614 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 3 / Tuesday, January 6, 2004 / Proposed Rules 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration

50 CFR Part 679

[Docket No. 031218322–3322–01; I.D. 

111903A]

RIN 0648–AR73

Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic 

Zone off Alaska; Skates Management 

in the Groundfish Fisheries of the Gulf 

of Alaska

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce.

ACTION: Proposed rule; request for 

comments.

SUMMARY: NMFS issues a proposed rule 

that would implement Amendment 63 

to the Fishery Management Plan for 

Groundfish of the Gulf of Alaska (FMP). 

Amendment 63, if approved, would 

move skates from the ‘‘other species’’

list to the ‘‘target species’’ list in the 

FMP. By listing skates as a target 

species, a directed fishery for skates in 

the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) may be 

managed to reduce the potential for 

overfishing skates. This action is 

intended to promote the goals and 

objectives of the Magnuson-Stevens 

Fishery Conservation and Management 

Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act), the FMP, 

and other applicable laws.

DATES: Comments must be received by 

February 20, 2004.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be sent to 

Sue Salveson, Assistant Regional 

Administrator, Sustainable Fisheries 

Division, Alaska Region, NMFS, P.O. 

Box 21668, Juneau, AK 99802, Attn: 

Lori Durall, or delivered to room 420 of 

the Federal Building, 709 West 9th 

Street, Juneau, AK. Comments may also 

be sent via facsimile (fax) to 907–586–

7557. Comments will not be accepted if 

submitted via e-mail or Internet. Copies 

of the Environmental Assessment/

Regulatory Impact Review/Initial 

Regulatory Flexibility Analysis (EA/

RIR/IRFA) prepared for the proposed 

rule may be obtained from the same 

address.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Melanie Brown, 907–586–7228 or 

melanie.brown@noaa.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

groundfish fisheries in the exclusive 

economic zone of the GOA are managed 

under the FMP. The North Pacific 

Fishery Management Council (Council) 

prepared the FMP under the authority of 

the Magnuson-Stevens Act, 16 U.S.C. 

1801, et seq. Regulations implementing 

the FMP appear at 50 CFR part 679. 

General regulations governing U.S. 

fisheries also appear at 50 CFR part 600.

The Council has submitted 

Amendment 63 for review by the 

Secretary of Commerce, and a Notice of 

Availability of the FMP amendment was 

published in the Federal Register on 

December 2, 2003 (68 FR 67390), with 

comments on the FMP amendment 

invited through February 2, 2004.

Comments may address the FMP 

amendment, the proposed rule, or both, 

but must be received by February 2, 

2004, to be considered in the approval/

disapproval decision on the FMP 

amendment. All comments received by 

that time, whether specifically directed 

to the FMP amendment or to the 

proposed rule, will be considered in the 

approval/disapproval decision on the 

FMP amendment.

Background

Amendment 63 is intended to 

respond to concerns that the rapidly 

developing skate fishery in the GOA 

may result in overfishing of skates. 

Amendment 63 to the FMP would move 

skates from the ‘‘other species’’ list to 

the ‘‘target species’’ list, allowing for the 

management of skates as a target 

species. Skates currently are managed as 

part of the other species complex with 

sharks, sculpins, octopus, and squid. 

The total allowable catch limit (TAC) for 

this complex is five percent of the 

aggregate of all TACs for groundfish of 

the GOA. Target species TACs are 

established for an individual species or 

species group and NMFS manages the 

directed fishery for each species to 

avoid exceeding the specified TACs. 

TACs usually are set at or below the 

acceptable biological catch (ABC) 

amount, which are below the 

overfishing levels (OFLs) for each target 

species or species group. The other 

species complex does not have an OFL 

or ABC amount due to the lack of 

biomass information for most of the 

species in the complex.

In 2003, a directed fishery for skates 

rapidly developed in the GOA. The 

2003 skate harvest was 3,042 metric 

tons (mt), compared to 782 mt of skates 

harvested in 2002. Because skates are 

managed within the other species 

complex, the full TAC for the other 

species complex is available for a 

directed fishery for skates.

To reduce the potential for 

overfishing, the Council recommended 

that skates be managed as a target 

species. As a target species, OFL, ABC, 

and TAC amounts for skates would be 

established by annual harvest 

specifications, allowing for more 

effective management of skates based on 

the best available scientific information. 

The development of OFL, ABC, and 

TAC amounts for the 2004 harvest 

specifications for skates would be based 

on scientific survey and harvest 

information from 2003 and prior years. 

Managing a directed fishery for skates so 

that OFL, ABC, and TAC amounts are 

not exceeded would reduce the 

potential for overfishing and would 

meet the conservation objectives of the 

Magnuson-Stevens Act.

This action proposes to implement 

Amendment 63. This action also would 

revise Table 10 of 50 CFR 679 to 

establish maximum retainable amounts 

(MRAs) of skates in other directed 

groundfish fisheries and to establish 

MRAs for other target groundfish in the 

directed fishery for skates. The listing of 

species groups under footnote 7 to the 

table for the other species complex 

would be revised to remove skates from 

the listing. A footnote 11 would be 

added to the MRAs column and row for 

skates to identify the managed skate 

species and the reporting codes. These 

changes are necessary to properly 

manage the retention of skates 

incidentally caught in other directed 

groundfish fisheries and the retention of 

other groundfish taken incidentally in 

the directed fishery for skates.

