69076 Federal Register / Vol. 71, No. 229 / Wednesday, November 29, 2006 / Rules and Regulations 

A. In paragraph (g)(1), remove 

‘‘paragraph (g)(2)’’ the last time it 

appears and add ‘‘paragraph (g)(3)’’, and 

remove ‘‘paragraphs (g)(3) and (5) of this 

section’’ and add ‘‘paragraphs (g)(3) and 

(g)(4)(ii) of this section.’’

B. In paragraph (h)(3)(vi), remove 

‘‘paragraph (h)(2) of this section’’ and 

add ‘‘paragraph (h)(5) of this section.’’

C. In paragraph (h)(7)(ii), remove ‘‘

paragraph (h)(3) of this section;’’ and 

add ‘‘paragraph (h)(6) of this section;’’

D. In paragraph (i)(5), remove 

‘‘paragraph (i)(3) of this section,’’ and 

add ‘‘paragraphs (i)(1) through (3) of this 

section,’’

[FR Doc. E6–20248 Filed 11–28–06; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–S 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

50 CFR Part 660 

[Docket No. 051014263–6028–03; I.D. 

112106B] 

Fisheries Off West Coast States; 

Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery; 

Specifications and Management 

Measures; Inseason Adjustments 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Inseason adjustments to 

groundfish management measures; 

request for comments. 

SUMMARY: NMFS announces changes to 

management measures in the 

commercial and recreational Pacific 

Coast groundfish fisheries. These 

actions, which are authorized by the 

Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery 

Management Plan (FMP), are intended 

to allow fisheries to access more 

abundant groundfish stocks while 

protecting overfished and depleted 

stocks. 

DATES: Effective 0001 hours (local time) 

December 1, 2006. Comments on this 

rule will be accepted through December 

29, 2006. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, 

identified by I.D. 112106B, by any of the 

following methods: 

• E-mail: 

GroundfishInseason11.nwr@noaa.gov. 

Include I.D. 112106B in the subject line 

of the message. 

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: 

www.regulations.gov. Follow the 

instructions for submitting comments. 

• Mail: D. Robert Lohn, Administrator, 

Northwest Region, NMFS, Attn: 

Gretchen Arentzen, 7600 Sand Point 

Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115–0070. 

• Fax: 206–526–6736, Attn: Gretchen 

Arentzen. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Gretchen Arentzen (Northwest Region, 

NMFS), phone: 206–526–6140; fax: 206–

526–6736; or e-mail: 

gretchen.arentzen@noaa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Electronic Access 

This Federal Register document is 

available on the Government Printing 

Office’s website at: www.gpoaccess.gov/ 

fr/index.html. 

Background information and 

documents are available at the Pacific 

Fishery Management Council’s (Pacific 

Council’s) website at: www.pcouncil.org. 

Background 

The Pacific Coast Groundfish FMP 

and its implementing regulations at 

Title 50 in the Code of Federal 

Regulations (CFR), part 660, subpart G, 

regulate fishing for over 80 species of 

groundfish off the coasts of Washington, 

Oregon, and California. Groundfish 

specifications and management 

measures are developed by the Pacific 

Council, and are implemented by 

NMFS. The specifications and 

management measures for 2005–2006 

were codified in the CFR (50 CFR part 

660, subpart G). They were published in 

the Federal Register as a proposed rule 

on September 21, 2004 (69 FR 56550), 

and as a final rule on December 23, 2004 

(69 FR 77012). The final rule was 

subsequently amended on March 18, 

2005 (70 FR 13118); March 30, 2005 (70 

FR 16145); April 19, 2005 (70 FR 

20304); May 3, 2005 (70 FR 22808); May 

4, 2005 (70 FR 23040); May 5, 2005 (70 

FR 23804); May 16, 2005 (70 FR 25789); 

May 19, 2005 (70 FR 28852); July 5, 

2005 (70 FR 38596); August 22, 2005 (70 

FR 48897); August 31, 2005 (70 FR 

51682); October 5, 2005 (70 FR 58066); 

