[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 62 (Friday, March 30, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 19230-19231]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-7660]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

RIN 0648-XB133


Western Pacific Fishery Management Council; Public Meetings

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

ACTION: Notice of public meetings.

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SUMMARY: The Western Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) will 
hold meetings of its Joint Marianas and American Samoa Archipelago Plan 
Team (Joint PT) and Hawaii and Pacific Remote Island Area Archipelago 
Plan Team (HI-PRIA PT) to review the status of the nearshore fisheries, 
data collection issues and improvements, improvements in the Annual 
Catch Limit specifications, and developing Cooperative Research 
Priorities.

DATES: The Joint PT meeting will be held on April 16-18, 2012 and the 
HI-PRIA PT on April 19-20, 2012. For specific times and agendas, see 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION.

ADDRESSES: The Joint PT and HI-PRIA PT meetings will be held at the 
Council office, 1164 Bishop Street, Suite 1400, Honolulu, HI 96813; 
telephone: (808) 522-8220.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kitty M. Simonds, Executive Director; 
telephone: (808) 522-8220.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Public comment periods will be provided. The 
order in which agenda items are addressed may change. The meetings will 
run as late as necessary to complete scheduled business.

Schedule and Agenda for the Joint PT Meeting

April 16, 2012--1 p.m.-5 p.m.

    1. Welcome and Introductions.
    2. Approval of the Agenda.
    3. Assignment of Rapporteurs.
    4. Guiding Principles for Development of Effective Fishery 
Monitoring Programs.
    5. Evaluation of data collection programs in the Western Pacific.
    6. Improving fishery data collections and status reporting.
    A. Summary of the Fishery Data Collection Improvement Workshop.
    B. Update on Status of Fishery Data Collection Improvement Actions.
    C. Data collection in military installations in Guam.
    D. Discussion on the fishery characterization based on creel survey 
performance.

April 17, 2012--8:30 a.m.-5 p.m.

    7. Review of the Status of the Western Pacific Insular Fisheries.
A. American Samoa
    i. Coral reef and crustacean fisheries.
    ii. Bottomfish fisheries.
    iii. Precious corals fishery and coral reef habitat status.
    iv. Update on Bio-Sampling Program data summary.
    v. Non-stock related factors affecting Catch Per Unit Effort (CPUE) 
in the coral reef fisheries.
    vi. Estimation of non-commercial landings.
    vii. Administrative and regulatory updates.
    viii. Discussions.
B. Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands
    i. Coral reef fisheries.
    ii. Bottomfish fisheries.
    iii. Crustacean and precious coral fisheries.
    iv. Coral reef habitat status.
    v. Update on Bio-Sampling Program and Spearfishing Market-flow 
project.
    vi. Estimation of non-commercial landings.
    vii. Administrative and regulatory updates.
    viii. Discussions.
C. Guam
    i. Coral reef fisheries.
    ii. Bottomfish fisheries.
    iii. Crustacean fisheries.
    iv. Precious corals fishery and coral reef habitat status.
    v. Update on Bio-Sampling Program Data Summary.
    vi. Estimation of non-commercial landings.
    vii. Administrative and regulatory updates.
    viii. Discussions.
    8. Format and information needs for the Annual Report Modules.
    9. Improving Annual Catch Limit (ACL) specifications.
    A. Surplus production model using biomass, catch, and natural 
mortality estimates.
    B. Use of other data sources (e.g. commercial receipt book, 
BioSampling).
    C. Discussions.

April 18, 2012--8:30 a.m.-5 p.m.

    10. Essential Fish Habitat/Habitat Area of Particular Concern (EFH/
HAPC).
    A. Territory bottomfish, pelagic, and precious corals.
    B. Coral reef ecosystem management unit species.
    C. Coral reef EFH Project.
    11. Status of the territorial bottomfish assessment.
    12. The Council Five-Year Research Priorities.
    13. Development and Review of Cooperative Research Priorities and 
Projects.
    14. Other Business.
    15. Public Comments.
    16. Rapporteur reports.
    17. General discussions and Plan Team recommendations.

Schedule and Agenda for the Hawaii and Pacific Remote Island Area Plan 
Team meeting

April 19, 2012--8:30 a.m.-5 p.m.

    1. Welcome and Introductions.
    2. Approval of the Agenda.
    3. Assignment of Rapporteurs.
    4. Guiding Principles for Development of Effective Fishery 
Monitoring Programs.
    5. Status of Fishery Monitoring Programs and Research Projects.
    A. Coral reef fisheries.
    B. Crustacean fisheries.
    C. Precious coral fisheries and gold coral moratorium.
    i. Status of the black coral surveys.
    D. Bottomfish fisheries.
    i. Main Hawaiian Island Annual Catch Target Monitoring.
    ii. Performance of trip level reporting.
    iii. Status of Cooperative Research Projects.
    iv. Evaluation of effectiveness of Bottomfish Restricted Areas.
    E. Hawaii non-commercial landing estimation.
    F. Administrative and regulatory updates.
    G. Report on reef fish tagging in Palmyra Atoll.

[[Page 19231]]

    H. Discussions.
    6. Improving ACL specifications and stock assessments.
    A. Overview of the ACL process and FY2012 specification.
    B. Report on the Council--NMFS ACL Revisited Workshop.
    C. Surplus production model using biomass, catch, and natural 
mortality estimates.
    D. Length-based estimation of fishing and natural mortality in 
Hawaii coral reef fishes.
    E. Kona crab stock assessment.
    F. Update on the kumu stock assessment.
    G. Use of fish trap CPUE as proxy for estimating stock abundance.
    H. Discussions.

April 20, 2012--8:30 a.m.-5 p.m.

    7. Data collection and reporting issues.
    A. Report on the Non-Commercial Data Workshop.
    B. Report on the Pacific Island Regional Office data contracts.
    C. Report on the Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation boat 
registry survey.
    D. Discussion on potential improvements in the Hawaii data 
collection.
    E. Annual Archipelagic Fishery Ecosystem Reports.
    F. Discussions.
    8. Essential Fish Habitat/Habitat Area of Particular Concern.
    A. Hawaii coral reef EFH project.
    B. Hawaii EFH and HAPC for coral reef, pelagic and precious corals.
    C. Discussions.
    9. Protected species issues.
    A. List of fisheries 2012: Marine Mammal Protection Act issues.
    10. Developing Cooperative Research priorities.
    11. Discussions.
    12. Other Business.
    13. Public Comment.
    14. HI-PRIA PT recommendations.

Special Accommodations

    These meetings are physically accessible to people with 
disabilities. Requests for sign language interpretation or other 
auxiliary aids should be directed to Kitty M. Simonds, (808) 522-8220 
(voice) or (808) 522-8226 (fax), at least 5 days prior to the meeting 
date.

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

    Dated: March 27, 2012.
Tracey L. Thompson,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2012-7660 Filed 3-29-12; 8:45 am]
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