6586 Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 27 / Wednesday, February 10, 2010 / Rules and Regulations 

Dated: January 28, 2010. 

Lois Rossi, 

Director, Registration Division, Office of 

Pesticide Programs. 

■ Therefore, 40 CFR chapter I is 

amended as follows: 

PART 180—[AMENDED] 

■ 1. The authority citation for part 180 

continues to read as follows: 

Authority: 21 U.S.C. 321(q), 346a and 371. 

■ 2. In § 180.960, the table is amended 

by adding alphabetically the following 

polymer to read as follows: 

§ 180.960 Polymers; exemptions from the 

requirement of a tolerance. 

Polymer CAS No. 

* * * * * 

Poly(oxy-1,2-ethanediyl), ahydro-w-hydroxy-, polymer 

with 1, 1′-methylene-bis-[4- 

isocyanatocyclohexane], 

minimum number average 

molecular weight (in amu), 

1800 .................................... 39444–87–6 

* * * * * 

[FR Doc. 2010–2788 Filed 2–9–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–S 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

50 CFR Part 648 

RIN 0648–XT99 

[Docket No. 100120036–0038–01] 

Fisheries of the Northeastern United; 

Black Sea Bass Fishery; 2010 Black 

Sea Bass Specifications; Emergency 

Rule 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Temporary rule; emergency 

action; request for comments. 

SUMMARY: Through this emergency rule 

NMFS is implementing increases to the 

2010 black sea bass specifications (i.e., 

commercial fishing quota, recreational 

harvest limit (RHL), and research setaside (RSA)). This action is necessary to 

mitigate potential foregone economic 

yield associated with the current lower 

specifications and to ensure the 

specifications are consistent with the 

best available scientific information. 

This action is also necessary to increase 

specifications consistent with the 

recently revised catch level 

recommendation from the Mid-Atlantic 

Fishery Management Council (Council) 

and its scientific advisors, the Scientific 

and Statistical Committee (SSC). 

DATES: Effective from February 10, 2010, 

through August 9, 2010. Comments 

must be received (see ADDRESSES) by 5 

p.m., local time, on March 12, 2010. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, 

identified by 0648–XT99, by any one of 

the following methods: 

• Electronic Submissions: Submit all 

electronic public comments via the 

Federal eRulemaking Portal http:// 

www.regulations.gov 

• (978) 281–9135. Send the fax to the 

attention of the Sustainable Fisheries 

Division. Include ‘‘Comments on 2010 

Black Sea Bass Specification Increase’’ 

prominently on the fax. 

• Mail and hand delivery: Patricia A. 

Kurkul, Regional Administrator, NMFS, 

Northeast Regional Office, 55 Great 

Republic Drive, Gloucester, MA 01930. 

Mark the outside of the envelope: 

‘‘Comments on 2010 Black Sea Bass 

Specification Increase.’’ 

Instructions: No comments will be 

posted for public viewing until after the 

comment period has closed. All 

comments received are a part of the 

public record and will generally be 

posted to http://www.regulations.gov 

without change. All Personal Identifying 

Information (for example, name, 

address, etc.) 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). You may submit 

attachments to electronic comments in 

Microsoft Word, Excel, WordPerfect, or 

Adobe PDF file formats only. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Michael Ruccio, Fishery Policy Analyst, 

(978) 281–9104. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: A final 

rule to establish the 2010 black sea bass 

specifications was published in the 

Federal Register on December 22, 2009 

(74 FR 67978), and became effective on 

January 1, 2010. The final rule 

implemented a 2.71–million-lb (1,229– 

mt) Total Allowable Catch (TAC) and, 

after deducting estimated discards, a 

Total Allowable Landings (TAL) of 2.3 

million lb (1,043 mt). The TAC was 

based on the SSC(s initial 2010 

Acceptable Biological Catch (ABC) 

recommendation of 2.71 million lb 

(1,229 mt) and was the status quo catch 

level from 2009. The TAL was further 

subdivided into RSA, commercial quota, 

and a RHL as outlined in the Summer 

Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass 

Fishery Management Plan (FMP). 

However, at its December 9–11, 2009, 

meeting in Wilmington, DE, the Council 

decided to convene a joint meeting of 

the SSC and Black Sea Bass Monitoring 

Committee (MC) to re-examine and 

reconsider the SSC(s 2010 black sea bass 

ABC recommendation. The Council’s 

SSC and MC met on January 8, 2010, 

and ultimately decided to revise the 

ABC recommendation from 2.71 million 

lb (1,229 mt) to 4.5 million lb (2,041 

mt), consistent with catch levels 

established for 2008. 