October 20, 2005 (70 FR 61063); October 

24, 2005 (70 FR 61393); November 1, 

2005 (70 FR 65861); and December 5, 

2005 (70 FR 723850). Longer-term 

changes to the 2006 specifications and 

management measures were published 

in the Federal Register as a proposed 

rule on December 19, 2005 (70 FR 

75115) and as a final rule on February 

17, 2006 (71 FR 8489). The final rule 

was subsequently amended on March 

27, 2006 (71 FR 10545), April 11, 2006 

(71 FR 18227), April 26, 2006 (71 FR 

24601), May 11, 2006 (71 FR 27408), 

May 22, 2006 (71 FR 29257), June 1, 

2006 (71 FR 31104), July 3, 2006 (71 FR 

37839), August 7, 2006 (71 FR 44590), 

August 22, 2006 (71 FR 48824), October 

2, (71 FR 57889), October 3, 2006 (71 FR 

58289), October 10, 2006 (71 FR 59505), 

and November 16, 2006 (71 FR 66693). 

The changes to current groundfish 

management measures implemented by 

this action were recommended by the 

Pacific Council, in consultation with 

Pacific Coast Treaty Indian Tribes and 

the States of Washington, Oregon, and 

California, at its November 12–17, 2006, 

meeting in Del Mar, CA. At that 

meeting, the Pacific Council 

recommended: (1) requesting industry 

to take voluntary action to reduce 

petrale sole catches if catch rates appear 

too high in December; (2) decreasing the 

limited entry fixed gear and open access 

daily-trip-limit (DTL) fishery for 

sablefish south of 36° N. lat. beginning 

December 1; and (3) prohibiting 

retention of cabezon in the recreational 

fishery in federal waters off Oregon. 

Limited Entry Trawl Petrale Sole 

Fishery 

The 2006 estimated total catch of 

petrale sole is approaching its 2006 

ABC/OY. The best available information 

as of November 11, 2006 estimates 

petrale sole catch to be 2,174 mt out of 

an ABC/OY of 2,762, meaning that there 

are approximately 588 mt remaining for 

the November-December fishing period 

(Period 6). There is little recent data to 

inform catch projections for Period 6 

since the Period 6 petrale fishery has 

largely been closed in the last several 

years. Based on 2006 fishery 

information, however, NMFS believes 

that ongoing fisheries will not exceed 

the ABC/OY for several reasons: (1) 

anecdotal information indicates that 

petrale sole have not yet migrated to 

open petrale fishing areas; (2) winter 

weather is expected to remain poor in 

the near future, which should dampen 

fishing effort; (3) the Dungeness crab 

fishery is expected to open in December 

along much of the coast and many trawl 

vessels are expected to switch their 

focus to that more lucrative fishery 

when it opens; and (4) the Period 6 

trawl fishery has a cumulative petrale 

sole limit in place for 2006 to control 

catch levels; when petrale sole was 

available in prior Period 6 fishing 

periods, there were not limits for this 

species. In spite of these issues, it is 

important to consider that: overfishing 

on petrale sole occurred last year; the 

fleet is capable of catching in excess of 

1,000 mt of petrale sole during a single 

period (as it did in the winter of 2005); 

and there is little data to inform this 

year’s Period 6 projections. 

The Pacific Council considered 

several options available to control the 

catch of this species through the end of 

the year in the event that catch rates 


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appear higher than a rate that would 

achieve 588 mt. These options included: 

(1) closing the petrale fishing areas in 

December; (2) using an inseason trigger 

mechanism to close the petrale sole 

fishing areas; and (3) soliciting 

voluntary action on the part of industry 

to reduce petrale sole catches. 

The Council believed that either 

closing the petrale areas in December or 

implementing a trigger mechanism 

could be counter-productive, because, if 

fishers did not want to voluntarily 

forego the fishing opportunities, either 

measure would likely induce a race to 

fish before NMFS could implement a 

regulatory change. NMFS has asked 

industry to voluntarily reduce catches of 

petrale sole once before, in the summer 

of 2005, which resulted in an immediate 

30–percent reduction of the petrale sole 

catch rate. The GMT believes that the 

risk of exceeding the ABC/OY without 

a regulatory action is low. However, if 

the catch rate appears too high, 

voluntary action on the part of industry 

is expected to be sufficient to keep 

catches within the ABC/OY. At the 

November 2006 Council meeting, 

several fish processors present pledged 

to reduce their petrale purchases for the 

November-December 2006 period, if 

necessary. 

