Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Atlantic Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish Fisheries; Specifications and Management Measures
Federal Register, Volume 79 Issue 7 (Friday, January 10, 2014)
Federal Register Volume 79, Number 7 (Friday, January 10, 2014)
Proposed Rules
Pages 1813-1818
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office www.gpo.gov
FR Doc No: 2014-00265
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
50 CFR Part 648
Docket No. 130903775-4002-01
RIN 0648-BD65
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 the specifications for the 2014 fishing year for butterfish, as well as other management measures for the species managed under the Atlantic Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish Fishery Management Plan. NMFS previously set specifications for longfin squid and Illex squid for 3 years in 2012 (2012-2014) and, therefore, new specifications will not be included in this year's specification rulemaking. Likewise, NMFS set specifications for mackerel for 3 years in 2013 (2013-2015), and new specifications will also not be included in this action. The proposed specifications for butterfish would increase the butterfish acceptable biological catch by 8 percent and would increase the butterfish landings limit by 24 percent compared to 2013. This action also proposes to increase the butterfish Phase 3 trip limit from 500 lb (0.23 mt) to 600 lb (0.27 mt) for longfin squid/
butterfish moratorium permit holders; establish a 236-mt cap on river herring (blueback and alewife) and shad (American and hickory) catch in the mackerel fishery; and raise the post-closure possession limit for longfin squid to 15,000 lb (6.80 mt) for vessels targeting Illex squid.
DATES: Public comments must be received by February 10, 2014.
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-2013-0172, by any one of the following methods:
Electronic Submission: Submit all electronic public comments via the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal. Go to www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=NOAA-NMFS-2013-0172, click the ``Comment Now!'' icon, complete the required fields, and enter or attach your comments. Mail: Submit written comments to NOAA Fisheries, Northeast Regional Office, 55 Great Republic Dr, Gloucester, MA 01930. Mark the outside of the envelope ``Comments on 2014 MSB Specifications.''
Instructions: 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 by NMFS. 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.), confidential business information, or otherwise sensitive information submitted voluntarily by the sender will be publicly accessible. 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, Excel, or Adobe PDF file formats only.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Aja Szumylo, Fishery Policy Analyst, 978-281-9195, 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,
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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 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 15 and 16, 2013, confirming 2014 specifications for Illex squid, longfin squid, and Atlantic mackerel (mackerel) and recommending ABCs for the 2014 butterfish specifications. As previously mentioned, NMFS set the specifications for longfin squid and Illex squid for 3 years in 2012 (77 FR 51858; August 27, 2012) and for mackerel in 2013 (78 FR 3346; January 16, 2013). Information on these specifications are not included in this action and can be found in the final rules for those actions, as referenced above.
The MSB FMP's implementing regulations require the involvement of a monitoring committee in the specification process for each species. 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 28, 2013, to discuss specification related recommendations for the 2014 butterfish fishery, changes in management measures in the squid and butterfish fisheries, and the establishment of the river herring/shad (RH/S) cap in the mackerel fishery.
Following the SSC and MSB Monitoring Committee meetings, the Council considered the committees' recommendations and public comments at its June 2013, meeting in Eatontown, NJ, and made their specification recommendations. The Council submitted these recommendations, along with the required analyses, for agency review on August 15, 2013, with final submission on December 18, 2013. 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 from 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.
2014 Proposed Specifications for Butterfish
Table 1 outlines all of the proposed butterfish specifications for the 2014 fishing year, which are further explained below.
Table 1--Proposed Specifications, in Metric Tons (mt), for Butterfish
for the 2014 Fishing Year
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Specifications Butterfish (mt)
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OFL....................................... 18,200.
ABC....................................... 9,100.
ACL....................................... 8,190.
Commercial ACT............................ 7,084.
DAH/DAP................................... 3,200.
JVP....................................... 0.
TALFF..................................... 0.
Butterfish Mortality Cap.................. 3,884.
RSA....................................... Up to 2 percent of ACT (164
mt).