On January 15, 2010, the Northeast 

Regional Administrator, NMFS, 

received a letter from the Council 

Chairman, on behalf of the full Council, 

formally relaying the SSC(s revised ABC 

recommendation and requesting 

emergency action to increase catch 

levels as expediently as possible. The 

Council outlined the following as 

justification for requesting the 

emergency modification of the 2010 

black sea bass catch levels as follows: 

• The Council provided the January 

8, 2009, SSC meeting summary. The 

summary document provides 

information on the SSC discussion and 

its justification for revising the 2010 

ABC recommendation. 

• The revision of the ABC 

recommendation by the Council(s SSC 

was unforeseen. 

• The increased catch levels provided 

by the revised ABC level can be 

reasonably expected to alleviate 

significant social and economic impacts 

relative to the initial ABC 

recommendation from the SSC. 

The Regional Administrator has 

reviewed the Council(s request for 

temporary emergency rulemaking with 

respect to section 305(c) of the 

Magnuson Stevens Fishery Conservation 

and Management Act (MSA) and NMFS 

policy guidance for the use of 

emergency rules (August 21, 1997; 62 

FR 44421) and finds the Council(s 

request meets both the criteria and 

justifications for invoking the 

emergency rulemaking provisions of the 

MSA. Specifically, the SSC revision of 

its previously recommended ABC was a 

recent and unforeseen event. By this 

emergency rulemaking, NMFS is 

increasing the 2010 black sea bass TAC 

and TAL, thereby relieving restrictions 

imposed by the previous, lower catch 

levels. Doing so will assist in preventing 

significant direct economic loss for 

fishery participants and associated 

industries that would be subject to 

lower commercial and recreational 

harvest levels. An additional amount of 

black sea bass landings will be set aside 

for research activities, thereby 


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Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 27 / Wednesday, February 10, 2010 / Rules and Regulations 6587 

permitting additional research to be 

funded by black sea bass RSA in 2010. 

Through this temporary emergency 

rule, NMFS increases the 2010 black sea 

bass TAC from 2.71 million lb (1,229 

mt) to 4.5 million lb (2,041 mt), 

consistent with the revised ABC 

recommendation from the SSC. After 

deducting discards from the TAC, the 

TAL is increased from 2.3 million lb 

(1,043 mt) to 3.7 million lb (1,678 mt). 

The Council expressed a desire that 3 

percent of the increased TAL be set 

aside for research, consistent with its 

initial specification process that 

occurred in August 2009. This results in 

111,000 lb (50 mt) as the revised RSA. 

The remaining 3,589,000 lb (1,628 mt) is 

divided 49 percent for the revised 

commercial fishery quota and 51 

percent as the revised RHL. The 

complete change to all specifications 

resulting from this temporary 

emergency rule are outlined in Table 1. 

TABLE 1. TEMPORARY EMERGENCY RULE REVISED 2010 BLACK SEA BASS SPECIFICATIONS 

Allowable Biological 

Catch (ABC)/ Total Allowable Catch (TAC) 

Discards Total Allowable Landings (TAL) Research Set-Aside 

(RSA) 

Commercial Quota Recreational Harvest 

Limit (RHL) 

lb mt 

lb mt lb mt lb mt lb mt lb mt 

Published at 74 

FR 67978, December 22, 

2009 2,710,000 1,229 410,000 186 2,300,000 2,252 69,000 31 1,093,190 456 1,137,810 516 

Emergency Rule 

Revisions 4,500,000 2,041 800,000 363 3,700,000 1,678 111,000 50 1,758,610 798 1,830,390 830 

Classification 

The Administrator, Northeast Region, 

NMFS, determined that this temporary 

rule is consistent with the national 

standards and other provisions of the 

Magnuson-Stevens Fishery 

Conservation and Management Act and 

other applicable laws. The rule may be 

extended for a period of not more than 

186 days as described under section 

305(c)(3)(B) of the Magnuson-Stevens 

Fishery Conservation Management Act. 

The Assistant Administrator for 

Fisheries, NOAA, finds good cause 

pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B) to waive 

prior notice and the opportunity for 

public comment because it would be 

contrary to the public interest. 

This emergency action is being 

implemented to increase the 2010 black 

sea bass allowable landings levels for 

the commercial and recreational 

fisheries, thereby alleviating restrictions 

on both. The information to support the 

increase through this action was not 

available from the Council until January 

15, 2010, and occurred as the result of 

unforeseen circumstances. It could not 

be foreseen that the Council would 

request the SSC to revisit its 2010 ABC 

recommendation from the catch levels 

associated with the previously 

implemented, more restrictive 

measures. It was also unforeseen that 

the SSC would increased its previously 

recommended ABC level and that the 

Council would request implementation 

of the increase by emergency action. 

