Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 220 / Tuesday, November 16, 2004 / Proposed Rules 67107

• E-mail: 0648–

AS88.Proposed@noaa.gov. Include in 

the subject line the following document 

identifier: 0648–AS88.Proposed.

• Federal e-Rulemaking Portal: http:/

/www.regulations.gov. Follow the 

instructions for submitting comments.

• Mail: Steve Branstetter, Southeast 

Regional Office, NMFS, 9721 Executive 

Center Drive N., St. Petersburg, FL 

33702.

• Fax: 727–570–5583, Attention: 

Steve Branstetter.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Steve Branstetter, 727–570–5305.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

commercial fishery for grouper in the 

Gulf of Mexico is managed under the 

Fishery Management Plan for the Reef 

Fish Resources of the Gulf of Mexico 

(FMP). The FMP was prepared by the 

GMFMC, and implemented under the 

authority of the Magnuson-Stevens 

Fishery Conservation and Management 

Act. A moratorium on the issuance of 

new commercial reef fish permits was 

established by Amendment 4 to the 

FMP in May 1992. The moratorium has 

been maintained since that time with 

the implementation of Amendments 9, 

11, and 17, and is scheduled to expire 

on December 31, 2005. The GMFMC is 

currently finalizing Amendment 24 to 

the FMP that would again extend the 

moratorium.

The GMFMC anticipates that 

additional future action may be 

necessary to control effort in the Gulf of 

Mexico grouper fishery by further 

restricting the number of participants. 

The GMFMC has been advised by NMFS 

that the grouper resources of the Gulf 

EEZ are fully exploited, especially red 

grouper and the aggregate of deep-water 

groupers, and the fisheries currently 

operate under restrictive quotas. As 

such, the GMFMC is concerned that the 

current level of participation and effort 

in the grouper fishery of the Gulf of 

Mexico may not be maximizing the 

economic benefits that could be derived 

from the resource and that future 

increases in participation or effort could 

further reduce economic benefits. In 

anticipation of future action to establish 

an IFQ for the grouper fishery of the 

Gulf of Mexico, at its October 2004 

meeting, the GMFMC approved a 

motion stating:

In order to discourage acceleration in the 

grouper fishery to develop a catch history, 

the Council records its intent to only use 

catch histories prior to October 15, 2004, 

when developing a grouper IFQ. The Council 

requests NOAA Fisheries to publish this as 

a control date.

Should the GMFMC take future action 

to further restrict participation in the 

fishery, it may use October 15, 2004, as 

a possible control date regarding the 

eligibility of catch histories. 

Implementation of any program to 

restrict access in the grouper fishery 

would require preparation of an 

amendment to the FMP and publication 

of a notice of availability of the 

amendment with a comment period, 

publication of a proposed rule with a 

public comment period, approval of the 

amendment, and issuance of a final 

implementing rule.

Consideration of a control date does 

not commit the GMFMC or NMFS to 

any particular management regime or 

criteria for eligibility in the commercial 

grouper fishery. The GMFMC may or 

may not make use of this control date 

as part of the qualifying criteria for 

participation in any future IFQ or other 

management program for the Gulf of 

Mexico grouper fishery. Fishermen are 

not guaranteed future participation in a 

fishery regardless of their entry date or 

intensity of participation in the fishery 

before or after the control date under 

consideration. The GMFMC 

subsequently may choose a different 

control date or a management regime 

that does not make use of a control date. 

The GMFMC also may choose to take no 

further action to control entry or access 

to the fisheries, in which case the 

control date may be rescinded.

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

Dated: November 10, 2004.

Rebecca Lent,

Deputy Assistant Administrator for 

Regulatory Programs, National Marine 

Fisheries Service.

[FR Doc. 04–25429 Filed 11–15–04; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3510–22–S

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration

50 CFR Part 679

[I.D. 110904D]

RIN 0648–AS37

Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic 

Zone Off Alaska; Aleutian Islands 

Directed Pollock Fishery

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of availability; request 

for comments.

