7228 Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 32 / Thursday, February 18, 2010 / Proposed Rules 

Dated: February 12, 2010. 

Emily H. Menashes, 

Acting Director, Office of Sustainable 

Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2010–3150 Filed 2–17–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–S 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

50 CFR Part 679 

RIN 0648–AX89 

Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic 

Zone Off Alaska; Chinook Salmon 

Bycatch Management Measures for 

Groundfish of the Bering Sea and 

Aleutian Islands Management Area; 

Amendment 91 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice of availability of fishery 

management plan amendment; request 

for comments. 

SUMMARY: The North Pacific Fishery 

Management Council submitted 

Amendment 91 to the Fishery 

Management Plan for Groundfish of the 

Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands 

Management Area (FMP) to NMFS for 

review. If approved, Amendment 91 

would be a novel approach to managing 

Chinook salmon bycatch in the Bering 

Sea pollock fishery that combines a 

limit on the amount of Chinook salmon 

that may be caught incidentally with an 

incentive plan agreement and 

performance standard designed to 

minimize bycatch to the extent 

practicable in all years and prevent 

bycatch from reaching the limit in most 

years. This action is necessary to 

minimize Chinook salmon bycatch in 

the Bering Sea pollock fishery to the 

extent practicable while maximizing the 

potential for the full harvest of the 

pollock total allowable catch within 

specified prohibited species catch 

limits. Amendment 91 is intended to 

promote the goals and objectives of the 

Magnuson-Stevens Fishery 

Conservation and Management Act, the 

FMP, and other applicable laws. 

DATES: Comments on the amendment 

must be received on or before April 19, 

2010. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, 

identified by RIN 0648–AX89, by any 

one of the following methods: 

• Electronic Submissions: Submit all 

electronic public comments via the 

Federal eRulemaking Portal http:// 

www.regulations.gov. 

• Fax: (907) 586–7557, Attn: Ellen 

Sebastian 

• Mail: P.O. Box 21668, Juneau, AK 

99802. 

• Hand delivery to the Federal 

Building: 709 West 9th Street, Room 

420A, Juneau, AK. 

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. 

Electronic copies of Amendment 91, 

the Final Environmental Impact 

Statement (EIS), the Final Regulatory 

Impact Review (RIR), and the Initial 

Regulatory Flexibility Analysis (IRFA) 

prepared for this action may be obtained 

from the Alaska Region website at 

http://alaskafisheries.noaa.gov/regs/ 

summary.htm. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Gretchen Harrington or Seanbob Kelly, 

907–586–7228. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

Magnuson-Stevens Fishery 

Conservation and Management Act 

(Magnuson-Stevens Act) requires that 

each regional fishery management 

council submit any fishery management 

plan or fishery management plan 

amendment it prepares to NMFS for 

review and approval, disapproval, or 

partial approval by the Secretary of 

Commerce. The Magnuson-Stevens Act 

also requires that NMFS, upon receiving 

a fishery management plan amendment, 

immediately publish a notice in the 

Federal Register announcing that the 

amendment is available for public 

review and comment. 

This document announces that 

proposed Amendment 91 to the Fishery 

Management Plan for Groundfish of the 

Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands 

Management Area (FMP) is available for 

public review and comment. The 

groundfish fisheries in the exclusive 

economic zone of the Bering Sea and 

Aleutian Islands Management Areas are 

managed under the FMP. The FMP was 

prepared by the North Pacific Fishery 

Management Council (Council) under 

the authority of the Magnuson-Stevens 

Act, 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq. 

The Bering Sea (BS) pollock fishery is 

managed under the American Fisheries 

Act (AFA) (16 U.S.C. 1851 note) enacted 

by Congress in October 1998. The AFA 

identifies vessels and processors eligible 

to participate in the directed pollock 

fishery and allocates pollock among the 

Community Development Quota (CDQ) 

Program, the catcher/processor sector, 

the mothership sector, and the inshore 

sector. 

The BS pollock fishery is the largest 

single species fishery, by volume, in the 

United States. The first wholesale gross 

value of this fishery was over $1.4 

billion in 2008. Pollock is harvested 

with fishing vessels using trawl gear 

during two seasons: the A season 

(January 20 to June 10) and the B season 

(June 10 to November 1). Chinook 

salmon and pollock occur in the same 

locations in the BS. Consequently, 

Chinook salmon are accidentally caught 

in the nets as fishermen target pollock. 

The BS pollock fishery catches up to 

95 percent of the Chinook salmon taken 

incidentally as bycatch in the Bering 

Sea and Aleutian Islands groundfish 

fisheries. From 1992 through 2001, the 

average Chinook salmon bycatch in the 

BS pollock fishery was 32,482 Chinook 

salmon. This average increased 

substantially from 2002 to 2007, to 

74,067 Chinook salmon. A historic high 

of approximately 122,000 Chinook 

salmon were taken in the BS pollock 

fishery in 2007. However, Chinook 

salmon bycatch has declined in recent 

years to 20,493 Chinook salmon in 2008 

and 12,410 Chinook salmon through 

October 31, 2009, the end of the 2009 

fishing year for pollock. 

