71732 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 237 / Friday, December 10, 2004 / Rules and Regulations 

Conventions Act. NMFS hereby closes 

the U.S. longline fishery for bigeye tuna 

in the Convention Area for the 

remainder of 2004 because the bigeye 

tuna catch in the Convention Area has 

reached the reported level of catch made 

in 2001. This action is intended to limit 

fishing mortality on bigeye tuna stock 

caused by longline fishing in the 

Convention Area and contribute to the 

long-term conservation of bigeye tuna 

stock at levels that support healthy 

fisheries.

DATES: Effective from December 13, 

2004 through the end of the 2004 fishing 

season, unless NMFS publishes a 

superceding document in the Federal 

Register.

ADDRESSES: Southwest Regional 

Administrator, Southwest Region, 

NMFS, 501 W. Ocean Blvd., Suite 4200, 

Long Beach, CA 90902–4213.

This Federal Register document is 

also accessible via the Internet at the 

Office of the Federal Register’s website 

at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: J. 

Allison Routt, Sustainable Fisheries 

Division, Southwest Region, NMFS, 

(562) 980–4030.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

United States is a member of the IATTC, 

which was established under the 

Convention for the Establishment of an 

Inter-American Tropical Tuna 

Commission signed in 1949 

(Convention). The IATTC was 

established to provide an international 

arrangement to ensure the effective 

international conservation and 

management of highly migratory species 

of fish in the Convention Area. The 

Convention Area is defined to include 

the waters of the ETP bounded by the 

coast of the Americas, the 40° N. and 

40° S. parallels, and the 150° W. 

meridian. The IATTC has maintained a 

scientific research and fishery 

monitoring program for many years and 

annually assesses the status of stocks of 

tuna and the fisheries to determine 

appropriate harvest limits or other 

measures to prevent overexploitation of 

tuna stocks and promote viable 

fisheries. Under the Tuna Conventions 

Act, 16 U.S.C. 951–962, NMFS must 

publish regulations to carry out IATTC 

recommendations and resolutions that 

have been approved by DOS. A 

proposed rule and request for comments 

was published in the Federal Register

(69 FR 122) on June 25, 2004, and a final 

rule was published on November 12, 

2004 (69 FR 65382). The Southwest 

Regional Administrator also is required 

by regulations at 50 CFR 300.29(b)(3) to 

issue a direct notice to the owners or 

agents of U.S. vessels that operate in the 

ETP of actions recommended by the 

IATTC and approved by the DOS. 

Notices to the fleet were issued in 

October 2003, May 2004, and again in 

October 2004 regarding these actions.

The November 12, 2004, final rule 

provides that the U.S. longline fishery 

for bigeye tuna in the Convention Area 

will close for the remainder of calendar 

year 2004 if the catch of bigeye tuna by 

U.S. longline vessels in the Convention 

Area reaches 150 mt, which is the 

amount estimated to have been caught 

by the U.S. longline fishery in the 

Convention Area in 2001. Specifically, 

once the fishery is closed upon reaching 

the 2001 catch level, no bigeye tuna may 

be caught and retained by U.S. longline 

vessels in the Convention Area during 

the remainder of calendar year 2004.

NMFS has determined that the 150 mt 

catch level has been reached and hereby 

closes the U.S. longline fishery for 

bigeye tuna in the Convention Area for 

the remainder of the year 2004. It is 

therefore prohibited for a U.S. longline 

vessel to catch and retain bigeye tuna in 

the Convention Area from the effective 

date of this action through December 31, 

2004.

Authority: 16 U.S.C. 951–962.

Dated: December 7, 2004.

Alan D. Risenhoover,

Acting Director, Office of Sustainable 

Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service.

[FR Doc. 04–27177 Filed 12–9–04; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3510–22–S

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration

50 CFR Part 635

[I.D. 120704C]

Atlantic Highly Migratory Species; 

Bluefin Tuna Fisheries

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce.

ACTION: Quota transfer; fishery 

reopening; catch limit adjustment.

SUMMARY: NMFS has determined that 

Atlantic bluefin tuna (BFT) quota 

transfers from the Atlantic tunas 

General, Harpoon, and Incidental 

Longline categories to the Angling and 

Reserve categories, are warranted. In 

addition, NMFS is reopening the 

coastwide General category BFT fishery 

and reopening the Angling category BFT 

fishery. Finally, NMFS prohibits 

retention of school BFT less than 47 

inches (119 cm) in the recreational 

fishery for the remainder of the fishing 

year. These actions are being taken to 

ensure that U.S. BFT harvest is 

consistent with recommendations of the 

International Commission for the 

Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), 

pursuant to the Atlantic Tunas 

Convention Act (ATCA), and to meet 

domestic management objectives under 

the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery 

Conservation and Management Act 

(Magnuson-Stevens Act) and the Fishery 

Management Plan for Atlantic Tunas, 

Swordfish and Sharks (HMS FMP).