Unnecessary economic harm and 

negative social impacts will occur to 

fishery participants and related 

businesses if this action to increase 

catch levels is not enacted as quickly as 

possible. Notice and comment 

rulemaking would significantly delay 

implementation of the increased catch 

levels and, given the seasonal 

distribution of black sea bass, would 

likely result in differential, higher 

impacts to some individual states and 

fishery participants that operate almost 

exclusively in the first quarter. Such 

impacts would undermine the intent of 

this rule. These negative socio-economic 

impacts may be alleviated or eliminated 

by the more expedient implementation 

of increased catch limits by NMFS 

through this emergency rule. 

Commercial fishing activities are 

already underway for the 2010 fishing 

season that opened on January 1, 2010. 

Individual states are currently utilizing 

very restrictive trip and possession 

limits to ensure that the NMFSadministered coastwide quota is 

available for the entirety of the 2010 

fishing year. These possession limits 

cause fishery participants that 

encounter black sea bass above and 

beyond their permitted limits to discard 

fish at sea, often with high mortality 

rates among discarded animals. By 

promulgating this emergency rule 

without prior notice and the 

opportunity for public comment, NMFS 

will more quickly increase the 2010 

commercial quota which will, in turn, 

allow for less restrictive stateadministered trip and possession limits. 

This will allow fishery participants to 

convert potential at-sea discards into 

landings and to maximize the economic 

returns from their fishing operations. 

Recreational fisheries have not yet 

begun for 2010; however, the Council is 

in the process of finalizing 

recommended 2010 management 

measures for submission to NMFS for 

review and implementation. By 

foregoing prior notice and the 

opportunity for public comment, NMFS 

will ensure that the Council may make 

use of the less restrictive, increased RHL 

when crafting and analyzing potential 

2010 black sea bass recreational 

management measures. Were normal 

notice-and-comment rulemaking 

utilized to implement the increased 

2010 black sea bass catch levels, it is 

highly likely that additional rulemaking 

would be necessary to liberalize 

recreational management measures later 

in the year following the 

implementation of the increased RHL. 

Following the implementation of this 

emergency rule to increase the RHL, 

only one notice-and-comment 

rulemaking will be necessary to 

establish the 2010 recreational 

management measures in the spring of 

2010. 

The efficiencies gained by 

promulgating recreational management 

measures through one rulemaking are 

significant and contribute to effective 

joint management between state and 

Federal management partners and 

ensures the orderly prosecution of the 

fishery. Many of the individual states 

involved with management of black sea 

bass recreational fisheries within their 

state-water jurisdictions have complex 

rulemaking processes, often involving 

their respective legislatures or public 

hearing processes. Were black sea bass 

recreational management measures 

revised through a second rulemaking 

mid-year or later, comparable state 

management measures would lag 

behind measures for Federal waters. 

This is an undesirable situation that 

NMFS, the Council, and the individual 

states have specifically sought to avoid 

in recent years by jointly adopting 

identical management measures for state 

and Federal waters. In addition, many 

recreational party and charter vessel 


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6588 Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 27 / Wednesday, February 10, 2010 / Rules and Regulations 

operators book clients for trips well in 

advance. These operators will benefit by 

being able to better plan their operations 

for the entirety of the fishing year under 

the to-be established recreational 

management measures as opposed to 

having to develop business plans for 

measures under both the existing and 

increased catch levels that would 

become effective later in the fishing year 

were a second rulemaking necessary. 

In addition, by implementing the 

increase in 2010 TAL quickly, NMFS 

will be able to increase the amount of 

black sea bass set aside for research 

from 69,000 lb (31 mt) to 111,000 lb (50 

mt). This additional 42,000 lb (19 mt) 

will permit additional research on black 

sea bass to be conducted. A previously 

approved RSA project to conduct a pot 

survey of scup in hard bottom areas of 

southern New England has been 

awarded a NOAA Grant to conduct their 

proposed scup research using RSA; 

however, this project also proposed to 

conduct simultaneous research on black 

sea bass but was not awarded 

authorization to do so because 

insufficient pounds of black sea bass 

RSA were available at the time of the 

grant award. This action will make 

available sufficient black sea bass RSA 

for the black sea bass component of this 

project to move forward. Timely 

distribution of the additional RSA 

pounds is necessary to ensure both the 

research field work and RSAcompensation fishing can occur during 

the spring fishery. Delay of the 

additional black sea bass RSA award by 

notice-and-comment rulemaking would 

likely jeopardize the completion of the 

research. The researcher would likely 

miss a substantial portion of the field 

research, not have sufficient time to 

generate research funding by the sale or 

capture of the RSA pounds, or both. 