Chinook salmon is a culturally and 

economically valuable species, which is 

fully allocated and, in some cases, 

facing conservation concerns. Estimates 

vary, but more than half of the Chinook 

salmon bycatch in the BS pollock 

fishery may be destined for river 

systems in western Alaska. In general, 

western Alaska Chinook salmon stocks 

declined sharply in 2007 and remained 

low in 2008 and 2009. Consequently, 

the in-river harvest of western Alaska 

Chinook salmon has been severely 

restricted and, in some cases, river 

systems have not met escapement goals. 

Chinook salmon is a prohibited 

species in the BS pollock fishery and is 

closely regulated. Over the past fifteen 

years, the Council and NMFS 

implemented several management 

measures to limit Chinook salmon 

bycatch in the BSAI trawl fisheries. In 

1995, the Council adopted and NMFS 

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Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 32 / Thursday, February 18, 2010 / Proposed Rules 7229 

approved, Amendment 21b to the FMP. 

Amendment 21b established annual 

prohibited species catch (PSC) limits for 

Chinook salmon and specific seasonal 

no-trawling zones in the Chinook 

salmon savings area that would be 

triggered when the limits were reached 

(60 FR 31215; November 29, 1995). In 

2000, the Council and NMFS 

implemented Amendment 58 to the 

FMP which reduced the Chinook 

salmon savings area closure limit, 

redefined the Chinook salmon savings 

area as two non-contiguous areas of the 

BSAI, and established new closure 

periods (65 FR 60587; October 12, 

2000). 

The Council adopted Amendment 84 

in October 2005, to address increases in 

Chinook and non-Chinook salmon 

bycatch that were occurring despite PSC 

limits that triggered closure of the 

Chinook and chum salmon savings 

areas. Amendment 84 established the 

salmon bycatch intercooperative 

agreement (ICA) which allows vessels 

participating in the directed fisheries for 

pollock in the BS to utilize their internal 

cooperative structure to reduce Chinook 

and non-Chinook salmon bycatch using 

a method called the ’’voluntary rolling 

hotspot system’’(VRHS). The VRHS 

provides real-time salmon bycatch 

information in time for the fleet to avoid 

areas of high Chinook or non-Chinook 

salmon bycatch rates. Regulations 

implementing Amendment 84 were 

approved in 2007 (72 FR 61070; October 

29, 2007) and a salmon bycatch 

reduction ICA using the VRHS was 

approved by NMFS in January 2008. 

Although the management measures 

implemented under Amendment 84 

provided the pollock fleet with tools to 

reduce salmon bycatch, these measures 

contained no effective limit on the 

amount of salmon bycatch that could 

occur in the BS pollock fishery. 

Therefore, the Council further evaluated 

measures to limit both Chinook and 

non-Chinook salmon bycatch. 

In April 2009, the Council adopted 

Amendment 91 and recommended that 

NMFS develop regulations to 

implement that action. Amendment 91 

would be a novel approach to managing 

Chinook salmon bycatch in the Bering 

Sea pollock fishery that combines a 

limit on the amount of Chinook salmon 

that may be caught incidentally with an 

incentive plan agreement and 

performance standard designed to 

minimize bycatch to the extent 

practicable in all years and prevent 

bycatch from reaching the limit in most 

years. The Council is currently 

considering a separate action to modify 

the non-Chinook salmon management 

measures to minimize non-Chinook 

salmon bycatch. 

In developing Amendment 91, the 

Council recognized that the number of 

Chinook salmon caught as bycatch in 

the BS pollock fishery is highly variable 

from year to year, from sector to sector, 

and even from vessel to vessel. Current 

information about Chinook salmon is 

insufficient to determine the reasons for 

high or low encounters of Chinook 

salmon in the pollock fishery or the 

degree to which encounter rates are 

related to Chinook salmon abundance or 

other conditions. The uncertainty and 

variability in Chinook salmon bycatch 

led the Council to create a program with 

a combination of management measures 

that together achieve its objective to 

minimize bycatch in all years while 

providing the fleet the flexibility to 

harvest the pollock total allowable catch 

(TAC). 

Under Amendment 91, the PSC limit 

would be 60,000 Chinook salmon if 

some or all of the pollock industry 

participates in an industry-developed 

contractual arrangement, called an 

incentive plan agreement (IPA), that 

establishes an incentive program to 

minimize bycatch at all levels of 

Chinook salmon abundance. 

