12884 Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 46 / Wednesday, March 9, 2011 / Rules and Regulations 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NMFS 

manages the groundfish fishery in the 

GOA exclusive economic zone 

according to the Fishery Management 

Plan for Groundfish of the Gulf of 

Alaska (FMP) prepared by the North 

Pacific Fishery Management Council 

under authority of the MagnusonStevens Fishery Conservation and 

Management Act. Regulations governing 

fishing by U.S. vessels in accordance 

with the FMP appear at subpart H of 50 

CFR part 600 and 50 CFR part 679. 

The 2011 TAC of pollock in the West 

Yakutat District of the GOA is 2,339 

metric tons (mt) as established by the 

final 2011 and 2012 harvest 

specifications for groundfish of the GOA 

(76 FR 11111, March 1, 2011). 

In accordance with § 679.20(d)(1)(i), 

the Regional Administrator has 

determined that the 2011 TAC of 

pollock in the West Yakutat District of 

the GOA will soon be reached. 

Therefore, the Regional Administrator is 

establishing a directed fishing 

allowance of 2,319 mt, and is setting 

aside the remaining 20 mt as bycatch to 

support other anticipated groundfish 

fisheries. In accordance with 

§ 679.20(d)(1)(iii), the Regional 

Administrator finds that this directed 

fishing allowance has been reached. 

Consequently, NMFS is prohibiting 

directed fishing for pollock in the West 

Yakutat District of the GOA. 

After the effective date of this closure 

the maximum retainable amounts at 

§ 679.20(e) and (f) apply at any time 

during a trip. 

Classification 

This action responds to the best 

available information recently obtained 

from the fishery. The Assistant 

Administrator for Fisheries, NOAA 

(AA), finds good cause to waive the 

requirement to provide prior notice and 

opportunity for public comment 

pursuant to the authority set forth at 5 

U.S.C. 553(b)(B) as such requirement is 

impracticable and contrary to the public 

interest. This requirement is 

impracticable and contrary to the public 

interest as it would prevent NMFS from 

responding to the most recent fisheries 

data in a timely fashion and would 

delay the closure of pollock in the West 

Yakutat District of the GOA. NMFS was 

unable to publish a notice providing 

time for public comment because the 

most recent, relevant data only became 

available as of March 3, 2011. 

The AA also finds good cause to 

waive the 30-day delay in the effective 

date of this action under 5 U.S.C. 

553(d)(3). This finding is based upon 

the reasons provided above for waiver of 

prior notice and opportunity for public 

comment. 

This action is required by § 679.20 

and is exempt from review under 

Executive Order 12866. 

Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq. 

Dated: March 4, 2011. 

Margo Schulze-Haugen, 

Acting Director, Office of Sustainable 

Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2011–5359 Filed 3–4–11; 4:15 pm] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

50 CFR Part 679 

[Docket No. 100413185–1155–02] 

RIN 0648–AY84 

Groundfish Fisheries of the Exclusive 

Economic Zone Off Alaska; American 

Fisheries Act; Recordkeeping and 

Reporting 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Final rule. 

SUMMARY: NMFS issues this rule to 

amend the American Fisheries Act 

implementing regulations that 

previously required cooperatives 

participating in the directed fishery for 

pollock in the Bering Sea to prepare and 

submit preliminary annual reports to 

the North Pacific Fishery Management 

Council (Council). The Council 

determined that the requirement for 

cooperatives to submit a preliminary 

annual report is no longer necessary, 

and this action eliminates that 

requirement. This action does not 

eliminate the requirement for the 

cooperatives to submit a single annual 

report to the Council. This action 

promotes the goals and objectives of the 

Magnuson-Stevens Fishery 

Conservation and Management Act 

(Magnuson-Stevens Act) and other 

applicable laws. 

DATES: Effective April 8, 2011. 

ADDRESSES: Electronic copies of this 

rule, the Regulatory Impact Review 

(RIR), and the categorical exclusion 

memorandum may be obtained from the 

Alaska Region Web site at http:// 

alaskafisheries.noaa.gov. 