SUMMARY: The North Pacific Fishery 

Management Council (Council) has 

submitted Amendment 82 to the Fishery 

Management Plan for Groundfish of the 

Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands 

Management Area (FMP). Amendment 

82, if approved, would establish a 

framework for management of the 

Aleutian Islands subarea (AI) directed 

pollock fishery. This action is necessary 

to implement provisions of the 

Consolidated Appropriations Act of 

2004 that require the directed pollock 

fishery in the AI to be allocated to the 

Aleut Corporation for economic 

development of Adak, Alaska. This 

action is intended to promote the goals 

and objectives of the Magnuson-Stevens 

Fishery Conservation and Management 

Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act), the FMP, 

Consolidated Appropriations Act of 

2004, and other applicable laws. 

Comments from the public are welcome.

DATES: Comments on Amendment 82 

must be received by close of business on 

January 18, 2005.

ADDRESSES: Send comments to Sue 

Salveson, Assistant Regional 

Administrator, Sustainable Fisheries 

Division, Alaska Region, NMFS, Attn: 

Lori Durall. Comments may be 

submitted by:

• Mail: P.O. Box 21668, Juneau, AK 

99802;

• Hand delivery to the Federal 

Building: 709 West 9th Street, Room 

420A, Juneau, AK;

• Fax: 907–586–7557; or

• E-mail: BSA82NOA–0648–

AS37@noaa.gov. Include in the subject 

line the following document identifier: 

AI pollock NOA. E-mail comments, with 

or without attachments, are limited to 5 

megabytes.

Copies of Amendment 82, the 

Environmental Assessment/Regulatory 

Impact Review (EA/RIR) for the 

amendment, and the 2000 and 2001 

Biological Opinions on the groundfish 

fisheries may be obtained from the same 

address or from the Alaska Region 

NMFS website at www.fakr.noaa.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Melanie Brown, 907–586–7228 or 

melanie.brown@noaa.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

Magnuson-Stevens Act requires that 

each Regional Fishery Management 

Council submit any FMP amendment it 

prepares to NMFS for review and 

approval, disapproval, or partial 

approval. The Magnuson-Stevens Act 

also requires that NMFS, upon receiving 

a FMP amendment, immediately 

publish a notice in the Federal Register

that the amendment is available for 

public review and comment.

The Council adopted Amendment 82 

in June 2004 and clarified it in October 

2004. If approved by NMFS, this 

amendment would establish a 

framework for management of the AI 

67108 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 220 / Tuesday, November 16, 2004 / Proposed Rules 

directed pollock fishery. The 

Consolidated Appropriations Act of 

2004 (Public Law (Pub. L.) 108–199, 

Sec. 803) requires the AI directed 

pollock fishery to be allocated to the 

Aleut Corporation for economic 

development of Adak, Alaska. This 

action would establish the allocation of 

the directed pollock fishery to the Aleut 

Corporation and would specify the 

management provisions for this fishery.

Public Law 108–199 requires the 

Aleut Corporation’s selection of 

participants in the AI directed pollock 

fishery and limits participation to 

American Fisheries Act (AFA, Pub. L. 

105–277, Title II of Division C) qualified 

entities and vessels equal to or less than 

60 feet (18.3 m) in length overall (LOA) 

with certain endorsements. Section 

803(b) restricts the annual harvest of 

pollock in the AI directed pollock 

fishery by vessels equal to or less than 

60 feet (18.3 m) LOA to less than 25 

percent until 2009, and to less than 50 

percent prior to 2013. These vessels 

must receive 50 percent of the directed 

pollock fishery allocation starting in 

2013 and beyond. An FMP amendment 

and associated regulatory amendments 

are needed to implement these and 

other measures necessary to manage this 

fishery pursuant to provisions specified 

in Pub. L. 108–199.