Participation in an IPA would be 

voluntary; however, any vessel or CDQ 

group that chooses not to participate in 

an IPA would be subject to a restrictive 

opt-out allocation (also called a 

backstop cap). 

To ensure participants develop 

effective IPAs, participants would 

demonstrate to the Council through 

performance and annual reports that the 

IPA is accomplishing the Council’s 

intent that each vessel does its best to 

avoid Chinook salmon at all times while 

fishing for pollock and that collectively, 

bycatch is minimized in each year. The 

Council believed that the addition of an 

IPA that could impose rewards for 

avoiding Chinook salmon bycatch, 

penalties for failure to avoid Chinook 

salmon bycatch at the vessel level, or 

both, would warrant setting the PSC 

limit at 60,000 Chinook salmon. The 

Council recognized that while the IPA 

should minimize bycatch in all years to 

a level far below the limit, a limit of 

60,000 Chinook salmon would provide 

the industry the flexibility to harvest the 

pollock TAC in high encounter years 

when bycatch was extremely difficult to 

avoid. 

A 47,591 Chinook salmon PSC limit 

would apply fleet-wide if industry does 

not form any IPAs. This PSC limit of 

47,591 Chinook salmon is the 

approximate 10–year average Chinook 

salmon bycatch from 1997 to 2006. The 

Council determined that the 47,591 PSC 

limit was an appropriate limit on 

Chinook salmon bycatch in the BS 

pollock fishery if no other incentives 

were operating to minimize bycatch 

below this level. 

Both PSC limits would be divided 

between the A and B seasons and 

allocated to AFA sectors, cooperatives, 

and CDQ groups as transferable PSC 

allocations. Transferability is expected 

to mitigate the variation in the 

encounter rates of salmon bycatch 

among sectors, CDQ groups, and 

cooperatives in a given season by 

allowing eligible participants to obtain a 

larger portion of the PSC allocation in 

order to harvest their pollock allocation 

or to transfer surplus allocation to other 

entities. When a transferable PSC 

allocation is reached, the affected sector, 

inshore cooperative, or CDQ group 

would have to stop fishing for pollock 

for the remainder of the season even if 

its pollock allocation had not been fully 

harvested. 

The sector-level performance standard 

is an additional tool to ensure that the 

IPA is effective and that sectors do not 

fully harvest the Chinook salmon PSC 

allocations under the 60,000 Chinook 

salmon PSC limit in most years. For a 

sector to continue to receive Chinook 

salmon PSC allocations under the 

60,000 Chinook salmon PSC limit, that 

sector may not exceed its annual 

threshold amount in any 3 years within 

7 consecutive years. If a sector fails this 

performance standard, it will 

permanently be allocated a portion of 

the 47,591 Chinook salmon PSC limit. 

The Council believed that the risk of 

bearing the potential economic impacts 

of a reduction from the 60,000 PSC limit 

to the 47,591 PSC limit would create 

incentives for fishery participants to 

cooperate in an effective IPA. 

In selecting the appropriate Chinook 

salmon bycatch management program, 

the Council considered a wide range of 

alternatives to assess the impacts of 

minimizing Chinook salmon bycatch to 

the extent practicable while maximizing 

the potential for the full harvest of the 

pollock TAC within the PSC limit. In 

selecting these PSC limits, the Council 

considered the trade-offs between the 

potential Chinook salmon saved and the 

forgone pollock catch. The EIS, RIR, and 

IRFA contain a complete description of 

the alternatives and a comparative 

analysis of the potential impacts of the 

alternatives (see ADDRESSES). 

Public comments are being solicited 

on proposed Amendment 91 to the BSAI 

FMP through the end of the comment 

period (see DATES). NMFS intends to 

publish in the Federal Register and seek 

public comment on a proposed rule that 

would implement Amendment 91, 

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7230 Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 32 / Thursday, February 18, 2010 / Proposed Rules 

following NMFS’s evaluation of the 

proposed rule under the MagnusonStevens Act. The requirements 

governing the transfer and use of the 

proposed Chinook salmon PSC 

allocations, IPA application process, 

annual reporting requirements, and 

other aspects of Amendment 91 will be 

specified in the proposed rule 

implementing this action. 

Public comments on the proposed 

rule must be received by the end of the 

comment period on Amendment 91 to 

be considered in the approval/ 

disapproval decision on Amendment 

91. All comments received by the end 

of the comment period on Amendment 

91, whether specifically directed to the 

FMP amendment or the proposed rule, 

will be considered in the FMP 

amendment 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 

the close of business on the last day of 

the comment period. 

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

Dated: February 12, 2010. 

Emily H. Menashes, 

Acting Director, Office of Sustainable 

Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2010–3115 Filed 2–17–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE S 

WReier-Aviles on DSKGBLS3C1PROD with PROPOSALS