Written comments regarding the 

burden-hour estimates or other aspects 

of the collection-of-information 

requirements contained in this final rule 

may be submitted by mail to NMFS, 

Alaska Region, P.O. Box 21668, Juneau, 

AK 99802–1668, Attn: Ellen Sebastian, 

Records Officer; in person at NMFS, 

Alaska Region, 709 West 9th Street, 

Room 420A, Juneau, Alaska; and by 

e-mail to 

OIRA_Submission@omb.eop.gov, or by 

fax to 202–395–7285. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Patsy A. Bearden, 907–586–7228. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NMFS 

manages the U.S. groundfish fisheries in 

the Exclusive Economic Zone of the 

Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands 

Management Area under the Fishery 

Management Plan for Groundfish of the 

Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands 

Management Area (FMP). The North 

Pacific Fishery Management Council 

(Council) prepared the FMP under the 

Magnuson-Stevens Act. Regulations 

implementing the FMP appear at 

subpart F of 50 CFR part 679. General 

regulations that pertain to U.S. fisheries 

appear at subpart H of 50 CFR part 600. 

Background 

In October 1998, Congress enacted the 

American Fisheries Act (AFA), 16 

U.S.C. 1851, which ‘‘rationalized’’ the 

Bering Sea pollock fishery by 

identifying the vessels and processors 

eligible to participate in the fishery and 

allocating pollock among those eligible 

participants. The AFA allocates 10 

percent of the Bering Sea pollock total 

allowable catch to the Western Alaska 

Community Development Quota (CDQ) 

Program. After subtracting the CDQ 

Program allocation, and an amount set 

aside for the catch of pollock in other 

Bering Sea fisheries, the AFA allocates 

the remaining available pollock quota 

(the ‘‘directed fishing allowance’’) 

among the AFA inshore sector (50 

percent), the AFA catcher/processor 

sector (40 percent), and the AFA 

mothership sector (10 percent). 

The AFA allowed for development of 

pollock fishing cooperatives in the nonCDQ sectors. Thirteen cooperatives were 

developed under the AFA: Ten inshore 

catcher vessel cooperatives, two 

offshore catcher/processor cooperatives, 

and one mothership cooperative. After 

NMFS allocates pollock quota to each of 

the inshore catcher vessel cooperatives, 

the cooperatives further subdivide each 

cooperative’s pollock allocation among 

vessel owners in the cooperative 

through private contractual agreements. 

The cooperatives manage these 

allocations to optimize their harvest and 

to ensure that individual vessels and 

companies do not harvest more than 

their agreed upon share of pollock. The 

cooperatives also enforce contract 

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Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 46 / Wednesday, March 9, 2011 / Rules and Regulations 12885 

provisions and participate in a 

cooperative agreement to reduce salmon 

bycatch by the directed pollock fishery. 

The regulations establishing the AFA 

cooperative reporting requirements were 

published on December 30, 2002 (67 FR 

79692). These regulations required that 

each cooperative prepare preliminary 

and final annual reports describing the 

cooperative’s harvest of pollock, 

prohibited species, and non-pollock 

groundfish, including species for which 

NMFS establishes annual sideboards 

that limit incidental catch by AFA 

participants. The purpose of the annual 

reports was ‘‘to assist the Council and 

NMFS in meeting the requirements of 

paragraph 210(a)(1) of the AFA, which 

requires that NMFS make such 

information available to the public in a 

manner that NMFS and the Council 

decide is appropriate’’ (67 FR 79692). 

Another purpose of the AFA 

cooperative annual report was to 

provide the Council information upon 

which it could make decisions on 

cooperative allocations and sideboard 

protection measures. 

Prior to this action, all AFA 

cooperatives were required to submit 

both preliminary and final annual 

written reports on directed pollock 

fishing activity to the Council. The 

preliminary report was due on 

December 1, one month after the pollock 

fishery’s closure on November 1, while 

the final report was due on April 1 of 

the following year. The two reports 

resulted from the Council’s recognition 

that one month following the fishery’s 

closure may not be enough time for the 

AFA cooperative representatives to 

compile all of the required information 

for the annual report. Requiring 

cooperatives to file a second report also 

allowed cooperatives to update catch 

and bycatch data after the end of the 

year. 

