13592 Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 49 / Monday, March 14, 2011 / Proposed Rules 

harvested. Notwithstanding the 

definition of ‘‘harvest’’ at § 600.10, for 

the purposes of this part, transfer 

includes, but is not limited to, moving 

or attempting to move an Atlantic tuna 

that is on fishing gear in the water from 

one vessel to another vessel. However, 

an owner or operator of a vessel for 

which a Purse Seine category Atlantic 

Tunas category permit has been issued 

under § 635.4 may transfer large 

medium and giant BFT at sea from the 

net of the catching vessel to another 

vessel for which a Purse Seine category 

Atlantic Tunas permit has been issued, 

provided the amount transferred does 

not cause the receiving vessel to exceed 

its currently authorized vessel 

allocation, including incidental catch 

limits. 

* * * * * 

5. In § 635.30, paragraph (a) is revised 

to read as follows: 

§ 635.30 Possession at sea and landing. 

(a) Atlantic tunas. Persons that own or 

operate a fishing vessel that possesses 

an Atlantic tuna in the Atlantic Ocean 

or that lands an Atlantic tuna in an 

Atlantic coastal port must maintain 

such Atlantic tuna through offloading 

either in round form or eviscerated with 

the head and fins removed, provided 

one pectoral fin and the tail remain 

attached. The upper and lower lobes of 

the tuna tail may be removed for storage 

purposes as long as the fork of the tail 

remains intact. 

* * * * * 

[FR Doc. 2011–5858 Filed 3–11–11; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

50 CFR Part 660 

RIN 0648–BA35 

Fisheries Off West Coast States; 

Highly Migratory Species Fisheries; 

Amendment 2 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice of availability of an 

amendment to a fishery management 

plan; request for comments. 

SUMMARY: NMFS announces that the 

Pacific Fishery Management Council 

(Council) has submitted Amendment 2 

to the Fishery Management Plan for U.S. 

West Coast Fisheries for Highly 

Migratory Species (HMS FMP) for 

Secretarial review. Amendment 2 would 

modify the current suite of management 

unit species, establish a new category of 

ecosystem component species, modify 

the process for revising numerical 

estimates of maximum sustainable yield 

and optimal yield, and specify status 

determination criteria so that 

overfishing and overfished 

determinations can be made for all 

management unit species. 

DATES: Comments on Amendment 2 

must be received on or before May 13, 

2011. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments 

on the NOA identified by ‘‘RIN 0648– 

BA35’’, by any of the following methods: 

• Federal e-Rulemaking portal: 

http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the 

instructions for submitting comments. 

• Mail: Rodney R. McInnis, Regional 

Administrator, Southwest Region, 

NMFS, 501 West Ocean Boulevard, 

Suite 4200, Long Beach, CA 90802. 

• Fax: (562) 980–4047. 

Instructions: All comments received 

are part of the public record and 

generally will be posted to http:// 

www.regulations.gov without change. 

All personal identifying information (for 

example, name and address) voluntarily 

submitted by the commenter may be 

publicly accessible. Do not submit 

confidential business information or 

otherwise sensitive or protected 

information. NMFS will accept 

anonymous comments (if submitting 

comments via the Federal e-Rulemaking 

portal, enter ‘‘N/A’’ in the relevant 

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. Copies of the 

draft EA and RIR prepared for this 

proposed rule are available at http:// 

swr.nmfs.noaa.gov/ or may be obtained 

from Rodney R. McInnis (see 

ADDRESSES). 

Copies of Amendment 2, which 

includes an Environmental Assessment/ 

Regulatory Impact Review, are available 

from Donald O. McIssac, Executive 

Director, Pacific Fishery Management 

Council, 7700 NE Ambassador Place, 

Suite 200, Portland, Oregon 97220– 

1384. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Craig Heberer, Sustainable Fisheries 

Division, NMFS, at 760–431–9440, ext. 

