23654 Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 77 / Friday, April 20, 2012 / Proposed Rules 

revise the commercial quota for greater 

amberjack. 

Management Measure Contained in 

This Proposed Rule 

Greater Amberjack Commercial Quota 

The final rule to implement the 

Comprehensive ACL Amendment (77 

FR 15916, March 16, 2012) 

implemented ACLs and AMs for greater 

amberjack. However, as noted above, 

NMFS inadvertently failed to revise the 

commercial quota for greater amberjack. 

Because the commercial quota serves as 

the commercial sector ACL, which acts 

as the trigger for the commercial sector’s 

AM, without the revised commercial 

quota, the commercial sector ACL is 

incomplete. This rule would revise the 

greater amberjack commercial quota to 

accurately reflect the actions within the 

amendment and meet the intent of the 

Council. This rule reduces the current 

commercial sector quota of 1,169,931 lb 

(530,672 kg), gutted weight, to 769,388 

lb (348,989 kg), gutted weight. 

Classification 

Pursuant to section 304(b)(1)(A) of the 

Magnuson-Stevens Act, the NMFS 

Assistant Administrator has determined 

that this proposed rule is consistent 

with the Comprehensive ACL 

Amendment, other provisions of the 

Magnuson-Stevens Act, and other 

applicable law, subject to further 

consideration after public comment. 

This proposed rule has been 

determined to be not significant for 

purposes of Executive Order 12866. 

The Chief Counsel for Regulation of 

the Department of Commerce certified 

to the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the 

Small Business Administration that the 

final rule to implement the 

Comprehensive ACL Amendment 

would not have a significant economic 

impact on a substantial number of small 

entities. The purpose of this proposed 

rule, as described in the preamble, is to 

revise the commercial greater amberjack 

quota that was inadvertently not revised 

in the final rule implementing the 

Comprehensive ACL Amendment (77 

FR 15916, March 16, 2012), consistent 

with the intent of the Council. The 

effects of the commercial quota, 800,163 

lb (362,948 kg), round weight, or 

769,388 lb (348,989 kg), gutted weight, 

were fully described in the 

Comprehensive ACL Amendment. This 

revised commercial quota is 

approximately 400,000 lb (181,437 kg), 

gutted weight, less than the existing 

commercial quota. However, the average 

annual commercial greater amberjack 

harvest for 2005 to 2009 was only 

690,725 lb (313,308 kg), gutted weight, 

which is substantially less than the 

existing commercial quota, and which is 

still less than the quota proposed here. 

Because the new commercial quota 

would be more than the average annual 

commercial greater amberjack harvest, 

the specification of the new quota is not 

expected to have any direct adverse 

economic effects on the commercial 

harvesters of greater amberjack or 

associated industries. These results and 

conclusions were provided in the 

Comprehensive ACL Amendment. The 

Classification section of the proposed 

rule (76 FR 74757, December 1, 2011) 

and the final rule (77 FR 15916, March 

16, 2012) implementing the 

Comprehensive ACL Amendment, 

however, focused on the actions which 

were expected to have direct adverse 

economic effects on small entities. 

Because the revision of the greater 

amberjack commercial quota 

(commercial ACL) is not expected to 

have any direct adverse economic 

effects on small entities, no reference to, 

or discussion of the expected economic 

effects of this revision was included in 

the Classification sections of these two 

rules. 

In summary, this proposed rule, if 

implemented, would simply correct an 

administrative oversight in a previous 

rulemaking. For the reasons above, if 

implemented this rule will not have a 

significant economic impact on a 

substantial number of small entities. 

List of Subjects in 50 CFR Part 622 

Fisheries, Fishing, Puerto Rico, 

Reporting and recordkeeping 

requirements, Virgin Islands. 

Dated: April 17, 2012. 

Alan D. Risenhoover, 

Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator for 

Regulatory Programs, National Marine 

Fisheries Service. 

For the reasons set out in the 

preamble, 50 CFR part 622 is proposed 

to be amended as follows: 

PART 622—FISHERIES OF THE 

CARIBBEAN, GULF, AND SOUTH 

ATLANTIC 

1. The authority citation for part 622 

continues to read as follows: 

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

2. In § 622.42, paragraph (e)(3) is 

revised to read as follows: 

§ 622.42 Quotas. 

* * * * * 

(e) * * * 

(3) Greater amberjack—769,388 lb 

(348,989 kg). 

