Fishery conservation and management: Stevens Act provisions and Northeastern United States fisheries Atlantic herring,
[Federal Register: July 27, 1999 (Volume 64, Number 143)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Page 40542-40544]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr27jy99-19]
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
50 CFR Parts 600 and 648
[I.D. 063099A]
RIN 0648-AI78
Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act Provisions; Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Atlantic Herring Fishery; Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of availability of a fishery management plan; request for comments.
SUMMARY: NMFS announces that the New England Fishery Management Council (Council) has submitted the Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for Secretarial review and is requesting comments from the public. The FMP would allow for the development of a sustainable fishery that targets the entire U.S. Atlantic herring resource more evenly to achieve optimum yield (OY). Overfishing would be prevented through the use of total allowable catch (TAC) allocations for distinct management areas. An annual scientific review of the resource would allow for adjustments to the fishery as a result of fluctuations in stock size. Development of the FMP was coordinated closely with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (Commission) and Mid- Atlantic Fishery Management Council (MAFMC) in order to assure complementary management measures in both state and Federal waters.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before September 27, 1999. ADDRESSES: Comments on the Atlantic Herring FMP should be sent to Patricia A. Kurkul, Regional Administrator, Northeast Region, NMFS, One Blackburn Drive, Gloucester, MA 01930-3799. Mark the outside of the envelope, ``Comments on Herring FMP.''
Copies of the Atlantic Herring FMP, its regulatory impact review, initial regulatory flexibility analysis, the final environmental impact statement, the Omnibus Essential Fish Habitat Amendment, and supporting documentation are available from Paul J. Howard, Executive Director, New England Fishery Management Council, 5 Broadway, Saugus, MA 01906- 1036.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: E. Martin Jaffe, Fishery Policy Analyst, 978-281-9272.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
The FMP proposes an overfishing definition and implementation of the following measures under authority of the the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act): (1) TAC levels for each of the three management areas, one of which is divided into inshore and offshore sub-areas; (2) a procedure to develop annual specifications; (3) initial plan specifications for the 1999 fishing year; (4) effort limits through mandatory days out of the fishery; (5) spawning closures; (6) trip limits for incidental harvest during spawning closures or when effort controls are in effect; (7) a vessel monitoring system (VMS) requirement; (8) vessel size limits; (9) a framework adjustment process; (10) permitting and reporting requirements; (11) restrictions on transfers at sea; and (12) other measures for administration and enforcement. The
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FMP also discusses the reduction and monitoring of bycatch and a roe fishery.
The purpose of the FMP is to achieve, on a continuing basis, OY from the fishery and to prevent overfishing of the Atlantic herring resource. In addition, the FMP will provide for the orderly development of the offshore and inshore fisheries.
Overfishing Definition
The FMP proposes an overfishing definition for Atlantic herring comprised of two status determination criteria. If stock biomass is equal or greater than B‹INF›MSY‹/INF› (the biomass level at maximum sustainable yield), overfishing occurs when the fishing mortality rate exceeds F‹INF›MSY‹/INF› (the fishing mortality rate that yields B‹INF›MSY‹/INF›). If stock biomass is below B‹INF›MSY‹/INF›, overfishing occurs when the fishing mortality rate exceeds the level that has a 50-percent probability of rebuilding stock biomass to B‹INF›MSY‹/INF› in 5 years (F‹INF›threshold‹/INF›). The stock is in an overfished condition when stock biomass is below \1/2\B‹INF›MSY‹/INF› and overfishing occurs when fishing mortality exceeds F‹INF›threshold‹/INF›. These criteria are thresholds and form the basis for the control rule.
The control rule also specifies risk averse fishing mortality rate targets, accounting for uncertainty in the estimate of F‹INF›MSY‹/INF›. If stock biomass is equal to or greater than \1/2\B‹INF›MSY‹/INF›, the target fishing mortality rate will be the lower limit of the 80-percent confidence interval about F‹INF›MSY‹/INF›. When biomass is below B‹INF›MSY‹/INF›, the target fishing mortality rate will be reduced consistent with the 5-year rebuilding schedule used to determine F‹INF›threshold‹/INF›. Since the Atlantic herring stock is not listed as ``overfished'' or ``approaching an overfished condition'' in the Annual Report to Congress for 1998, the Council was not required to submit a rebuilding strategy as part of the FMP at this time.
Essential Fish Habitat (EFH)
The Council submitted an omnibus EFH amendment to address EFH provisions for several FMPs for Northeastern fisheries. The omnibus EFH amendment document also included the EFH components of the proposed Atlantic herring FMP, which was then still under development by the Council. Although the Atlantic herring EFH components were included in the omnibus EFH amendment, they were not considered during Secretarial review of the omnibus EFH amendment. For Atlantic herring, the notice of availability for the omnibus EFH amendment (63 FR 66110, December 1, 1998) stated that ``the omnibus amendment includes the EFH components of the Atlantic Herring FMP that is being developed by the NEFMC. The EFH information for Atlantic Herring will be incorporated by reference into the Atlantic Herring FMP when that FMP is submitted for Secretarial approval.'' Therefore, with publication of this notice of availability for the Atlantic Herring FMP, the public is also invited to comment on the appprovability of the herring EFH provisions in the Council's omnibus EFH amendment. The EFH component of the omnibus EFH amendment describes and identifies EFH for Atlantic herring, discusses measures to address the effects of fishing and non-fishing impacts on EFH, and identifies other actions for the conservation and enhancement of EFH. The comment period for the EFH provisions of the Atlantic herring FMP is the same as it is for this notice of FMP availability. The Council intends to review periodically the EFH designations for Atlantic herring under this FMP and, if needed, will update them. This FMP would authorize any revision to the EFH components through the FMP's framework process.
