```
[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 187 (Friday, September 26, 1997)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 50525-50526]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-25625]

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 648

[Docket No. 961210346-7035-02; I.D. 092297B]

Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Summer Flounder 
Fishery; Commercial Quota Harvested for New Jersey

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.

ACTION: Commercial quota harvest.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: NMFS announces that the summer flounder commercial quota 
available to the State of New Jersey has been harvested. Vessels issued 
a commercial Federal fisheries permit for the summer flounder fishery 
may not land summer flounder in New Jersey for the remainder of 
calendar year 1997, unless additional quota becomes available through a 
transfer. Regulations governing the summer flounder fishery require 
publication of this notice to advise the State of New Jersey that the 
quota has been harvested and to advise vessel and dealer permit holders 
that no commercial quota is available for landing summer flounder in 
New Jersey.

DATES: Effective 0001 hours September 24, 1997, through December 31, 
1997.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dana Hartley, Fishery Management 
Specialist, 978-281-9226.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Regulations governing the summer flounder 
fishery are found at 50 CFR part 648. The regulations require annual 
specification of a commercial quota that is apportioned among the 
states from North Carolina through Maine. The process to set the annual 
commercial quota and the percentage allocated to each state are 
described in Sec. 648.100.
    The initial total commercial quota for summer flounder for the 1997 
calendar year was set equal to 11,111,298 lb (5,040,000 kg) (March 7, 
1997, 62 FR 10473). The percentage allocated to vessels landing summer 
flounder in New Jersey is 16.72499 percent, or 1,858,363 lb (842,939 
kg) for 1997.
    Section 648.100(d)(2) stipulates that any overages of commercial 
quota landed in any state be deducted from that state's annual quota 
for the following year. In the calendar year 1996, a total of 2,369,134 
lb (1,074,621 kg) were landed in New Jersey. The amount allocated for 
New Jersey landings in 1996 was 1,858,363 lb

[[Page 50526]]

(842,939 kg), creating a 510,771 lb (231,682 kg) overage that was 
deducted from the amount allocated for landings in that State during 
1997 (July 15, 1997, 62 FR 37741). The resulting 1997 quota for New 
Jersey is 1,347,592 lb (611,257 kg).
    Section 648.101(b) requires the Administrator, Northeast Region, 
NMFS (Regional Administrator), to monitor state commercial quotas and 
to determine when a state's commercial quota is harvested. The Regional 
Administrator is further required to publish a notice in the Federal 
Register advising a state and notifying Federal vessel and dealer 
permit holders that, effective upon a specific date, the state's 
commercial quota has been harvested and no commercial quota is 
available for landing summer flounder in that state. Because the 
available information indicates that the State of New Jersey has 
attained its quota for 1997, the Regional Administrator has determined 
based on dealer reports and other available information, that the 
State's commercial quota has been harvested.
    The regulations at Sec. 648.4(b) provide that Federal permit 
holders agree as a condition of the permit not to land summer flounder 
in any state that the Regional Administrator has determined no longer 
has commercial quota available. Therefore, effective 0001 hours 
September 24, 1997, further landings of summer flounder in New Jersey 
by vessels holding commercial Federal fisheries permits are prohibited 
for the remainder of the 1997 calendar year, unless additional quota 
becomes available through a transfer and is announced in the Federal 
Register. Effective on September 24, 1997, federally permitted dealers 
are also advised that they may not purchase summer flounder from 
federally permitted vessels that land in New Jersey for the remainder 
of the calendar year, or until additional quota becomes available 
through a transfer.

Classification

    This action is required by 50 CFR part 648 and is exempt from 
review under E.O. 12286.

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

    Dated: September 22, 1997.
Bruce C. Morehead,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 97-25625 Filed 9-24-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-F
```