* * * * * 

[FR Doc. 2012–9600 Filed 4–19–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

50 CFR Part 665 

[Docket No. 110909578–1582–01] 

RIN 0648–BB45 

Western Pacific Pelagic Fisheries; 

Modification of American Samoa Large 

Vessel Prohibited Area 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Proposed rule; request for 

comments. 

SUMMARY: NMFS proposes to modify 

certain boundaries of the large fishing 

vessel prohibited area around Tutuila, 

the Manua Islands, and Rose Atoll in 

American Samoa to align with the 

boundaries of the Rose Atoll Marine 

National Monument. The proposed 

action would simplify enforcement and 

administration of the management area. 

DATES: NMFS must receive comments 

on the proposed rule by May 11, 2012. 

ADDRESSES: You may send comments on 

the proposed rule, identified by NOAA– 

NMFS–2011–0226, to either of the 

following addresses: 

• Electronic Submission: Submit all 

electronic public comments via the 

Federal e-Rulemaking Portal 

www.regulations.gov; or 

• Mail: Michael D. Tosatto, Regional 

Administrator, NMFS, Pacific Islands 

Region (PIR), 1601 Kapiolani Blvd., 

Suite 1110, Honolulu, HI 96814–4700. 

Instructions: You must send any 

comments to one of the above two 

addresses to ensure that NMFS receives, 

documents, and considers the 

comments. Comments sent to any other 

address or individual, or received after 

the end of the comment period, may not 

be considered. All comments received 

are a part of the public record and 

NMFS will generally post them to 

www.regulations.gov without change. 

All personal identifying information 

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

voluntarily by the commenter may be 

publicly accessible. Do not submit 

confidential business information, or 

otherwise sensitive or protected 

information. NMFS will accept 


tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with PROPOSALS
Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 77 / Friday, April 20, 2012 / Proposed Rules 23655 

anonymous comments (enter ‘‘N/A’’ in 

the required name and organization 

fields if you wish to remain 

anonymous). Attachments to electronic 

comments will be accepted in Microsoft 

Word or Excel, WordPerfect, or Adobe 

PDF file formats only. 

The Western Pacific Fishery 

Management Council (Council) 

prepared a regulatory amendment, 

including an environmental assessment 

and regulatory impact review, that 

provides background information on 

this proposed rule. The regulatory 

amendment is available from 

www.regulations.gov or the Council, 

1164 Bishop St., Suite 1400, Honolulu, 

HI 96813, tel 808–522–8220, fax 808– 

522–8226, www.wpcouncil.org. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Adam Bailey, Sustainable Fisheries, 

NMFS PIR, 808–944–2248. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

Council and NMFS manage offshore 

fisheries around American Samoa under 

the Fishery Ecosystem Plan for Pelagic 

Fisheries of the Western Pacific. A mix 

of small troll and longline vessels and 

larger longline and purse seine vessels 

target tunas and related fish in the U.S. 

Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) around 

the islands. A decade ago, small vessels 

known as alias dominated the fisheries. 

The alia use trolling or longline gear to 

target skipjack and yellowfin tuna and 

albacore for the fresh fish market and for 

canning in Pago Pago. More recently, 

larger vessels have made up most of the 

longline fishery. The large longliners 

also target albacore for canning, and 

they catch substantial quantities of 

yellowfin and skipjack tuna. In 

addition, U.S. purse seiners have 

occasionally fished around American 

Samoa to supply skipjack and yellowfin 

tuna for canning. 

The mixture of small and large vessels 

operating in the same area for the same 

fish prompted concerns over the 

potential for gear conflicts and catch 

competition among the various fishing 

groups. Concerned that potential 

competition and conflicts could lead to 

reduced opportunities for sustained 

participation in the fisheries by smaller 

vessels, the Council recommended 

prohibiting large vessels from fishing in 

two areas of the EEZ around American 

Samoa. In 2002, NMFS implemented 

these ‘‘large vessel prohibited areas,’’ or 

LVPA, one around Swain’s Island and 

one around Tutuila, the Manua Islands, 

and Rose Atoll (67 FR 4369, January 30, 

2002). The two areas prohibit fishing 

from vessels 50 ft in length overall or 

longer, and appear to have prevented 

conflicts between small and large 

vessels. 