The definition of other species in the 

regulations also would be revised to 

reference 50 CFR 679.20(e) for Tables 10 

and 11 instead of 50 CFR 679.20(c), 

which does not apply to Tables 10 and 

11.

Classification

NMFS has not yet determined 

whether the amendment that this 

proposed rule would implement is 

consistent with the national standards 

of the Magnuson-Stevens Act and other 

applicable laws. In making that 

determination, NMFS will take into 

account the data, views, and comments 

received during the comment period.

This proposed rule has been 

determined to be not significant for the 

purposes of Executive Order 12866.

NMFS prepared an Initial Regulatory 

Flexibility Analysis (IRFA) which 

describes any adverse impacts this 

proposed rule, if adopted, would have 

on directly regulated small entities. 

Because this action is closely linked to 

the annual harvest specifications, the 

EA/RIR/IRFA (see ADDRESSES) prepared 

for this action also analyzes the action 

to establish annual harvest 

specifications for the groundfish 

fisheries of the BSAI and GOA. The 

IRFA identifies two FMP change 

alternatives (no action and move skates 

Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 3 / Tuesday, January 6, 2004 / Proposed Rules 615

to the target list), and three 

specifications options that may be 

considered with the action alternative. 

The specification options will be further 

analyzed and considered in separate 

rulemaking for the annual harvest 

specifications to be completed in early 

2004. A summary of the IRFA, as it 

pertains to this action, follows:

Amendment 63 amends the GOA FMP 

by moving skate species from the ‘‘other 

species’’ list and adding it to the ‘‘target 

species’’ list. Skates would receive their 

own OFL, ABC, and TAC. This action is 

proposed to give fishery managers better 

tools to protect the skate biomass in the 

face of a directed fishery that developed 

rapidly in 2003.

The objective of this action is to 

increase the control managers have over 

the fishing mortality of skates, to 

prevent overfishing of skates, to 

maintain healthy skate stocks, and to 

make a sustainable fishery for skates 

more likely.

The legal basis for this action is found 

in the Magnuson-Stevens Act and in the 

GOA groundfish FMP promulgated 

pursuant to that act.

The IRFA for this action ascertained 

that 933 hook-and-line catcher vessels, 

15 hook-and-line catcher-processors, 

117 trawl catcher vessels, and four trawl 

catcher-processors, might be directly 

regulated by this action. All of these 

vessels are considered ‘‘small entities’’

as defined by the RFA. In 2001, average 

Alaskan groundfish revenues for the 

small entities were $70,000 for hookand-line catcher vessels, $1.83 million 

for hook-and-line catcher-processors, 

$350,000 for trawl catcher vessels, and 

$1.8 million for trawl catcherprocessors.

This action has the potential to limit 

harvests and fishery gross revenues in 

the short run to protect the biomass and 

preserve the fishery for the long term. 

The actual impacts would depend on 

the way the Council chooses to 

incorporate skates into the 

specifications, and on the annual 

specifications recommendations made 

by the Council.

Nothing in the proposed action would 

result in changes in reporting or 

recordkeeping requirements.

The analysis did not reveal any 

Federal rules that duplicate, overlap, or 

conflict with the proposed action.

The IRFA evaluated a no-action 

alternative to the preferred alternative. 

Under this no-action alternative, skates 

would have remained in the ‘‘other 

species’’ list. Since the ‘‘other species’’

complex TAC in 2003 (11,260 mt) is 

larger than the projected OFL for skates 

indicated in the EA (10,322 mt), harvest 

in a targeted skate fishery could drive 

down the skate biomass and reduce its 

reproductive potential. While revenues 

from the fishery would be higher in the 

short run, they would be lower in the 

longer run, as a reduced biomass 

supports a smaller (or perhaps no) 

commercial skate fishery. Thus, while 

this alternative may have imposed fewer 

short run restrictions on small fishing 

operations, it did not meet the 

objectives of providing protection to the 

skate stocks in the GOA and thereby 

protecting the future of a sustainable 

fishery.

List of Subjects in 50 CFR Part 679

Alaska, Fisheries, Recordkeeping and 

reporting requirements.

Dated: December 30, 2003.

Rebecca Lent,

Deputy Assistant Administrator for 

Regulatory Programs, National Marine 

Fisheries Service.

For reasons set out in the preamble, 

50 CFR part 679 is proposed to be 

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., and 3631 et seq.; Title II of Division C, 

Pub. L. 105–277; Sec. 3027, Pub L. 106–31, 

113 Stat. 57; 16 U.S.C. 1540(f).

2. In § 679.2, the definition ‘‘Other 

species’’ is revised to read as follows:

§ 679.2 Definitions.

* * * * *

Other species is a category that 

consists of groundfish species in each 

management area that are not specified 

as target species (see Tables 10 and 11 

to this part pursuant to § 679.20(e)).

* * * * *

3. Table 10 to part 679 is revised to 

read as follows:

BILLING CODE 3510–22–S

616 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 3 / Tuesday, January 6, 2004 / Proposed Rules 


EP06JA04.028</GPH>
Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 3 / Tuesday, January 6, 2004 / Proposed Rules 617


EP06JA04.029</GPH>
618 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 3 / Tuesday, January 6, 2004 / Proposed Rules 

[FR Doc. 04–229 Filed 1–5–04; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3510–22–C


EP06JA04.030</GPH>