Therefore, the Pacific Council 

recommended and NMFS concurs that 

no regulatory action will be taken at this 

time, however NMFS will continue to 

monitor petrale catch closely and 

request industry to take voluntary action 

if catch rates appear too high. 

Limited Entry Fixed Gear & Open 

Access Daily Trip Limit (DTL) Fishery 

for Sablefish South of 36≥ N. lat. 

Beginning on October 1, 2006, the 

Pacific Council recommended and 

NMFS implemented a closure of the 

open access sablefish DTL fishery north 

of 36° N. lat. and increased the open 

access sablefish DTL fishery trip limits 

south of 36° N. lat. from ‘‘350 lb per day, 

or 1 landing per week of up to 1,050 lb’’

to ‘‘500 lb per day, or 1 landing per 

week of up to 1,050 lb.’’ Catch rates for 

sablefish south of 36° N. lat. increased 

substantially after this trip limit 

increase, and industry has asserted that 

sablefish landings have been in excess 

of 3 mt per day in Morro Bay alone. The 

best available data as of November 11, 

2006 estimates catch in this area to be 

145 mt out of an OY of 271 mt. If 

current catch rates continue through the 

end of the year, it is likely the sablefish 

OY could be exceeded in this area. The 

Pacific Council considered ways to 

control the catch of sablefish and 

believes a combination of a daily trip 

limit reduction and the introduction of 

a monthly catch limit is the best 

approach to slowing the catch rate of 

sablefish in this area. 

Therefore, the Pacific Council 

recommended and NMFS is 

implementing a decrease in the limited 

entry fixed gear and open access 

sablefish DTL fishery trip limits, and an 

introduction of a monthly catch limit, 

south of 36° N. lat. beginning December 

1 from ‘‘500 lb per day, or 1 landing per 

week of up to 1,050 lb.’’ to ‘‘300 lb per 

day, or 1 landing per week of up to 

1,050 lb not to exceed 3,000 lb per 1 

month.’’

Oregon Recreational Fishery 

In the Oregon recreational groundfish 

fishery, the Oregon Department of Fish 

and Wildlife (ODFW) manages cabezon, 

which is harvested primarily in state 

waters, under a state harvest limit. 

Oregon recreational catch estimates 

through July and projections from 

historical temporal catch patterns 

indicate that the Oregon state harvest 

limit for cabezon, which was 15.9 mt, 

has been reached. State harvest limits 

apply to landings by recreational ocean 

boats and do not include shore catch 

and discards. Effective September 22, 

2006, Oregon prohibited cabezon 

retention in the recreational ocean and 

estuary boat fisheries. Shore fisheries, 

including shore-based diving, angling 

and spear fishing, were not affected by 

this closure. The most recent landings 

update, which includes data through 

September 3, 2006, confirmed that the 

management measure was appropriate; 

cabezon landings were 14.9 mt, or 94 

percent of the harvest limit. 

Therefore, in order to conform 

recreational management measures for 

Federal waters (3–200 nm) to 

management measures for Oregon state 

waters (0–3 nm), the Pacific Council 

recommended and NMFS is 

implementing a prohibition on the 

retention of cabezon by boat anglers in 

federal recreational regulations off 

Oregon. 

Classification 

These actions are taken under the 

authority of 50 CFR 660.370(c)and are 

exempt from review under Executive 

Order 12866. 

These actions are authorized by the 

Pacific Coast groundfish FMP and its 

implementing regulations, and are based 

on the most recent data available. The 

aggregate data upon which these actions 

are based are available for public 

inspection at the Office of the 

Administrator, Northwest Region, 

NMFS, (see ADDRESSES) during business 

hours. 

Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B), there 

is good cause to waive prior notice and 

an opportunity for public comment on 

this action, as notice and comment 

would be impracticable. The data upon 

which these recommendations were 

based was provided to the Pacific 

Council, and the Pacific Council made 

its recommendations at its November 

12–17, 2006, meeting in Del Mar, CA. 