NMFS has determined that increasing 

the 2010 black sea bass TAC and TAL 

by emergency action is consistent with 

section 305(c) of the MSA and NMFS 

guidance for application of emergency 

rules. The revised TAC and TAL are 

consistent with the best available 

scientific information (i.e., the revised 

SSC ABC recommendation), the 

Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea 

Bass FMP, and present a low likelihood 

that the black sea bass stock will 

experience overfishing. Implementation 

via emergency rule is expected to 

substantially mitigate negative socioeconomic impacts to fishery 

participants and associated businesses. 

Negative socio-economic impacts would 

continue or, in some components of the 

2010 fisheries be more severe, if 

implementation of the increased TAL 

were delayed by normal notice-andcomment rulemaking. 

For the same reasons, the Assistant 

Administrator for Fisheries, NOAA, 

finds good cause pursuant to 5 U.S.C 

553(d)(3) to waive the 30-day delayed 

effective date required by 5 U.S.C. 

553(d). Members of the public, fishing 

and related industries, and the Council 

expect NMFS to utilize the most 

expedient rulemaking processes 

possible to ensure that the revised 2010 

black sea bass TAL is implemented as 

quickly as possible to relieve fishery 

restrictions. 

This final rule has been determined to 

be not significant for purposes of 

Executive Order 12866. 

This rule is exempt from the 

procedures of the Regulatory Flexibility 

Act because the rule is not subject to the 

requirement to provide prior notice and 

opportunity for public comment 

pursuant to 5 USC 553 or any other law. 

Dated: February 4, 2010. 

Samuel D. Rauch III, 

Deputy Assistant Administrator For 

Regulatory Programs, National Marine 

Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2010–2941 Filed 2–9–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–S 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

50 CFR Part 679 

[Docket No. 0810141351–9087–02] 

RIN 0648–XU30 

Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic 

Zone Off Alaska; Pollock for American 

Fisheries Act Catcher Vessels in the 

Inshore Open Access Fishery in the 

Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands 

Management Area 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Temporary rule; closure. 

SUMMARY: NMFS is prohibiting directed 

fishing for pollock by American 

Fisheries Act (AFA) trawl catcher 

vessels participating in the inshore open 

access fishery in the Bering Sea subarea 

of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands 

management area (BSAI). This action is 

necessary to prevent exceeding the A 

season allowance of the 2010 pollock 

total allowable catch (TAC) allocated to 

the inshore open access fishery in the 

BSAI. 

DATES: Effective 1200 hrs, Alaska local 

time (A.l.t.), February 5, 2010, through 

1200 hrs, A.l.t., June 10, 2010. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Obren Davis, 907–586–7228. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NMFS 

manages the groundfish fishery in the 

BSAI exclusive economic zone 

according to the Fishery Management 

Plan for Groundfish of the Bering Sea 

and Aleutian Islands Management Area 

(FMP) prepared by the North Pacific 

Fishery Management Council under 

authority of the Magnuson-Stevens 

Fishery Conservation and Management 

Act. Regulations governing fishing by 

U.S. vessels in accordance with the FMP 

appear at subpart H of 50 CFR part 600 

and 50 CFR part 679. 

The A season allowance of the 2010 

Bering Sea pollock TAC allocated to the 

AFA inshore open access fishery in the 

BSAI is 2,762 metric tons (mt) as 

established by the final 2009 and 2010 

harvest specifications for groundfish in 

the BSAI (74 FR 7359, February 17, 

2009) and inseason adjustment (74 FR 

68715, December 29, 2009). The actual 

2010 Bering Sea subarea inshore 

cooperative allocations, including the 

inshore open access allocation, are 

posted at http:// 

alaskafisheries.noaa.gov/ 

sustainablefisheries/afa/afalsf.htm. 

In accordance with § 679.20(d)(1)(i), 

the Administrator, Alaska Region, 

NMFS (Regional Administrator), has 

determined that the A season allowance 

of pollock TAC allocated to the AFA 

inshore open access fishery, which is 

catching pollock for processing by the 

inshore component in the Bering Sea 

subarea, will soon be reached. 

Therefore, the Regional Administrator is 

establishing the A season allowance of 

pollock TAC as the directed fishing 

allowance. In accordance with 

§ 679.20(d)(1)(iii), the Regional 

Administrator finds that this directed 

fishing allowance has been reached. 

Consequently, NMFS is prohibiting 

directed fishing for pollock by AFA 

trawl catcher vessels participating in the 

inshore open access fishery in the 

Bering Sea subarea. 

After the effective date of this closure 

the maximum retainable amounts at 

§ 679.20(e) and (f) apply at any time 

during a trip. 

Classification 

This action responds to the best 

available information recently obtained 

from the fishery. The Assistant 

Administrator for Fisheries, NOAA, 

(AA), finds good cause to waive the 

requirement to provide prior notice and 

opportunity for public comment 


cprice-sewell on DSK2BSOYB1PROD with RULES