DATES: The effective date of the BFT 

quota transfers and recreational catch 

limit adjustment is December 7, 2004 

through May 31, 2005. The effective 

dates for the reopening of the General 

and Angling categories, as specified in 

this rule, are provided in Table 1 under 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Brad 

McHale at (978) 281–9260.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Regulations implemented under the 

authority of the ATCA (16 U.S.C. 971 et 

seq.) and the Magnuson-Stevens Act (16 

U.S.C. 1801 et seq.) governing the 

harvest of BFT by persons and vessels 

subject to U.S. jurisdiction are found at 

50 CFR part 635. Section 635.27 

subdivides the U.S. BFT quota 

recommended by ICCAT among the 

various domestic fishing categories, and 

together with General category effort 

controls are specified annually under 

procedures specified at 50 CFR 

635.23(a) and 635.27(a). The proposed 

initial 2004 BFT Quota and General 

category effort controls were filed with 

the Office of the Federal Register on 

December 7, 2004.

Quota Transfer

Under the implementing regulations 

at 50 CFR 635.27(a)(8), NMFS has the 

authority to transfer quotas among 

categories, or, as appropriate, 

subcategories, of the fishery, after 

considering the following factors: (1) 

The usefulness of information obtained 

from catches in the particular category 

for biological sampling and monitoring 

of the status of the stock; (2) the catches 

of the particular category quota to date 

and the likelihood of closure of that 

segment of the fishery if no allocation is 

made; (3) the projected ability of the 

vessels fishing under the particular 

category quota to harvest the additional 

amount of BFT before the end of the 

fishing year; (4) the estimated amounts 

by which quotas established for other 

gear segments of the fishery might be 

exceeded; (5) the effects of the transfer 

Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 237 / Friday, December 10, 2004 / Rules and Regulations 71733

on BFT rebuilding and overfishing; and 

(6) the effects of the transfer on 

accomplishing the objectives of the 

HMS FMP.

If it is determined, based on the 

factors listed here and the probability of 

exceeding the total quota, that vessels 

fishing under any category or 

subcategory quota are not likely to take 

that quota, NMFS may transfer inseason 

any portion of the remaining quota of 

that fishing category to any other fishing 

category or to the Reserve quota.

The 2004 fishing year proposed initial 

BFT quota specifications were prepared 

in accordance with the 2002 ICCAT 

quota recommendation, the ICCAT 

recommendation regarding the dead 

discard allowance, the HMS FMP 

percentage shares for each of the 

domestic categories, including 

restrictions on landings of school BFT, 

and the addition or subtraction of any 

underharvest or overharvest from the 

previous fishing year. NMFS proposed 

initial quota specifications for the 2004 

fishing year as follows: General category 

– 659.0 mt; Harpoon category – 81.4 mt; 

Purse Seine category – 389.4 mt; 

Angling category – 65.5 mt; Longline 

category – 171.2 mt; and Trap category 

– 2.3 mt. Additionally, 36.6 mt would 

be allocated to the Reserve category.

On November 19, 2004, (69 FR 68094, 

November 23, 2004) NMFS closed the 

coastwide General and Angling category 

BFT fisheries due to uncertainties in the 

amount of available quota remaining 

given preliminary landing estimates for 

the 2004 fishing year. Since that closure, 

NMFS has been able to more accurately 

assess the level of BFT landings to date 

after applying quality assurance 

procedures for commercial dealer 

reports. Current landings of incidentally 

caught BFT in the Longline category 

total approximately 27.8 mt, not 

including landings against the NED setaside. The Harpoon category closed on 

November 15, 2004 (68 FR 74504, 

December 24, 2003) with a total of 29.9 

mt landed by vessels in this category. 

The General category has landed a total 

of 251.5 mt to date. In addition, and also 

since the closure, NMFS has completed 

a report that analyzes the recreational 

catch estimate procedures and provides 

final BFT landings estimates for both 

the 2002 and 2003 fishing years. Based 

on the above report, the filing of the 

2004 proposed BFT specifications, an 

assessment of the commercial landings 

data to date, and considering the factors 

for making quota transfers between 

categories, NMFS has determined that 

BFT quota transfers are warranted and 

that quota remains available for limited 

General and Angling category BFT 

fisheries.