In recent years, the Council has found 

that the preliminary AFA cooperative 

report is no longer necessary to develop 

recommendations on final groundfish 

specifications or on cooperative 

allocations and sideboard protection 

measures. The Council instead uses the 

Stock Assessment and Fishery 

Evaluation (SAFE) Reports provided by 

the Council’s Bering Sea and Aleutian 

Islands Management Area Groundfish 

Plan Team, and the total allowable catch 

(TAC) recommendations provided at the 

December Council meeting to develop 

these recommendations. The data in the 

SAFE Reports are more encompassing 

than the data found in the preliminary 

AFA cooperative reports. 

The SAFE Reports for the groundfish 

fisheries managed by the Council are 

compiled by the respective Plan Teams 

from chapters contributed by scientists 

at the NMFS Alaska Fisheries Science 

Center and the Alaska Department of 

Fish and Game. These SAFE Reports 

include separate stock assessment and 

fishery evaluation sections. The stock 

assessment section includes 

recommended acceptable biological 

catch (ABC) levels for each stock and 

stock complex managed under the FMP. 

For purposes of determining TACs, the 

data provided in these reports is a 

sufficient substitute for that which has 

been provided by the preliminary 

reports on the pollock fishery from the 

cooperatives. The Council considers the 

ABC recommendations, together with 

social and economic factors, in 

determining TACs and other 

management strategies for the fisheries. 

At its June 2010 meeting, the Council 

determined that, combined with the 

SAFE Report and TAC 

recommendations, a single annual 

report from each AFA cooperative, 

renamed the ‘‘annual AFA cooperative 

report,’’ will provide sufficient 

information to the Council, the industry, 

and the public about the directed 

fisheries for pollock in the Bering Sea. 

Under this rule, the cooperatives will be 

required to submit one report containing 

the same information previously 

contained in two reports. 

Each AFA cooperative annual report 

will continue to be required to provide 

the following information: 

• How the cooperative allocated 

pollock, other groundfish species, and 

prohibited species catch among the 

vessels in the cooperative; 

• The catch and discard of these 

species by area for each vessel in the 

cooperative; 

• How the cooperative monitored 

fisheries in which its members 

participate; 

• A description of any actions taken 

by the cooperative in response to any 

vessel that exceeded the allocations 

made to the vessel by the cooperative; 

• The total weight of pollock landed 

outside the State of Alaska on a vesselby-vessel basis; and 

• The number of salmon taken by 

species and season, and list each 

vessel’s number of appearances on the 

weekly dirty 20 lists for non-Chinook 

salmon. 

This action does not result in a 

substantial change in the reporting 

requirements. Some decrease in 

miscellaneous costs might occur due to 

postage cost differences. It is also 

possible that the burden will decrease 

due to planning and writing of one 

report instead of two reports, one 

revising the other. 

NMFS published the proposed rule 

for this action in the Federal Register on 

December 20, 2010 (75 FR 79330), with 

a public comment period that closed 

January 4, 2011. No comments were 

received during this comment period. 

NMFS made the following change 

from the proposed rule to the final rule. 

In the final rule, NMFS changes the 

proposed report submittal language at 

§ 679.61(f)(1) to maintain the regulatory 

language currently in use. The proposed 

rule stated ‘‘Annual reports must be 

postmarked or received by the 

submission deadline.’’ This text is 

revised to read ‘‘Annual reports must be 

postmarked by the submission deadline 

or received by a private courier service 

by the submission deadline.’’ 

This change gives equal treatment to 

cooperatives that send the annual report 

via postal service and those that send 

the report via private courier. As 

compared to the proposed rule, the final 

rule allows a cooperative that uses a 

private courier service a small amount 

of additional time to complete and send 

the report; however, this change does 

not necessarily delay the Council’s 

receipt of the report or its availability to 

the public. 

