Fishery conservation and management: Alaska; fisheries of Exclusive Economic Zone— Fishing participation credit,

[Federal Register: January 19, 1999 (Volume 64, Number 11)]

[Proposed Rules]

[Page 2870-2871]

From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

[DOCID:fr19ja99-35]

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 679

[Docket No. 990112009-9009-01; I.D. 010899A]

RIN 0648-AM18

Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Fishing Participation in 1999

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

ACTION: Advance notice of proposed rulemaking.

SUMMARY: NMFS announces that anyone participating in any non-salmon fishery under the authority of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) during the calendar year 1999, will not be assured of receiving participation credit for future access to that fishery pursuant to section 211 of the American Fisheries Act (AFA) or under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson- Stevens Act) if a management regime that limits the number of participants is developed and implemented under those authorities. This document is necessary to publish the stated intent of the Council that participation credit would not be granted for fishing in a non-salmon fishery in 1999. This document is intended to promote public awareness that potential eligibility criteria for future access to the affected fisheries may be developed and to discourage new entrants into those fisheries based on economic speculation while the Council considers further controls on access to those fisheries.

DATES: Comments must be received by February 18, 1999. ADDRESSES: Comments should be addressed to Sue Salveson, Assistant Regional Administrator for Sustainable Fisheries, Sustainable Fisheries

[[Page 2871]]

Division, Alaska Region, NMFS, 709 West 9th Street, Room 453, Juneau, AK 99801, or P.O. Box 21668, Juneau, AK 99802, Attention: Lori J. Gravel.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: John Lepore, 907-586-7228

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The AFA, Pub. L. 105-277, was signed into law on October 21, 1998. The stated objectives of the AFA are (1) to give U.S. interests a priority in the harvest of U.S. fishery resources and (2) to significantly reduce fishing capacity in the Bering Sea pollock fishery. The AFA provides the ability to eligible participants in the Bering Sea pollock fishery to form fishery cooperatives to optimize harvesting and processing opportunities. Enhanced efficiencies in the Bering Sea pollock fishery resulting from fishery cooperatives could lead to increases in participation and/or capital investments in other fisheries. The U.S. Congress recognized and provided for this potential result. Section 211 of the AFA directs the Council to recommend for approval by the Secretary of Commerce such conservation and management measures as it determines are necessary to protect other fisheries under its authority and the participants in those fisheries, including processors, from adverse impacts caused by the AFA or fishery cooperatives in the directed pollock fishery.

During the Council's December 1998 meeting, various sectors of the fishing industry voiced their concern about the potential for speculative entry into fisheries in 1999. The primary cause of this concern was that fishing operations eligible to participate in the Bering Sea directed pollock fishery under fishery cooperatives allowed under the AFA could have greater flexibility to enter other fisheries in an effort to establish ``traditional harvest levels'' for future access to those fisheries. In an effort to address this concern, the Council stated its intent that it would not use participation in a fishery in 1999, as an indicator of a fishing operation's ``traditional harvest'' in that fishery. Further, the Council recommended that NMFS publish a notice in the Federal Register that participation in 1999 would not be taken into account by the Council in determining catch histories for any future limited access programs under the AFA and/or the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

The Council intends to address whether and how to further limit access to the non-salmon fisheries under its authority. Further, section 211(c)(1) of the AFA requires the Council to recommend to NMFS, by July 1, 1999, conservation and management measures to prevent Bering Sea pollock fishing operations from exceeding in the aggregate the traditional harvest levels of those fishing operations in other fisheries under the authority of the Council as a result of fishing cooperatives. This document is intended to discourage speculative entry into the non-salmon fisheries while potential management regimes to further control access into those fisheries are discussed and possibly developed by the Council. In developing future limited access programs, the Council may choose different and variably weighted methods to qualify participants based on the type and length of participation in the subject fisheries or other methods of determining dependence on those fisheries. The potential eligibility criteria may be based on historical participation. Therefore, current participants in non-salmon fisheries under the authority of the Council should locate and preserve records that substantiate and verify participation in those fisheries. These fisheries include, but are not limited to, the groundfish fishery of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area, the groundfish of the Gulf of Alaska, the scallop fishery off Alaska, and the commercial king and Tanner crab fishery in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Area.

This notification establishes January 13, 1999 for potential use as a basis for determining historical or traditional participation in any non-salmon fishery in 1999. This action does not commit the Council to develop or adopt any particular management regime or to use any specific criteria for determining entry into any of those fisheries. Any further action by the Council on this issue will be taken pursuant to the requirements of the AFA and/or the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq., and Pub. L. 105-277.

Dated: January 12, 1999. Rolland A. Schmitten, Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service.

[FR Doc. 99-1105Filed1-13-99; 4:04 pm]

BILLING CODE 3510-22-F