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Most recent assessments of the butterfish resource do not provide conclusive advice on the status of the butterfish resource in order to make a determination of whether or not the stock is overfished. A new assessment is underway and expected to be finalized in January 2014. To address this, NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) expanded its fall trawl survey data (i.e., the survey that best samples butterfish) to a range of total swept area biomass based on ranges of reasonable assumptions regarding catchability, and also investigated likely fishing mortalities from various catch levels. The results of this strongly supported that a catch of 9,100 mt would be extremely unlikely to cause overfishing if the 2014 biomass of butterfish is similar to butterfish biomass over 2006-2012.
Additional NEFSC analysis examined the range of probable fishing mortalities that would result from relatively conservative assumptions about butterfish biomass. This analysis suggested that catches of 18,200 mt would only lead to overfishing under the most extreme assumptions (i.e., assuming that the entire Atlantic butterfish stock falls within the bounds of the NEFSC's fall trawl survey area, and that the survey catches 100 percent of the butterfish in each sample location). The SSC therefore adopted 18,200 mt as a proxy OFL and recommended an ABC of 9,100 mt (50 percent of the OFL, and an 8-percent increase from the 2013 ABC). The relatively large 50-percent buffer accounts for uncertainty in the evaluation of fishing mortality associated with the catch levels. A detailed summary of the SSC's rationale for its 2014 butterfish ABC recommendation is available in its May 2013 Report (available, along with other materials from the SSC discussion, at: http://www.mafmc.org/ssc-meeting-documents).
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 8,190 mt. From this amount, the Council recommended setting the DAH and DAP at 3,200 mt and the butterfish discard cap in the longfin fishery at 3,884 mt. The remaining 1,106 mt of the ACT allows for discards in other fisheries to minimize the likelihood of an ACL overage. Since up to 3 percent of the ACL for butterfish may be set aside for scientific research, the Council recommended setting aside up to 2 percent of the butterfish ACT (i.e., 164 mt). This allocation would be accounted for within the 1,106-mt unallocated portion of the ACT that covers butterfish discards in other fisheries.
NMFS proposes specifications, consistent with the Council's recommendation, that would set the butterfish ABC/ACL at 9,100 mt, the ACT at 8,190 mt, the DAH and DAP at 3,200 mt, and the butterfish mortality cap on the longfin squid fishery at 3,884 mt. Additionally, consistent with MSB regulations, NMFS is proposing zero TALFF for butterfish in 2014. Butterfish TALFF is only specified to address bycatch by foreign fleets targeting mackerel TALFF. Because no mackerel TALFF was allocated for the 2013-2015 fishing years, butterfish TALFF is also proposed to be set at zero for 2014.
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Consistent with 2013, NMFS proposes that the 2014 butterfish mortality cap be allocated by Trimester, as follows:
Table 2--Proposed Trimester Allocation of Butterfish Mortality Cap on
the Longfin Squid Fishery for 2014
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Trimester Percent Metric tons
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I (Jan-Apr)................................... 65 2,525
II (May-Aug).................................. 3.3 128
III (Sep-Dec)................................. 31.7 1,231
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Total..................................... 100 3,884
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This action also proposes to increase the butterfish possession limit in Phase 3 of the directed butterfish fishery. Currently, NMFS manages the directed butterfish fishery in three phases. Table 3 shows the phases and possession limits, and the fishery moves from Phase 1, to Phase 2, and to Phase 3 when catch reaches specified thresholds throughout the year. When NMFS projects the butterfish harvest to reach the catch threshold for Phase 3, the trip limit for all limited access permit holders is currently reduced to 500 lb (0.23 mt) to avoid quota overages, but the incidental trip limit remains at 600 lb (0.27 mt). This action would increase the Phase 3 possession limit from 500 lb (0.23 mt) to 600 lb (0.27 mt) to allow for consistency with the current incidental butterfish trip limit.
Table 3--Three-Phase Butterfish Management System
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Longfin squid/butterfish moratorium
permit trip limit Squid/butterfish
Phase ---------------------------------------- incidental catch
>=3 inch (7.62 cm)
