Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 115 / Thursday, June 14, 2018 / Proposed Rules 27747 

It also may be accessed online via the 

Commission’s Electronic Comment 

Filing System at: http://apps.fcc.gov/ 

ecfs/. The Commission will not send a 

Congressional Review Act (CRA) 

submission to Congress or the 

Government Accountability Office 

pursuant to the CRA, 5 U.S.C. because 

no rules are being adopted by the 

Commission. 

Subject: Connect America Fund, ETC 

Annual Reports and Certifications, 

Establishing Just and Reasonable Rates 

for Local Exchange Carriers, Developing 

a Unified Intercarrier Compensation, 

Report and Order and Third Order on 

Reconsideration, FCC 18–29, published 

at 83 FR 18951, May 1, 2018, in WC 

Docket Nos. 10–90, 14–58, 07–135 and 

CC Docket No. 01–92. This document is 

being published pursuant to 47 CFR 

1.429(e). See also 47 CFR 1.4(b)(1) and 

1.429(f), (g). 

Number of Petitions Filed: 3. 

Federal Communications Commission. 

Katura Jackson, 

Federal Register Liaison Officer, Office of the 

Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2018–12786 Filed 6–13–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6712–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

50 CFR Part 697 

[Docket No. 150401332–7999–01] 

RIN 0648–BF01 

Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative 

Management Act Provisions; American 

Lobster Fishery; Consideration of 

Expanded Harvester and Biological 

Sampling Requirements for American 

Lobster 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Advance notice of proposed 

rulemaking (ANPR); request for 

comments. 

SUMMARY: This notice announces that 

NMFS intends to consider expanded 

harvester reporting requirements for the 

American lobster fishery as 

recommended by the Atlantic States 

Marine Fisheries Commission and is 

soliciting comments. The expanded 

requirements would be intended to 

improve the data available to enhance 

lobster stock assessments, evaluate the 

co-occurrence of fixed-gear fisheries 

with large whales, and estimate the 

economic impacts of offshore energy 

projects and other marine activities on 

the fishing industry. We may combine 

this action with an ongoing rulemaking 

that considers trap caps and ownership 

limits for the lobster fishery. The intent 

is to address the harvester reporting as 

soon as practicable, as recommended by 

the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries 

Commission. 

DATES: We must receive written 

comments on or before July 16, 2018. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments 

on this document, identified by NOAA– 

NMFS–2013–0169 by any of the 

following methods: 

D Electronic Submission: Submit all 

electronic public comments via the 

Federal e-Rulemaking Portal. Go to 

www.regulations.gov/ 

#!docketDetail;D=NOAA-NMFS-2013- 

0169, click the ‘‘Comment Now!’’ icon, 

complete the required fields, and enter 

or attach your comments. 

D Mail: Submit written comments to 

Michael Pentony, Regional 

Administrator, National Marine 

Fisheries Service, 55 Great Republic 

Drive, Gloucester, MA 01930. Mark the 

outside of the envelope, ‘‘Comments on 

Lobster Harvester Reporting.’’ 

Instructions: Comments must be 

submitted by one of the above methods 

to ensure that the comments are 

received, documented, and considered 

by NMFS. We may not consider 

comments sent by any other method, to 

any other address or individual, or 

received after the end of the comment 

period. All comments received are a 

part of the public record and will 

generally be posted for public viewing 

on www.regulations.gov without change. 

All personal identifying information 

(e.g., name, address, etc.) submitted 

voluntarily by the sender will 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). We accept attachments to 

electronic comments only in Microsoft 

Word or Excel, WordPerfect, or Adobe 

PDF file formats. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Peter Burns, Fishery Policy Analyst, 

978–281–9144. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

NMFS works cooperatively with the 

states to conserve the American lobster 

resource within the framework of the 

Atlantic States Marine Fisheries 

Commission’s Interstate Fishery 

Management Plan for American Lobster 

(ISFMP). Through the ISFMP, the 

Commission adopts fishery conservation 

and management strategies for the 

lobster resource and coordinates the 

efforts of the states and NMFS to 

implement these strategies. 

In February 2018, the Commission 

approved Addendum XXVI. The intent 

of Addendum XXVI is to expand lobster 

harvester reporting requirements, 

enhance the spatial and effort data 

collections, and improve the amount 

and type of biological data collected in 

the offshore trap fishery. Given the 

offshore expansion of lobster trap effort 

in recent years, the Commission 

developed this addendum to address 

data gaps due to inconsistent reporting 

and data collection requirements across 

state agencies and imposed in Federal 

waters by NMFS. 

The addendum also serves to 

complement the Commission’s Jonah 

crab management program as 

Addendum III to the Jonah Crab ISFMP. 

NMFS is currently in rulemaking to 

consider adopting management 

measures for the Jonah crab fishery, 

which could include the harvester 

reporting and other data collection 

elements of the addendum. 

Addendum XXVI recommends that 

we require all Federal lobster permit 

holders to submit trip-level catch 

reports. Approximately 60 percent of all 

Federal lobster permit holders are 

currently required to submit a trip-level 

catch report. Federal reporting 

requirements are limited to those 

Federal lobster permit holders who also 

hold another Federal fishery permit 

with a reporting requirement. The new 

addendum also extends the 100-percent 

reporting requirement to the State of 

Maine, which currently requires about 

10 percent of state lobster licensees to 

report their catch. All other lobsterproducing states require all of their 

harvesters to report their catch. The 

Commission requested that we 

implement the mandatory trip-level 

harvester reporting requirement as soon 

as practicable. Consequently, we 

propose to combine the harvester 

reporting action with the ongoing 

actions for Addenda XXI and XXII and 

consolidate them into a single 

rulemaking action. Focused primarily 

on lobster conservation management 

areas (LCMAs) 2 and 3, these two 

addenda recommended modifications to 

the trap transfer program and trap caps 

in these LCMAs. 

Addendum XXVI also recommends 

that we develop a fixed-gear catch 

report with expanded data elements, 

including a requirement for fishermen 

to report their fishing locations down to 

the 10-minute square to provide more 


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27748 Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 115 / Thursday, June 14, 2018 / Proposed Rules 

accurate data on where the fishery is 

taking place. The expanded data 

elements also include reporting the 

number of vertical lines deployed and 

number of traps per trawl to help get a 

better sense of fishing effort and to assist 

in evaluating the interactions between 

the fixed-gear fisheries and large 

whales. Further, the addendum 

recommends that we expand our 

offshore biological sampling program to 

help characterize the commercial catch 

and understand the biological 

characteristics of the stock. We will 

consider the expanded data elements 

and fixed-gear catch report, as well as 

the expanded offshore sampling 

recommendations, in a separate future 

action. We are requesting comments 

from the public on this approach. 

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

5101 et seq. 

Dated: June 11, 2018. 

Donna S. Wieting, 

Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator for 

Regulatory Programs, National Marine 

Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2018–12777 Filed 6–13–18; 8:45 am] 

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