In 2009, Presidential Proclamation 

8337 created the Rose Atoll Marine 

National Monument (74 FR 1577, 

January 12, 2009). The monument 

comprises Rose Atoll and surrounding 

waters to a distance approximately 50 

nm around the atoll. The Proclamation 

prohibits commercial fishing in 

monument waters. 

The monument and the LVPA around 

Tutuila, the Manua Islands, and Rose 

Atoll overlap, but the boundaries do not 

align. The Council is concerned that the 

non-alignment of the boundaries may 

confuse operators of large fishing 

vessels and reduce compliance with the 

fishing prohibitions in each area. To 

simplify administration and 

enforcement of the two areas, the 

Council recommended adjusting certain 

boundaries of the LVPA. 

The boundaries of the existing LVPA 

are described in Title 50, Code of 

Federal Regulations, Part 806, by 

straight lines connecting the following 

coordinates: 

Point S. lat. W. long. 

AS–1–A ............. 13°30′ 167°25′ 

AS–1–B ............. 15°13′ 167°25′ 

and from Point AS–1–A westward along the 

latitude 13°30′ S. until intersecting the U.S. 

EEZ boundary with Samoa, and from Point 

AS–1–B westward along the latitude 

15°13′ S. until intersecting the U.S. EEZ 

boundary with Samoa. 

The corners of the Rose Atoll 

monument are marked by the following 

coordinates: 

Point S. lat. W. long. 

1 ........................ 13°41′54′′ 169°00′2′′ 

2 ........................ 13°41′54′′ 167°17′0′′ 

3 ........................ 15°23′10′′ 167°17′0′′ 

Point S. lat. W. long. 

4 ........................ 15°23′10′′ 169°00′42′′ 

This proposed rule would do the 

following: 

(a) Move the existing northernmost 

LVPA boundary southward to align with 

the northern boundary of the 

monument, 

(b) Move the eastern LVPA boundary 

eastward to align with the eastern 

boundary of the monument, and 

(c) Move a portion of the southern 

LVPA boundary southward to align with 

the southern boundary of the 

monument. 

The western and most of the southern 

boundaries of the existing LVPA would 

remain unchanged. The resulting 

proposed LVPA would be described by 

straight lines connecting the following 

coordinates (see Fig. 1): 

Point S. lat. W. long. 

AS–1–A ............. 13°41′54′′ 167°17′ 

AS–1–B ............. 15°23′10′′ 167°17′ 

AS–1–C ............. 15°23′10′′ 169°00′42′′ 

AS–1–D ............. 15°13′ 169°00′42′′ 

and from point AS–1–A westward along latitude 13°41′54′′ S. until intersecting the 

U.S. EEZ boundary with Samoa, and from 

point AS–1–D westward along latitude 

15°13′ S. until intersecting the U.S. EEZ 

boundary with Samoa. 

This proposed rule aligns the 

northern, eastern, and southern 

boundaries of the monument with those 

of the LVPA, reducing the area of the 

LVPA by 326 nm2. In other words, 

under this rule the portion of the EEZ 

around American Samoa where large 

vessels may fish would increase by 0.3 

percent. The Council and NMFS do not 

believe that this modest change in the 

size of the LVPA will significantly affect 

fishing operations or result in potential 

environmental impacts, including social 

impacts, or impacts on target and nontarget fish, or protected resources and 

their habitats. 

NMFS must receive any public 

comments on this proposed rule by the 

close of business on May 11, 2012, and 

will not consider late comments. 


tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with PROPOSALS
23656 Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 77 / Friday, April 20, 2012 / Proposed Rules 

Classification 

Pursuant to section 304(b)(1)(A) of the 

Magnuson-Stevens Act, the NMFS 

Assistant Administrator has determined 

that this proposed rule is consistent 

with the Pelagics FEP, other provisions 

of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, and other 

applicable laws, subject to further 

consideration after public comment. 

This proposed rule has been 

determined to be not significant for 

purposes of Executive Order 12866. 

The Chief Council for Regulation of 

the Department of Commerce certified 

to the Chief Council for Advocacy of the 

Small Business Administration that this 

proposed rule, if adopted, would not 

have a significant economic impact on 

a substantial number of small entities. 

The analysis follows: 

‘‘The large vessel prohibited areas 

(LVPA) were created to separate 

activities of large vessel fishing 

activities from those of smaller vessels. 

The LVPA were implemented in 2002 

under the Fishery Management Plan for 

Pelagic Fisheries of the Western Pacific 

Region. Subsequent Presidential 

Proclamation 8337 (74 FR 1577; January 

12, 2009) established the Rose Atoll 

Marine National Monument (MNM). 

