for Mackerel for 2013-2015, and Butterfish for the 2013
Fishing Year
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Specifications Mackerel Butterfish
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OFL................................... Unknown............................ Unknown
ABC................................... 43,781............................. 8,400
ACL................................... 43,781............................. 7,560
Commercial ACT........................ 34,907............................. 7,560
Recreational ACT/RHL.................. 2,443.............................. N/A
IOY................................... N/A................................ N/A
DAH/DAP............................... 33,821............................. 2,570
JVP................................... 0.................................. N/A
TALFF................................. 0.................................. 0
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Research Set-Aside
The Mid-Atlantic Research Set-Aside (RSA) Program allows research projects to be funded through the sale of fish that has been set aside from the total annual quota. The RSA may vary between 0 and 3 percent of the overall quota for each species. The Council has recommended that up to 3 percent of the total ACL for mackerel, up to 3 percent of the IOY for Illex and longfin squid, and up to 2 percent of the butterfish ACT for research, where 59 mt would be set aside for butterfish discard on longfin squid research trips, and 151 mt would be set aside for directed butterfish landings, may be set aside to fund projects selected under the 2013 Mid-Atlantic RSA Program. NMFS solicited research proposals under the 2013 Mid-Atlantic RSA Program through a Federal Funding Opportunity announcement that published on February 17, 2012 (Funding Opportunity Number NOAA-NMFS-NEFSC-2013-2003258 on grants.gov). The project selection and award process for the 2013 Mid-
Atlantic RSA Program has not concluded. Awards are expected to be made by the end of 2012 in time for the 2013 fishing year. If any portion of the MSB RSA is not awarded, NMFS will return it to the general fishery either through the final 2013 MSB specification rulemaking process or through the publication of a separate notice in the Federal Register notifying the public of a quota adjustment.
These proposed specifications include a brief description of the applicable MSB exemptions that will likely be required to conduct the compensation fishing to harvest set-aside quota. The Magnuson-Stevens Act requires that interested parties be provided an opportunity to comment on all proposed exempted fishing permits (EFPs).
Vessels harvesting RSA quota in support of approved research projects would be issued EFPs authorizing them to exceed Federal possession limits and to fish during Federal quota closures. With respect to the MSB FMP, such regulations include closure regulations at Sec. 648.24 and possession restrictions at Sec. 648.26. These exemptions are necessary to allow project investigators to recover research expenses, as well as adequately compensate fishing industry participants harvesting RSA quota. Vessels harvesting RSA quota would operate within all other regulations that govern the commercial fishery, unless otherwise exempted through a separate EFP. Vessels conducting compensation fishing would harvest RSA quota during the fishing year from January 1-December 31, 2013.
2013-2015 Proposed Specifications and Management Measures for Mackerel
The status of the mackerel stock was assessed by the Transboundary Resources Assessment Committee (TRAC) in March 2010. The 2010 TRAC Status Report indicated reduced productivity in the stock and a lack of older fish in both the survey and catch data. However, the status of the mackerel stock is unknown because biomass reference points could not be determined. Due to uncertainty in the assessment, the TRAC recommended that total annual catches not exceed 80,000 mt (average total U.S. and Canadian landings from 2006-2008) until new information is available. The
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mackerel stock-wide ABC was set at 80,000 mt for 2012, consistent with the TRAC recommendation. Since a new mackerel assessment is not expected for several years, the SSC recommended maintaining the 2012 mackerel specification and specifying the stock-wide ABC for 3 years (2013-2015) at 80,000 mt. The Council recommended a U.S. ABC of 43,781 mt (80,000 mt-36,219 mt (2010 actual Canadian catch)). Due to the variability in recent Canadian catch, and the inability to predict Canadian catch for 2013, the SSC recommended the use of Canadian catch from 2010 (the same amount used for setting 2012 specifications).