There was not sufficient time after that 

meeting to draft this notice and undergo 

proposed and final rulemaking before 

these actions need to be in effect. For 

the actions to be implemented in this 

notice, prior notice and opportunity for 

comment would be impracticable 

because affording the time necessary for 

prior notice and opportunity for public 

comment would impede the Agency’s 

function of managing fisheries using the 

best available science to approach 

without exceeding the OYs for federally 

managed species. The adjustments to 

management measures in this document 

affect commercial and recreational 

groundfish fisheries. Changes to the 

limited entry fixed gear and open access 

sablefish DTL fishery south of 36° N. lat. 

must be implemented in a timely 

manner by December 1, 2006, to keep 

harvest of sablefish within the OY for 

this area. Changes to the recreational 

fishery must be implemented by 

December 1, 2006, in order to conform 

to existing state regulations and to keep 

recreational harvest within state harvest 

limits. Delaying any of these changes 

would keep management measures in 

place that are not based on the best 

available data, which could risk 

fisheries exceeding their OYs or harvest 

guideline. This would impair managing 

fisheries to stay within the OYs and 

harvest guidelines for the year. 

For these reasons, good cause also 

exists to waive the 30 day delay in 

effectiveness requirement under 5 

U.S.C. 553 (d)(3). 

List of Subjects in 50 CFR Part 660 

Fisheries, Fishing, Indian fisheries. 

Dated: November 24, 2006. 

Lee Benaka, 

Acting Director, Office of Sustainable 

Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service. 

■ For the reasons set out in the 

preamble, 50 CFR part 660 is amended 

as follows: 

PART 660—FISHERIES OFF WEST 

COAST STATES 

■ 1. The authority citation for part 660 

continues to read as follows: 

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

■ 2. In § 660.384, paragraph (c)(2)(iii) is 

revised to read as follows: 


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69078 Federal Register / Vol. 71, No. 229 / Wednesday, November 29, 2006 / Rules and Regulations 

§ 660.384 Recreational fishery 

management measures. 

* * * * * 

(c) * * * 

(2) * * * 

(iii) Bag limits, size limits. The bag 

limits for each person engaged in 

recreational fishing in the EEZ seaward 

of Oregon are two lingcod per day, 

which may be no smaller than 24 in (61 

cm) total length; and 6 marine fish per 

day, which excludes Pacific halibut, 

salmonids, tuna, perch species, 

sturgeon, sanddabs, lingcod, striped 

bass, hybrid bass, offshore pelagic 

species and baitfish (herring, smelt, 

anchovies and sardines), but which 

includes rockfish, greenling, cabezon 

and other groundfish species. In the 

Pacific halibut fisheries, retention of 

groundfish is governed in part by 

annual management measures for 

Pacific halibut fisheries, which are 

published in the Federal Register. 

Between the Oregon border with 

Washington and Cape Falcon, when 

Pacific halibut are onboard the vessel, 

groundfish may not be taken and 

retained, possessed or landed, except 

sablefish and Pacific cod. Between Cape 

Falcon and Humbug Mountain, during 

days open to the Oregon Central Coast 

‘‘all-depth’’ sport halibut fishery, when 

Pacific halibut are onboard the vessel, 

no groundfish may be taken and 

retained, possessed or landed, except 

sablefish. ‘‘All-depth’’ season days are 

established in the annual management 

measures for Pacific halibut fisheries, 

which are published in the Federal 

Register and are announced on the 

NMFS halibut hotline, 1 800 662 9825. 

The minimum size limit for cabezon 

retained in the recreational fishery is 16 

in (41 cm) and for greenling is 10 in (26 

cm). Taking and retaining canary 

rockfish and yelloweye rockfish is 

prohibited at all times and in all areas. 

From October 1 through December 31, 

2006, taking and retaining vermilion 

rockfish is prohibited in all areas by 

boat anglers. From December 1 through 

December 31, 2006, taking and retaining 

cabezon is prohibited in all areas by 

boat anglers. 

* * * * * 

■ 3. In part 660, subpart G, Table 4 

(South) and Table 5 (South) are revised 

to read as follows: 

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[FR Doc. 06–9451 Filed 11–24–06; 2:07 pm] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–C 


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