Prior to Pub. L. 108–199, the AI 

directed pollock fishery was managed 

pursuant to the AFA. The AFA allocated 

the AI directed pollock fishery to 

specific harvesters and processors 

named in the AFA and specified in 

regulations at 50 CFR part 679. Public 

Law 108–199 allocates all of the AI 

directed pollock fishery to the Aleut 

Corporation. The implementation of 

Pub. L. 108–199 requires the 

amendment of AFA provisions in the 

FMP and in the regulations at 50 CFR 

part 679 to provide for the allocation of 

the AI directed pollock fishery to the 

Aleut Corporation and for the 

management of this fishery.

The management provisions of 

Amendment 82 include:

1. Allocation of the AI directed 

pollock fishery to the Aleut Corporation;

2. Harvest specifications provisions 

including limits on the size of the 

annual total allowable catch (TAC) of 

pollock, the seasonal apportionment of 

pollock TAC, the Council’s policy on 

the methods of funding the AI directed 

pollock fishery within the 2 million 

metric ton (mt) maximum annual 

optimum yield for groundfish of the 

BSAI, and the Council’s policy on 

reallocating unharvested amounts of the 

AI pollock allocation to the Bering Sea 

pollock allocation;

3. Fishery monitoring provisions 

including restrictions on having pollock 

from more than one area on a vessel at 

one time, observer and scale 

requirements, catch monitoring control 

plans for shoreside and stationary 

floating processors, and the Aleut 

Corporation’s responsibilities for 

ensuring the harvest does not exceed the 

quotas;

4. Limitations on the pollock 

allocation to AFA qualified vessels and 

to vessels equal to or less than 60 feet 

(18.3 m) LOA until 2013, when at least 

50 percent of the allocation must be to 

vessels equal to or less than 60 feet (18.3 

m) LOA;

5. Reporting requirements; and

6. A new AI Chinook salmon 

prohibited species catch limit and 

revisions to Chinook salmon savings 

areas closure requirements.

Pollock is an important prey species 

for the endangered and threatened 

Steller sea lion populations. The Steller 

sea lion protection measures evaluated 

in the 2000 and 2001 Biological 

Opinions (see ADDRESSES) were 

considered in the development of the 

management provisions of Amendment 

82. The protection measures for Steller 

sea lions include spatial and temporal 

dispersion of pollock harvest. The 

pollock fishing closure areas in the AI 

would remain unchanged under 

Amendment 82 to ensure spatial 

dispersion of fishing effort. To 

temporally disperse harvest of prey 

species, the Steller sea lion protection 

measures implemented in the BSAI 

apportion 40 percent of pollock harvest 

to the A season and 60 percent to the 

B season. Amendment 82 would 

continue to temporally disperse pollock 

harvest with no more than 40 percent of 

the acceptable biological catch (ABC) 

authorized to be harvested in the A 

season. The total harvest of pollock in 

the Bering Sea subarea, including any 

rollover of unharvested AI pollock, also 

would remain well below the ABC so 

that overall harvest would be in 

proportion to biomass and less likely to 

compete with Steller sea lions for prey. 

Both of these harvest provisions satisfy 

the intent of the Steller sea lion 

protection measures.

Public comments are being solicited 

on proposed Amendment 82 through 

January 18, 2005. A proposed rule that 

would implement Amendment 82 will 

be published in the Federal Register for 

public comment at a later date, 

following NMFS’ evaluation under the 

Magnuson-Stevens Act procedures. 

Public comments on the proposed rule 

must be received by the end of the 

comment period on the amendment in 

order to be considered in the approval/

disapproval decision on the 

amendment. All comments received on 

the amendment by the end of the 

comment period, whether specifically 

directed to the amendment or to the 

proposed rule, will be considered in the 

approval/disapproval decision. 

Comments received after that date will 

not be considered in the approval/

disapproval decision on the 

amendment. To be considered, 

comments must be received not just 

postmarked or otherwise transmitted by 

close of business on the last day of the 

comment period.

Dated: November 10, 2004.

Alan D. Risenhoover,

Acting Director, Office of Sustainable 

Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service.

[FR Doc. 04–25431 Filed 11–15–04; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3510–22–S