Consistent with MSB Amendment 11, the Council recommended a recreational allocation of 2,714 mt (6.2 percent of the U.S. ABC). The proposed Recreational ACT of 2,443 mt (90 percent of 2,714 mt) is reduced to account for low precision and time lag of recreational catch estimates, as well as lack of recreational discard estimates. The Recreational ACT is equal to the Recreational Harvest Limit (RHL), which would be the effective cap on recreational catch.
For the commercial mackerel fishery, the Council recommended a commercial fishery allocation of 41,067 mt (93.8 percent of the U.S. ABC, the portion of the ACL that was not allocated to the recreational fishery). The recommended Commercial ACT of 34,907 mt (85 percent of 41,067) is reduced to address uncertainty in estimated 2013 Canadian landings, uncertainty in discard estimates, and possible misreporting. The Commercial ACT would be further reduced by a discard rate of 3.11 percent (mean plus one standard deviation of discards from 1999-2008), to arrive at the proposed DAH of 33,821 mt. The DAH would be the effective cap on commercial catch, as it has been in past specifications.
Consistent with the Council's recommendation, NMFS proposes mackerel specifications that would set the U.S. ABC/ACL at 43,781 mt, the Commercial ACT at 34,907 mt, the DAH and DAP at 33,821 mt, and the Recreational ACT at 2,443 mt.
Additionally, as recommended by the Council, NMFS proposes to maintain JVP at zero (the most recent allocation was 5,000 mt of JVP in 2004). In the past, the Council recommended a JVP greater than zero because it believed U.S. processors lacked the ability to process the total amount of mackerel that U.S. harvesters could land. However, for the past 9 years, the Council has recommended zero JVP because U.S. shoreside processing capacity for mackerel has expanded. The Council concluded that processing capacity was no longer a limiting factor relative to domestic production of mackerel.
The Magnuson-Stevens Act provides that the specification of TALFF, if any, shall be the portion of the optimum yield (OY) of a fishery that will not be harvested by U.S. vessels. TALFF would allow foreign vessels to harvest U.S. fish and sell their product on the world market, in direct competition with U.S. industry efforts to expand exports. While a surplus existed between ABC and the mackerel fleet's harvesting capacity for many years, that surplus has disappeared due to downward adjustments of the specifications in recent years. Based on analysis and a review of the state of the world mackerel market and possible increases in U.S. production levels, the Council concluded that specifying a DAH/DAP resulting in zero TALFF will yield positive social and economic benefits to both U.S. harvesters and processors, and to the Nation. For these reasons, consistent with the Council's recommendation, NMFS proposes to specify DAH at a level that can be fully harvested by the domestic fleet, thereby precluding the specification of a TALFF, in order to support the U.S. mackerel industry. NMFS concurs that it is reasonable to assume that in 2013 the commercial fishery has the ability to harvest 33,821 mt of mackerel.
Butterfish
The current status of the butterfish stock is unknown because biomass reference points could not be determined in the SAW 49 assessment (February 2010); however, survey trends since the most recent assessment suggest an increase in butterfish abundance. In recommending 2013 specifications, the SSC considered multiple sources of information including a recent analysis of the butterfish stock by Dr. Paul Rago and Dr. Tim Miller from NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC). Because of the uncertainty in the most recent butterfish stock assessment, on April 6, 2012, the Council requested that NEFSC offer additional analysis of the butterfish stock to aid the SSC in the ABC setting process for the 2013 fishing year. The Rago-
Miller analysis applied ranges of a number of different factors (such as natural mortality and survey catchability) to develop a range of likely stock biomasses that would be consistent with recent survey results and observed butterfish catch. The Rago-Miller analysis also examined a range of fishing mortalities that would result from these biomass estimates. The SSC used the Rago-Miller analysis, along with guidance (Patterson, 1992) that suggests maintaining a natural mortality/fishing mortality ratio of 67 percent for small pelagic species, to develop a proxy overfishing limit (OFL) for butterfish. Consistent with the 2010 butterfish assessment, the SSC assumed a high level of natural morality (M = 0.8) and applied the 67-percent ratio to result in a fishing mortality of F = 0.536, which the SSC used as a proxy maximum fishing mortality rate threshold for butterfish. In the Rago-Miller analysis, a catch of 16,800 mt would only lead to fishing mortality rates higher than F = 0.536 (i.e., rates consistent with overfishing based on the maximum fishing mortality rate threshold proxy) under very extreme assumptions. The SSC therefore adopted 16,800 mt as a proxy OFL and recommended an ABC of 8,400 mt (50 percent of the OFL, and a 232-percent increase from the 2012 ABC). A detailed summary of the SSC's rationale for its 2013 butterfish ABC recommendation is available in its May 2012 Report (available, along with other materials from the SSC discussion, at: http://www.mafmc.org/meeting_materials/SSC/2012-05/SSC_2012_05.htm).