Classification 

The NMFS Assistant Administrator 

for Fisheries has determined that this 

rule is necessary for the conservation 

and management of the Bering Sea and 

Aleutian Islands groundfish fisheries 

and that it is consistent with the FMP, 

the national standards, and other 

provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Act 

and other applicable laws. 

This final rule has been determined to 

be not significant for purposes of 

Executive Order 12866. 

The Chief Counsel for Regulation of 

the Department of Commerce certified 

to the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the 

Small Business Administration during 

the proposed rule stage that this action 

will not have a significant economic 

impact on a substantial number of small 

entities. The factual basis for the 

certification was published in the 

proposed rule and is not repeated here. 

No comments were received regarding 

this certification, and no changes have 

been made from the proposed rule. As 

a result, a regulatory flexibility analysis 

was not required and none was 

prepared. 

This action will not increase 

recordkeeping and reporting costs. 

Collection-of-Information Requirements 

This rule contains collection-ofinformation requirements subject to the 

Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), and 

which have been approved by the Office 

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12886 Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 46 / Wednesday, March 9, 2011 / Rules and Regulations 

of Management and Budget (OMB) 

under OMB Control Number 0648–0401. 

Public reporting burden per response 

is estimated to average 8 hours for an 

AFA preliminary annual report and 4 

hours for an AFA final annual report 

under old requirements. This rule 

removes the AFA preliminary annual 

report and renames the AFA final 

annual report as the AFA cooperative 

annual report, which is estimated to 

average 8 hours per response. This rule 

reduces the reporting burden without 

imposing any new, additional reporting 

burden. 

These estimates of public reporting 

burden include the time for reviewing 

instructions, searching existing data 

sources, gathering and maintaining the 

data needed, and completing and 

reviewing the collection-of-information. 

Send comments regarding this burden 

estimate or any other aspect of this data 

collection, including suggestions for 

reducing the burden, to NMFS (see 

ADDRESSES); e-mail to 

OIRA_Submission@omb.eop.gov or fax 

to 202–395–7285. 

Notwithstanding any other provision 

of the law, no person is required to 

respond to, and no person shall be 

subject to penalty for failure to comply 

with, a collection of information subject 

to the requirements of the PRA, unless 

that collection of information displays a 

currently valid OMB control number. 

List of Subjects in 50 CFR Part 679 

Alaska, Fisheries, Reporting and 

recordkeeping requirements. 

Dated: March 4, 2011. 

Samuel D. Rauch III, 

Deputy Assistant Administrator for 

Regulatory Programs, National Marine 

Fisheries Service. 

For the reasons set out in the 

preamble, 50 CFR part 679 is amended 

as follows: 

PART 679—FISHERIES OF THE 

EXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONE OFF 

ALASKA 

■ 1. The authority citation for part 679 

continues to read as follows: 

Authority: 16 U.S.C. 773 et seq.; 1801 et 

seq.; 3631 et seq.; Pub. L. 108–447. 

■ 2. In § 679.61, revise paragraph (f) 

introductory text, paragraph (f)(1), and 

paragraph (f)(2) introductory text to read 

as follows: 

§ 679.61 Formation and operation of 

fishery cooperatives. 

* * * * * 

(f) Annual reporting requirement. Any 

fishery cooperative governed by this 

section must submit an annual written 

report on fishing activity to the North 

Pacific Fishery Management Council, 

605 West 4th Avenue, Suite 306, 

Anchorage, AK 99501. The Council will 

make copies of each report available to 

the public upon request. 

(1) What is the submission deadline? 

The cooperative must submit the annual 

report by April 1 of each year. Annual 

reports must be postmarked by the 

submission deadline or received by a 

private courier service by the 

submission deadline. 

(2) What information must be 

included? The annual report must 

contain, at a minimum: 

* * * * * 

[FR Doc. 2011–5369 Filed 3–8–11; 8:45 am] 

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