Landings and effort information from 

the General and Angling category BFT 

fisheries are used by NMFS scientists 

for calculation of Catch-Per-Unit-Effort 

(CPUE) indices and are useful for stock 

assessment purposes. Extending the 

General and Angling category seasons 

has traditionally provided for enhanced 

CPUE data estimates due to the 

collection of additional data over a 

greater time frame and with broader 

spatial coverage. Without conducting an 

inseason transfer, NMFS would not be 

able to obtain an optimal temporal or 

geographic distribution of CPUE data for 

the 2004 fishing year. Based on previous 

fishing years catch rates late in the 

season, availability of quota, and 

availability of BFT on the fishing 

grounds, NMFS expects that transferred 

quota would be harvested prior to the 

end of the 2004 fishing year.

The effects on rebuilding and 

overfishing as a result of an inseason 

transfers are predicted to be neutral. The 

prime effect is to transfer quota among 

categories and no additional harvest 

above the quota level authorized in the 

BFT rebuilding plan is anticipated. The 

transfers are consistent with the 

objectives of the HMS FMP as they 

would provide for fair and reasonable 

fishing opportunities, allow for 

maximum utilization of the 2004 U.S. 

BFT allocation while preventing an 

overharvest of that allocation.

Therefore, NMFS has determined to 

transfer 223.1 mt of the proposed 

General category quota of approximately 

659.0 mt to the Angling category. Also, 

in part to address the anticipated 

landings from the 2004 recreational 

season, NMFS has determined to 

transfer 76.9 mt of the proposed General 

category quota, 45 mt of the proposed 

Longline category quota, and 40 mt of 

the proposed Harpoon category quota to 

the Reserve category. The Reserve 

category was established, in part, for the 

purpose of compensating overharvest in 

any category and to ensure overall U.S. 

landings do not exceed ICCAT 

recommended quotas.

Reopening of the General and Angling 

BFT Fisheries

TABLE 1. REOPENING EFFECTIVE DATES

Category Effective Dates Areas BFT Size Class Limit 

General December 8 through December 20, 2004, inclusiveAll One large medium or giant 

BFT per vessel/day/trip, 

measuring 73 inches (185 cm) 

CFL or greater.

Angling December 8 through May 31, 

2005, inclusive

All One large school or small medium BFT per vessel/day/trip, 

measuring 47 to less than 73 

inches (119 cm to less than 

185 cm) CFL. One large medium or giant ‘‘trophy’’ BFT 

per vessel/year, measuring 73 

inches (185 cm) or greater 

(no sale).

General category

The General category fishery was 

closed (69 FR 68094, November 23, 

2004) and is reopened to provide 

commercial fishing opportunities to 

both General and Charter/Headboat 

category fishery participants to harvest 

the remainder of the available General 

category quota. Given the proposed 

specifications and the above transfers, a 

limited quota of approximately 107 mt 

remains available which is 

approximately the same level of 

landings attributed to southern area 

fishermen during last winter’s 

commercial fishery. Recent information 

indicates that the commercial sized BFT 

have now migrated off the coast off 

North Carolina and are available to 

General and Charter/Headboat category 

fishery participants. Due to the 

71734 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 237 / Friday, December 10, 2004 / Rules and Regulations 

anticipated General category catch rates 

in December, the unpredictable nature 

of the weather, the availability of BFT 

on the fishing grounds, and the amount 

of available quota, NMFS has 

determined to limit the coastwide 

General category reopening period for 

large medium and giant BFT to 13 days.

Therefore, the coastwide General 

category is scheduled to reopen on 

12:30 a.m. December 8, 2004, and close 

at 11:30 p.m. December 20, 2004. The 

General category daily retention limit 

during this reopening is one large 

medium or giant BFT, measuring 73 

inches or greater (185 cm or greater) 

curved fork length (CFL) per vessel/day/

trip and applies in all areas, for all 

vessels fishing under the General 

category quota (i.e., permitted HMS 

General and Charter/Headboat vessels). 

Fishing for, retaining, possessing, or 

landing large medium or giant BFT by 

persons fishing under the General 

category quota must cease at 11:30 p.m. 

local time December 20, 2004.

Angling category

The Angling category fishery was 

closed on November 19, 2004 (69 FR 

68094, November 23, 2004) and is 

reopened to provide recreational fishing 

opportunities to both Angling and 

Charter/Headboat category fishery 

participants. Given the 2004 proposed 

specifications and the above transfer, an 

approximate quota of 288 mt is available 

for the 2004 fishing year. Preliminary 

2004 recreational landings estimates to 

date are not yet available. Winter 

recreational BFT landings are very 

limited (less than 30 mt) due to the low 

numbers of participants and limited 

availability of recreational sized BFT 

through the winter to spring time frame.