303 or Kit Dahl, Pacific Fishery 

Management Council, at 503–820–2422. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

Magnuson-Stevens Fishery 

Conservation and Management Act 

(MSA), 18 U.S.C. 1801 et seq., requires 

each regional fishery management 

council to submit any amendment to an 

FMP to NMFS for review and approval, 

disapproval, or partial approval. The 

MSA also requires that NMFS, upon 

receiving an amendment to an FMP, 

immediately publish notification in the 

Federal Register that the amendment is 

available for public review and 

comment. NMFS will consider the 

public comments received during the 

public comment period in determining 

whether to approve, disapprove, or 

partially approve Amendment 2. 

Amendment 2 would revise the HMS 

FMP to ensure it is consistent with 

advisory guidelines published at 50 CFR 

600.310. The guidelines describe fishery 

management approaches to meet the 

objectives of National Standard 1 (NS1) 

of the MSA, Section 301. The 

Magnuson-Stevens Fishery 

Conservation and Management 

Reauthorization Act of 2006 (MSRA) 

amended the MSA to include new 

requirements for annual catch limits 

(ACLs) and accountability measures 

(AMs) and other provisions regarding 

preventing and ending overfishing and 

rebuilding fisheries. NMFS revised NS1 

Guidelines in response to these changes 

in the MSA. The NS1 Guidelines were 

published in the Federal Register on 

January 16, 2009. The Guidelines are 

intended to meet the objectives of NS1 

by providing guidance on: 

1. Specifying maximum sustainable 

yield (MSY) and optimal yield (OY); 

2. Specifying status determination 

criteria (SDC) so that overfishing and 

overfished determinations can be made 

for stocks and stock complexes that are 

part of a fishery; 

3. Preventing overfishing and 

achieving OY, incorporation of 

scientific and management uncertainty 

in control rules, and adaptive 

management using ACLs and measures 

to ensure accountability (AM); and 

4. Rebuilding stocks and stock 

complexes. 

The revisions to the NS1 guidelines 

also dictate that fisheries undergoing 

overfishing have ACLs and AMs in 

place to end overfishing by 2010, and all 

fisheries to have ACLs and AMs in place 

to prevent or end overfishing by 2011, 

and beyond. However, a stock or stock 

complex may not require an ACL and 

AMs if it qualifies for an MSRA-defined 

exception. The most important of these 

with respect to highly migratory species 

is the so-called ‘‘international 

exception’’ described at 

§ 660.310(h)(2)(ii) for stocks managed 

under an international agreement to 

which the United States is a party. The 

NS1 Guidelines also have other 

provisions related to classifying stocks 

in the FMP. 


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Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 49 / Monday, March 14, 2011 / Proposed Rules 13593 

In November 2009 the Council 

reviewed the Highly Migratory Species 

Management Team’s (Management 

Team) recommendations on the range of 

issues related to amending the HMS 

FMP and provided further guidance on 

developing alternatives based on the 

following topics: 

(1) Classification of stocks in the HMS 

FMP as management unit species or 

ecosystem component species; 

(2) Potential application of the MSRA 

international exception for ACL 

requirements to management unit 

species in the HMS FMP; 

(3) Determining the primary fishery 

management plan for managed species 

covered by both the HMS FMP and the 

Western Pacific Fishery Management 

Council’s Pelagics Fishery Ecosystem 

Plan; and 

(4) Establishing biological reference 

points and accountability measures. 

At their April 2010 meeting, the 

Council adopted a set of alternatives for 

public review that were made available 

in the form of a preliminary draft 

environmental assessment. At the June 

2010 meeting the Council took final 

action to adopt the preferred alternative, 

addressing the four issue areas listed 

above in the following manner: Bigeye 

thresher, Alopias superciliosus, and 

pelagic thresher, A. pelagicus, would be 

reclassified as ecosystem component 

species resulting in a total of 11 

management unit species versus the 

current 13 management unit species 

under status quo. Based on these 

considerations there would be eight 

ecosystem component species included 

in the HMS FMP, including the two 

thresher shark species that are currently 

management unit species. 

The international exception to setting 

ACLs described at § 660.310(h)(2)(ii) 

would be applied to all management 

unit species because they are subject to 

management by the Inter-American 

Tropical Tuna Commission, of which 

the U.S. is a member. The HMS FMP 

would be amended to discuss the 

process by which NMFS would make a 

determination of the primary FMP in 

consultation with the Western Pacific 

Fishery Management Council. The 

determination will be based on the 

stock, or portion of the stock (if stock 

structure is poorly understood and catch 

data is limited), for which reference 

points will be identified. The existing 

numerical estimates of MSY (or 

proxies), OY, and SDC, including the 

overfishing limit, would be retained. 