The Council recommended setting the butterfish ACL equal to the ABC, and establishing a 10-percent buffer between ACL and ACT for management uncertainty, which would result in an ACT of 7,560 mt. Since discards have been roughly \2/3\ of catch (1999-2008 average), the Council recommended setting the DAH and DAP at 2,570 mt (7,560 mt--
4,990 mt discards). Since up to 3 percent of the ACL for butterfish may be set aside for scientific research, the Council recommended setting aside 2 percent of the butterfish ACT for research, where 59 mt would be set aside for butterfish discard on longfin squid research trips, and 151 mt would be set aside for directed butterfish landings. Finally, the Council recommended setting the butterfish mortality cap on the longfin squid fishery at 4,500 mt (184 percent increase from 2012).
NMFS proposes specifications, consistent with the Council's recommendation, that would set the butterfish ABC/ACL at 8,400 mt, the ACT at 7,560 mt, the DAH and DAP at 2,570 mt, and the butterfish mortality cap on the longfin squid fishery at 4,500 mt. Additionally, consistent with MSB regulations, NMFS is proposing zero TALFF for butterfish in 2013. Consistent with 2012, NMFS proposes that the 2013 butterfish mortality cap be allocated by Trimester as follows:
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Table 2--Proposed Trimester Allocation of Butterfish Mortality Cap on
the Longfin Squid Fishery for 2013
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Trimester Percent Metric Tons
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I (Jan-Apr)............................. 65 2925
II (May-Aug)............................ 3.3 148.5
III (Sep-Dec)........................... 31.7 1426.5
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Total............................... 100 4,500
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Due to the increase in the recommended butterfish DAH and butterfish mortality cap, a variety of management measures were recommended by the Council to control fishing effort while allowing the expansion of a profitable directed butterfish fishery. The Council recommended a three-phase management system for the directed butterfish fishery (Table 3) to allow for maximum utilization of the butterfish resource without exceeding the stock-wide ACL. In phase 1, there would be no trip limit for vessels issued longfin squid/butterfish moratorium permits using mesh greater than or equal to 3 inches (7.62 cm), a 2,500-lb (1.13-mt) trip limit for longfin squid/butterfish moratorium permits using mesh less than 3 inches (7.62 cm), and a trip limit of 600 lb (0.27 mt) for vessels issued squid/butterfish incidental catch permits. Once butterfish harvest reaches the trip hold reduction threshold for phase 2, the trip limit for longfin squid/butterfish moratorium permit holders would be reduced to 5,000 lb (2.27 mt) for vessels using greater than or equal to 3-inch (7.62 cm) mesh and 2,500 lb (1.13 mt) for vessels using under 3-inch (7.62 cm) mesh. When butterfish harvest is projected to reach the trip hold reduction thresholds for phase 3, the trip limit for all longfin squid/butterfish moratorium permit holders would be reduced to 500 lb (0.23 mt) to avoid quota overages. For phases 2 and 3, the quota thresholds to reduce the trip limits are proposed to vary bimonthly throughout the year (Tables 4 and 5).
Table 3--Three-Phase Butterfish Management System
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Longfin squid/butterfish moratorium permit trip
limit Squid/butterfish
Phase -------------------------------------------------- incidental catch permit
>= 3 inch (7.62 cm) trip limit
mesh