This transfer is intended to ensure 

sufficient quota remains available for 

the Angling category for the 2004 

fishing year. In addition, under the 

western BFT rebuilding plan, ICCAT 

recommended limiting the catch of 

recreationally caught school BFT, 

measuring 27 to less than 47 inches (69 

to less than 119 cm) CFL, to no more 

than 8–percent by weight of the total 

domestic landings quota over each 4–

consecutive-year period. NMFS 

implements this ICCAT 

recommendation through annual and 

inseason adjustments to the school BFT 

retention limits, as necessary, and 

through the establishment of a school 

BFT reserve (64 FR 29090, May 28, 

1999; 64 FR 29806, June 3, 1999). This 

ICCAT recommendation allows NMFS 

the flexibility to enhance fishing 

opportunities and to collect information 

on a broad range of BFT size classes and 

to make interannual adjustments for 

overharvests and underharvests, 

provided that the 8–percent landings 

limit is met over the applicable 4–

consecutive-year period.

After the transfers mentioned above 

and the resultant available quota, the 

expected Angling category catch rates 

during the winter months, availability of 

BFT on the fishing grounds, NMFS has 

determined to reopen the Angling 

category BFT fishery. Based on school 

size class BFT landing estimates from 

the 2002 and 2003 fishing years and the 

most recently available 2004 Angling 

category landings estimates, NMFS has 

determined to limit the recreational BFT 

retention of school BFT for the 

remainder of the 2004 fishing year to 

ensure the 8–percent school landings 

limit is not exceeded.

Therefore, the Angling category BFT 

fishery is reopened at 12:30 a.m. 

December 8, 2004, and continue through 

May 31, 2005. The Angling category 

daily retention limit will be one large 

school or small medium BFT, measuring 

47 to less than 73 inches (119 to less 

than 185 cm) CFL and per vessel/day/

trip. In addition, one large medium or 

giant BFT per vessel per year is 

available under the trophy fishery 

program (no sale), for all vessels fishing 

under the Angling category quota (i.e., 

permitted HMS Angling and Charter/

Headboat vessels).

Monitoring and Reporting

NMFS selected the duration of the 

openings and the daily retention limits 

based on a review of 2004 proposed 

quotas, transfers, dealer reports, daily 

landing trends, the availability of BFT 

on the fishing grounds, and previous 

fishing years effort and landings rates 

from December through May. NMFS 

will continue to monitor both the 

General and Angling category BFT 

fisheries closely.

The General category will be 

monitored via the commercial BFT 

landing reports submitted by authorized 

BFT dealers. Should the available quota 

projected to be reached, any interim 

closures will be published in the 

Federal Register. Once the General 

category BFT fishery has closed, NMFS 

will assess reported landings and 

available quota and determine if a 

reopening in January is warranted.

The Angling category will be 

monitored through the Automated 

Landings Reporting System (ALRS) and 

the state harvest tagging programs in 

North Carolina and Maryland. 

Depending on the level of fishing effort 

and catch rates of BFT, NMFS may 

determine that an interim closure or an 

additional retention limit adjustment is 

necessary to enhance scientific data 

collection from, and fishing 

opportunities in, all geographic areas. 

Closures or subsequent adjustments to 

the Angling category fishery, if any, will 

be published in the Federal Register. 

All BFT landed under the Angling 

category quota must be reported within 

24 hours of landing to the NMFS ALRS 

via toll-free phone at (888) 872–8862; or 

the Internet (http://

www.nmfspermits.com); or, if landed in 

the state of North Carolina, to a 

reporting station prior to offloading. 

Information about North Carolina’s 

harvest tagging program, including 

reporting station locations, can be 

obtained by calling (800) 338–7804. 

Information about Maryland’s harvest 

tagging program can be obtained from 

the Maryland Department of Natural 

Resources at (410) 213–1531. In 

addition, BFT fishery participants may 

call the Atlantic Tunas Information Line 

at (888) 872–8862 or (978) 281–9305 for 

updates on quota monitoring and 

regulatory updates.