Upon the receipt of any new 

information based on the best available 

science, the Council may periodically 

adjust the numerical estimates of MSY, 

OY, and SDC. The adjustment would 

follow an established protocol whereby 

the HMSMT proposes MSY and OY 

estimates based on the best available 

science, which are included in the draft 

HMS Stock Assessment and Fishery 

Evaluation (SAFE) document submitted 

to the Council in June. The Council’s 

Science and Statistical Committee 

would review the estimates and make a 

recommendation on their suitability for 

management. The Council would then 

decide whether to adopt updated 

numerical estimates of MSY and OY, 

which would be submitted as 

recommendations for NMFS to review 

as part of the management cycle 

process. This provides the opportunity 

for Secretarial review of revised MSY 

and OY estimates. In this process the 

Council would take final action in 

November and then NMFS would 

engage in rulemaking to implement the 

specifications and any management 

measures proposed by the Council. 

The Council has submitted a 

proposed rule to implement 

Amendment 2 for Secretarial review. 

NMFS expects to publish and request 

public comment on the proposed rule in 

the near future. 

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

Dated: March 9, 2011. 

Emily H. Menashes, 

Acting Director, Office of Sustainable 

Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries. 

[FR Doc. 2011–5868 Filed 3–11–11; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

50 CFR Part 680 

RIN 0648–AY33 

Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic 

Zone Off Alaska; Bering Sea and 

Aleutian Islands Crab Rationalization 

Program; Amendment 34 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice of availability of a 

proposed amendment to a fishery 

management plan; request for 

comments. 

SUMMARY: The North Pacific Fishery 

Management Council submitted 

Amendment 34 to the Fishery 

Management Plan for Bering Sea/ 

Aleutian Islands King and Tanner Crabs 

to NMFS for review. If approved, 

Amendment 34 would amend the 

Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Crab 

Rationalization Program to exempt 

additional recipients of crab quota share 

from Gulf of Alaska Pacific cod and 

pollock harvest limits, called 

sideboards, which apply to some vessels 

and license limitation program licenses 

that are used to participate in these 

fisheries. The North Pacific Fishery 

Management Council determined that 

these additional recipients 

demonstrated a sufficient level of 

historical participation in Gulf of Alaska 

Pacific cod or pollock fisheries, and that 

they should be exempt from the current 

sideboards. This action is necessary to 

give these recipients an opportunity to 

participate in the Gulf of Alaska Pacific 

cod and pollock fisheries at historical 

levels. This action is intended to 

promote the goals and objectives of the 

Magnuson-Stevens Fishery 

Conservation and Management Act, the 

Fishery Management Plan for Bering 

Sea/Aleutian Islands King and Tanner 

Crabs, and other applicable laws. 

DATES: Comments on the amendment 

must be submitted on or before May 13, 

2011. 

ADDRESSES: Send comments to Dr. 

James Balsiger, Regional Administrator, 

Alaska Region, NMFS, Attn: Ellen 

Sebastian. You may submit comments, 

identified by ‘‘RIN 0648–AY33,’’ by any 

one of the following methods: 

• Electronic Submissions: Submit all 

electronic public comments via the 

Federal eRulemaking Portal Web site at 

http://www.regulations.gov. 

• Mail: P. O. Box 21668, Juneau, AK 

99802. 

• Fax: 907–586–7557. 

• Hand Delivery to the Federal 

Building: 709 West 9th Street, Room 

420A, Juneau, AK. 

All comments received are a part of 

the public record. No comments will be 

posted to http://www.regulations.gov for 

public viewing until after the comment 

period has closed. Comments will 

generally be posted without change. All 

personal identifying information (e.g., 

name, address) voluntarily submitted by 

the commenter may 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, Excel, WordPerfect, or Adobe 

portable document file (pdf) formats 

only. 

Electronic copies of Amendment 34 to 

the Fishery Management Plan for Bering 

Sea/Aleutian Islands King and Tanner 


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