Editorial Note on Part 648
Editorial Note: Nomenclature changes to part 648 appear at 62 FR 14651, Mar. 27, 1997.

§ 648.163 Bluefish Accountability Measures (AMs). ( a ) *ACL overage evaluation.* The ACLs will be evaluated based on a single-year examination of total catch (landings and dead discards). Both landings and dead discards will be evaluated in determining if the ACLs have been exceeded.
( b ) *Commercial sector EEZ closure.* NMFS shall close the EEZ to fishing for bluefish by commercial vessels for the remainder of the calendar year by publishing notification in the Federal Register if the Regional Administrator determines that the inaction of one or more states will cause the ACL specified in § 648.160(a) to be exceeded, or if the commercial fisheries in all states have been closed. NMFS may reopen the EEZ if earlier inaction by a state has been remedied by that state, or if commercial fisheries in one or more states have been reopened without causing the ACL to be exceeded.
( c ) *State commercial landing quotas.* The Regional Administrator will monitor state commercial quotas based on dealer reports and other available information and shall determine the date when a state commercial quota will be harvested. NMFS shall publish notification in the Federal Register advising a state that, effective upon a specific date, its commercial quota has been harvested and notifying vessel and dealer permit holders that no commercial quota is available for landing bluefish in that state. ( 1 ) *Commercial landings overage repayment.* All bluefish landed for sale in a state shall be applied against that state's annual commercial quota, regardless of where the bluefish were harvested. Any overages of the commercial quota landed in any state will be deducted from that state's annual quota for the following year, irrespective of whether the fishery-level ACL is exceeded. If a state has increased or reduced quota through the transfer process described in § 648.162, then any overage will be measured against that state's final adjusted quota.
( 2 ) If there is a quota overage at the end of the fishing year among states involved in the combination of quotas, the overage will be deducted from the following year's quota for each of the states involved in the combined quota, irrespective of whether the fishery-level ACL is exceeded. The deduction will be proportional, based on each state's relative share of the combined quota for the previous year. A transfer of quota or combination of quotas does not alter any state's percentage share of the overall quota specified in § 648.162(d)(1).
( d ) *Recreational landings AM when the recreational ACL is exceeded and no sector-to-sector transfer of allowable landings has occurred.* If the recreational ACL is exceeded and no transfer between the commercial and recreational sector was made for the fishing year, as outlined in § 648.162(b)(2), then the following procedure will be followed: ( 1 ) *If biomass is below the threshold, the stock is under rebuilding, or biological reference points are unknown.* If the most recent estimate of biomass is below the BMSY threshold (*i.e.,* B/BMSY is less than 0.5), the stock is under a rebuilding plan, or the biological reference points (B or BMSY) are unknown, and the recreational ACL has been exceeded, then the exact amount, in pounds, by which the most recent year's recreational catch estimate exceeded the most recent year's recreational ACL will be deducted from the following year's recreational ACT, or as soon as possible thereafter, once catch data are available. This payback may be evenly spread over 2 years if doing so allows for use of identical recreational management measures across the upcoming 2 years.
( 2 ) *If biomass is above the threshold, but below the target, and the stock is not under rebuilding.* If the most recent estimate of biomass is above the biomass threshold (B/BMSY is greater than 0.5), but below the biomass target (B/BMSY is less than 1.0), and the stock is not under a rebuilding plan, then the following AMs will apply: ( i ) *If the recreational ACL has been exceeded.* If the recreational ACL has been exceeded, then adjustments to the recreational management measures, taking into account the performance of the measures and conditions that precipitated the overage, will be made in the following fishing year, or as soon as possible thereafter, once catch data are available, as a single-year adjustment.
( ii ) *If the fishing mortality (F) has exceeded FMSY (or the proxy).* If the most recent estimate of total fishing mortality exceeds FMSY (or the proxy) then an adjustment to the recreational ACT will be made as soon as possible once catch data are available. If an estimate of total fishing mortality for the most recent complete year of catch data is not available, then a comparison of total catch relative to the ABC will be used. ( A ) *Adjustment to Recreational ACT.* If an adjustment to the following year's Recreational ACT is required, then the ACT will be reduced by the exact amount, in pounds, of the product of the recreational ACL overage and the payback coefficient, as specified in paragraph (d)(2)(ii)(B) of this section. This payback may be evenly spread over 2 years if doing so allows for use of identical recreational management measures across the upcoming 2 years.
( B ) *Payback coefficient.* The payback coefficient is the difference between the most recent estimates of BMSY and biomass (*i.e.,* BMSY− B) divided by one-half of BMSY.
( 3 ) *If biomass is above BMSY.* If the most recent estimate of biomass is above BMSY (*i.e.,* B/BMSY is greater than 1.0), then adjustments to the recreational management measures, taking into account the performance of the measures and conditions that precipitated the overage, will be made in the following fishing year, or as soon as possible thereafter, once catch data are available, as a single-year adjustment.
( e ) *AM for when the ACL is exceeded and a sector-to-sector transfer of allowable landings has occurred.* If the fishery-level ACL is exceeded and landings from the recreational fishery and/or the commercial fishery are determined to have caused the overage, and a transfer between the commercial and recreational sector has occurred for the fishing year, as outlined in § 648.162(b)(2), then the amount transferred between the recreational and commercial sectors may be reduced by the ACL overage amount (pound-for-pound repayment) in a subsequent, single fishing year if the Bluefish Monitoring Committee determines that the ACL overage was the result of too liberal a landings transfer between the two sectors. If the Bluefish Monitoring Committee determines that the ACL overage was not the result of the landings transfer, the recreational AMs described in paragraph (d) of this section will be implemented.
( f ) *Non-landing AMs.* In the event that the fishery-level ACL has been exceeded and the overage has not been accommodated through the AM measures in paragraphs (a) through (d) of this section, then the exact amount, in pounds, by which the fishery-level ACL was exceeded shall be deducted, as soon as possible, from subsequent, single fishing year ACTs. The payback will be applied to each sector's ACT in proportion to each sector's contribution to the overage.
( g ) *State/Federal disconnect AM.* If the total catch, allowable landings, commercial quotas, and/or recreational harvest limit measures adopted by the ASMFC Bluefish Management Board and the MAFMC differ for a given fishing year, administrative action will be taken as soon as is practicable to revisit the respective recommendations of the two groups. The intent of this action shall be to achieve alignment through consistent state and Federal measures so no differential effects occur to Federal permit holders.
[76 FR 60640, Sept. 29, 2011, as amended at 78 FR 76765, Dec. 19, 2013; 88 FR 14511, Mar. 9, 2023]