Classification

The Assistant Administrator for 

Fisheries, NOAA (AA), finds that it is 

impracticable and contrary to the public 

interest to provide prior notice of, and 

an opportunity for public comment on, 

this action. The General and Angling 

category fisheries have been closed 

since November 23, 2004 (69 FR 68094) 

due to uncertainty in availability of 

quota and accurate landings estimates 

and concern over potential overharvest 

of anticipated quotas. Since that time 

NMFS has completed a Report 

analyzing recreational BFT landings 

estimates from 2002 and 2003, and the 

information was used to prepare the 

proposed initial 2004 BFT 

specifications, which show that quota is 

available for a limited fishery for the 

remainder of the current fishing year. 

Recent information shows BFT in both 

recreational and commercial size classes 

are now available off southern Atlantic 

states in nearshore areas and accessible 

to recreational and commercial anglers 

as well as Charter/Headboat operations. 

Under ATCA and the HMS FMP, NMFS 

is obliged to provide fishing 

opportunities to catch the available 

quota. Through this action, NMFS is 

using its authority to transfer quota 

among categories, which is biologically 

neutral with respect to the ICCAT BFT 

rebuilding plan, is consistent with the 

HMS FMP to ensure specific categories 

do not overharvest allocated quota, and 

will provide equitable fishing 

opportunities to a wide geographic 

range of fishery participants. Restricting 

retention of school size BFT will ensure 

that the ICCAT recommended 8–percent 

Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 237 / Friday, December 10, 2004 / Rules and Regulations 71735

limit on school size over a 4-year 

consecutive period is not exceeded, and 

closing the General category fishery on 

December 20 will reduce the likelihood 

of overharvest of quota in this 

commercial fishery.

Delaying this action would be 

contrary to the public interest as BFT 

are now available in nearshore waters 

and will soon migrate out of range of the 

commercial and recreational fleets. As 

both the Angling and General categories 

are currently closed, fishery participants 

are not currently able to access the BFT 

while the fish are available and 

accessible in nearshore areas off the 

south Atlantic states. It is in the public 

interest to act quickly to open the 

fisheries while the BFT are available so 

that the short window of fishing 

opportunity is not lost. Therefore, the 

AA finds good cause under 5 U.S.C. 

553(b)(B) to waive prior notice and the 

opportunity for public comment. For all 

of the above reasons and because this 

action relieves a restriction (e.g., 

reopens fisheries), there is good cause 

under 5 U.S.C. 553(d) to waive the delay 

in effectiveness of this action.

This action is being taken under 50 

CFR 635.23(a)(4) and is exempt from 

review under Executive Order 12866.

Authority: 16 U.S.C 971 et seq. and 1801 

et seq.

Dated: December 7, 2004.

Alan D. Risenhoover,

Acting Director, Office of Sustainable 

Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service.

[FR Doc. 04–27193 Filed 12–7–04; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3510–22–S

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration

50 CFR Part 635

[Docket No. 040910261–4325–02; I.D. 

072704A]

RIN 0648–AS08

Atlantic Highly Migratory Species; 

Atlantic Commercial Shark 

Management Measures; Correction

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce.

ACTION: Final rule; fishing season 

notification; correction.

SUMMARY: This document corrects the 

season closure dates in a final rule 

published November 30, 2004. 

Corrections concern the first trimester 

season closure dates for large coastal 

sharks (LCS) for the Gulf of Mexico and 

the first trimester season closure dates 

for the South Atlantic.

DATES: Effective January 1, 2005.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Chris Rilling by phone: 301–713–2347 

or by fax: 301–713–1917.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On 

November 30, 2004, NMFS published in 

the Federal Register a final rule that 

established the opening and closure 

dates of the first trimester season for the 

Atlantic commercial shark fishery (69 

FR 69537). In that rule, the closure dates 

for LCS in the Gulf of Mexico and the 

South Atlantic in Table 1 were inverted. 

This document corrects that error.

Correction

Rule FR Doc. 04–26414 published on 

November 30, 2004 (69 FR 69537), to be 

effective January 1, 2005, is corrected as 

follows.

On page 69538, in Table 1, the first 

two rows are corrected to read as 

follows:

Species Group Region First Trimester Season Opening Dates 

First Trimester Season Closure Dates 

Large Coastal Sharks Gulf of Mexico January 1 - February 28, 

2005, 11:30 p.m. local time

February 28, - April 30, 2005, 

11:30 p.m. local time

South Atlantic January 1 - February 15, 

2005, 11:30 p.m. local time

February 15, - April 30, 2005, 

11:30 p.m. local time

*****

Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801, et seq. Dated: December 7, 2004.

Alan D. Risenhoover,

Acting Director, Office of Sustainable 

Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service.

[FR Doc. 04–27178 Filed 12–9–04; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3510–22–S