Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 204 / Friday, October 22, 2004 / Rules and Regulations 62001

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration

50 CFR Part 648

[Docket No. 010319075–1217–02; I.D. 

101804D]

Fisheries of the Northeastern United 

States; Tilefish Fishery; Adjustment to 

2005 Tilefish Commercial Quota and 

Incidental Permit Trip Limit

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce.

ACTION: Tilefish commercial quota and 

trip limit adjustment.

SUMMARY: NMFS announces that the 

Administrator, Northeast Region, NMFS 

(Regional Administrator) has 

determined that the quota for the tilefish 

Part-time permit category has been 

exceeded for fishing year (FY) 2004, 

warranting an adjustment of the Parttime permit category quota for FY 2005. 

Further, the Regional Administrator has 

determined that the tilefish Incidental 

permit category has exceeded the 5 

percent of total allowable landings 

(TAL) allowed under the Fishery 

Management Plan for the Tilefish 

Fishery (FMP) and warrants a reduction 

in the annual trip limit for FY 2005. 

This action complies with the FMP and 

is intended to continue the rebuilding 

program in the FMP by taking into 

account previous overages of the tilefish 

quota.

DATES: Effective October 22, 2004, 

through October 31, 2005.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Brian R. Hooker, Fishery Policy Analyst, 

(978) 281–9220.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

regulations at 50 CFR 648.290(c) state 

that any overages of the quota for any 

tilefish limited access category that 

occur in a given fishing year will be 

subtracted from the quota for that 

category in the following fishing year. 

This same section also states that, if the 

tilefish harvest attributed to the open 

access Incidental permit category 

exceeds 5 percent of the total allowable 

landings (TAL) for a given fishing year, 

the trip limit for the Incidental category 

may be reduced the following year. In 

both of these instances, § 648.290(c) 

specifies that, if an adjustment is 

required, a notification of adjustment of 

the quota will be published in the 

Federal Register.

The tilefish quota of 360,098 lb 

(163,338 kg) for the limited access Parttime permit category (Category C) is 

being adjusted for FY 2005 (November 

1, 2004 - October 31, 2005) through this 

action. Based upon vessel reports 

available as of October 13, 2004, FY 

2004 tilefish landings for Category C 

were 217,037 lb (98,446 kg). Therefore, 

an overage of 16,264 lb (7,377 kg) must 

be deducted from the FY 2005 Category 

C quota, which results in an adjusted 

quota of 343,834 lb (155,960 kg). As a 

result of the decision in the Hadaja v. 

Evans lawsuit on May 15, 2003, the 

permitting and reporting requirements 

for the FMP were suspended for nearly 

a year. The decision rendered the quotas 

for the various limited access permit 

categories, and the 5 percent of TAL 

target quota for the open access permit 

category inoperative. These 

requirements were reinstated on May 

31, 2004. During the period that the 

permitting and reporting requirements 

were vacated, it was impossible to 

attribute tilefish landings to a particular 

permit category. Consequently, 

projected landings (159,307 lb (72,260 

kg)) were used for the period November 

1, 2003 - May 31, 2004. Based on 

landings for each permit category for the 

same time period in FY 2002 and FY 

2003, a Part-time category quota of 

200,791 lb (91,077 kg) was established 

for the remainder of FY 2004 (June 1–

October 31, 2004).

Landings of tilefish by the Incidental 

permit category in FY 2002 totaled 

105,858 lb (48,016 kg) and landings in 

FY 2003 totaled 178,955 lb (81,173 kg). 

In both FY 2002 and FY 2003, the 

Incidental permit category landed over 

95 percent of its catch between 

November and May, the same time 

period that the reporting requirements 

were vacated. Thus, the majority of the 

landings information for the Incidental 

permit category are not available for FY 

2004. An analysis of FY 2002 and FY 

2003 landings data determined that a 

trip limit of 133 lb (60 kg) for Incidental 

category vessels would be necessary in 

order to not exceed the 5 percent of TAL 

for FY 2005 (99,750 lb (45,246 kg)). 

Thus, this action reduces the trip limit 

for Incidental category vessels for FY 

2005 to 133 lb (60 kg).

This action informs the public of 

overages of the FY 2004 Part-time 

permit category quota and adjusts the 

FY 2005 Part-time permit category quota 

to account for those overages. 

Additionally, this action informs the 

public that the Incidental permit 

category has previously exceeded 5 

percent of the TAL and thus the trip 

limit for the Incidental category is 

adjusted to 133 lb (60 kg) for FY 2005.

The FY 2004 tilefish Part-time permit 

category quota, available FY 2004 

tilefish Part-time permit category 

landings, and the resulting overage of 

the FY 2004 tilefish Part-time permit 

category quota are presented in Table 1. 

The resulting adjusted FY 2005 tilefish 

Part-time permit category commercial 

quota is presented in Table 2.

TABLE 1.TILEFISH PART-TIME CATEGORY 2004 LANDINGS AND OVERAGE

Permit Category 

2004 Quota 2004 Landings 2004 Overage 

Lb Kg1 Lb Kg1 Lb Kg1

Part-time 200,791 91,077 217,037 98,446 16,264 7,377

1 Kilograms are as converted from pounds, and may not necessarily add due to rounding.

TABLE 2. TILEFISH PART-TIME CATEGORY ADJUSTED FY 2005 QUOTA

Permit Category 

2005 Initial Quota 2005 Adjusted Quota 

Lb Kg1 Lb Kg1

Part-time 360,098 163,338 343,834 155,961

1 Kilograms are as converted from pounds, and may not necessarily add due to rounding.

62002 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 204 / Friday, October 22, 2004 / Rules and Regulations 

Classification

This action is required by 50 CFR part 

648 and is exempt from review under 

Executive Order 12866.

Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq. Dated: October 19, 2004.

Dean Swanson,

Acting Director, Office of Sustainable 

Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service.

[FR Doc. 04–23730 Filed 10–21–04; 8:45 am]

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