The Proclamation established the Rose 

Atoll MNM and banned all commercial 

fishing from the monument. 

The proposed action would modify 

the boundaries of the LVPA around 

Tutuila Island, the Manua Islands, and 

Rose Atoll to align with those of the 

Rose Atoll MNM. The proposed action 

would move the northern boundary of 

the LVPA toward shore, while 

extending the eastern boundary and a 

portion of the southern boundary farther 

from shore to encompass the MNM. 

This would expand the area in which 

large vessels are allowed to fish by 326 

nm2, an increase of 0.3 percent in the 

area where large vessels are allowed to 

fish in the EEZ around American 

Samoa. 

The proposed action would directly 

affect operators of vessels 50 feet in 

length overall and longer, i.e., American 

Samoa–based longline vessels with 

Class C and D permits and all purse 

seine vessels. All Class C and D longline 

vessels that were active in 2009 and 

2010 are assumed to be small entities for 

the purposes of this analysis, because 

they have revenues below $4.0 million 

(see SBA size regulations at 13 CFR Part 

121.201), while most purse seine vessels 


tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with PROPOSALSEP20AP12.002</GPH>
Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 77 / Friday, April 20, 2012 / Proposed Rules 23657 

are not small entities. Based on limited 

financial information available on the 

purse seine fleet, NMFS believes that up 

to a quarter of purse seine vessels 

operating in 2009 were owned by small 

entities (74 FR 26160; June 1, 2009). 

However, when considering that the 

proposed action represents only minor 

adjustments to the boundaries, and that 

it would result in only a very small 

increase in the overall available fishing 

area for large vessels, the proposed 

action is not expected to have a 

significant economic impact on a 

substantial number of small entities. In 

addition, by aligning boundaries of two 

areas where fishing is prohibited for 

these vessels, compliance with fishing 

prohibitions in both of these areas 

would be enhanced. 

Other options that met the objectives 

of the proposed action were considered, 

including the no action alternative and 

two action alternatives. The two action 

alternatives would also have re-defined 

the boundaries of the prohibited area to 

encompass the monument, but would 

have increased the LVPA by 3,560 nm2

or 1,339 nm2, respectively. The Council 

rejected these alternatives in favor of the 

preferred alternative, because it 

achieved the goal of addressing the 

mismatch of the LVPA and monument 

boundaries and was the only one of the 

three action alternatives that would not 

further decrease the remaining area in 

which large vessels, such as longline 

and purse seine vessels could fish.’’ 

As a result, an initial regulatory 

flexibility analysis is not required and 

none has been prepared. 

List of Subjects in 50 CFR Part 665 

Administrative practice and 

procedure, American Samoa, Fishing, 

Longline, Marine national monuments, 

Prohibited area management, Purse 

seine, Rose Atoll. 

Dated: April 17, 2012. 

Samuel D. Rauch III, 

Acting Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, 

National Marine Fisheries Service. 

For the reasons set out in the 

preamble, 50 CFR chapter VI is 

proposed to be amended as follows: 

PART 665—FISHERIES IN THE 

WESTERN PACIFIC 

1. The authority citation for part 665 

continues to read as follows: 

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

2. In § 665.806, (b)(1) revise the 

paragraph and table to read as follows: 

§ 665.806 Prohibited area management. 

* * * * * 

(b) * * * 

(1) Tutuila Island, Manua Islands, 

and Rose Atoll (AS–1). The large vessel 

prohibited area around Tutuila Island, 

the Manua Islands, and Rose Atoll 

consists of the waters of the EEZ around 

American Samoa enclosed by straight 

lines connecting the following 

coordinates: 

Point S. lat. W. long. 

AS–1–A ............. 13°41′54′′ 167°17′ 

AS–1–B ............. 15°23′10′′ 167°17′ 

AS–1–C ............. 15°23′10′′ 169°00′42′′ 

AS–1–D ............. 15°13′ 169°00′42′′ 

and from point AS–1–A westward along latitude 13°41′54′′ S. until intersecting the 

U.S. EEZ boundary with Samoa, and from 

point AS–1–D westward along latitude 

15°13′ S. until intersecting the U.S. EEZ 

boundary with Samoa. 

* * * * * 

[FR Doc. 2012–9599 Filed 4–19–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 


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