Management Measures of Concern
While NMFS seeks comment on all of the management issues in the FMP, it invites specific public comment on the following measures for the reasons stated:
Restrictions on the Size of Domestic Fishing and Processing Vessels
This measure would prohibit domestic vessels › 165 ft (50.3 m) in length, or › 750 gross registered tons (GRT)(680.4 mt), or › 3,000 horsepower from fishing for Atlantic herring in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ), but would allow such vessels to process herring if U.S. at- sea processing (USAP) is specified in a given year. Foreign vessels, regardless of size, could also process herring in the EEZ if joint venture processing (JVP) is specified. This could create the possibility that some foreign processing vessels would receive larger allocations than some domestic processing vessels. For example, the proposed 1999 specifications for USAP is zero, whereas the JVP is specified to be 40,000 mt.
Regarding the proposed harvesting vessel size restriction, NMFS notes discrepancies in the size, capacity and/or horsepower restrictions between the Atlantic herring and Atlantic mackerel fisheries. NMFS seeks comment on this measure because the same vessels often participate in the herring and mackerel fisheries; the incidental catch in the herring fishery is likely to consist of mackerel; the incidental catch in the mackerel fishery is likely to consist of herring; and differences in the size, capacity and/or horsepower restrictions within similar fisheries in the same waters may prove to be confusing, administratively burdensome, and difficult to enforce.
Proposed Scheme to Restrict Fishing to Specific Days Based on the Proportion of the TAC Caught in a Management Area
This measure would require NMFS to determine when harvesters have reached 40, 65, and 80 percent of the TAC in any of the four management areas, at which time NMFS would be required to project further when the catch would exceed 50, 75, and 90 percent of the TAC, and if the TAC will be exceeded. If NMFS projects that the TAC will be exceeded, then fishermen would be required to stop fishing for herring for a certain number of days in order to prevent the TAC from being exceeded.
NMFS is concerned that this ``days out of the fishery'' measure may be administratively burdensome. Further, considering that there is no limited or controlled access in the fishery other than restrictions on the size of domestic fishing and processing vessels, fishermen could increase their participation in the fishery (through additional vessels or hours), adjust their schedules to work around the days-out restriction, or substitute other forms of effort (increased landings during the days available for fishing or shift effort into other management areas) in response to the restricted days, thereby reducing or eliminating the conservation benefit of the ``days-out-of-the- fishery'' measure.
Spawning Area Closures
To protect spawning concentrations of herring, the FMP would implement five closed areas in the GOM to directed fishing for herring. These areas would be closed on a rotating basis for specified time periods. When an area is closed, fishing vessels could possess, land, or transfer up to 2,000 lb (907.2 kg) of herring per calendar day or per trip, whichever is least, from or in that area.
Allowing vessels to fish in areas designated closed during certain times of the year for spawning herring and allowing an incidental catch of spawning herring may be counter-productive and fail to protect spawning herring. Further, it may pose enforcement problems.
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Adjustment of the TAC for Management Area 1A
This measure would require the Regional Administrator to adjust the TAC for Management Area 1A if she determines that the New Brunswick, Canada, fixed gear fishery will not harvest 20,000 mt of Atlantic herring by October 1. This measure may be problematic because a real- time mechanism to monitor the Canadian catch does not exist, and adjusting the TAC after October 1 might not provide much benefit before the fishing year is over on December 31.
Specification of the Amount of Herring to be Used for Roe in a Roe Fishery
This measure would require that the Regional Administrator specify the amount of herring to be used for roe, should the amount harvested become a concern. Even though the Regional Administrator would make the decision based upon the recommendation of the Council (which would first consult with the Commission), the FMP as submitted by the Council provides no standards by which the Regional Administrator could base her determination.
A proposed rule that would implement the FMP will be published in the Federal Register for public comment after NMFS has evaluated it under the procedures of the Magnuson-Stevens Act. Public comments on the proposed rule must be received by September 27, 1999, the end of the comment period for this notice of availability on the FMP, to be considered in the decision concerning approval or disapproval of the management measures contained in the FMP. All comments received by September 27, 1999, whether specifically directed to the FMP or the proposed rule, will be considered in the approval/disapproval decision on the FMP. Comments received after that date will not be considered in the approval/disapproval decision on the FMP. All comments received on the FMP or on the proposed rule will be responded to in the preamble to the final rule.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: July 21, 1999. Bruce C. Morehead, Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 99-19171Filed7-26-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-F
