34 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 1 / Tuesday, January 2, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

50 CFR Part 648 

[Docket No. 221223–0282; RTID 0648– 

XD616] 

Fisheries of the Northeastern United 

States; Summer Flounder Fishery; 

Quota Transfer From NC to NY 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Temporary rule; quota transfer. 

SUMMARY: NMFS announces that the 

State of North Carolina is transferring a 

portion of its 2023 commercial summer 

flounder quota to the State of New York. 

This adjustment to the 2023 fishing year 

quota is necessary to comply with the 

Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea 

Bass Fishery Management Plan (FMP) 

quota transfer provisions. This 

announcement informs the public of the 

revised 2023 commercial quotas for 

North Carolina and New York. 

DATES: Effective December 28, 2023, 

through December 31, 2023. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Laura Deighan, Fishery Management 

Specialist, (978) 281–9184. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Regulations governing the summer 

flounder fishery are found in 50 CFR 

648.100 through 648.111. These 

regulations require annual specification 

of a commercial quota that is 

apportioned among the coastal states 

from Maine through North Carolina. The 

process to set the annual commercial 

quota and the percent allocated to each 

state is described in § 648.102 and final 

2023 allocations were published on 

January 3, 2023 (88 FR 11). 

The final rule implementing 

Amendment 5 to the Summer Flounder 

FMP, as published in the Federal 

Register on December 17, 1993 (58 FR 

65936), provided a mechanism for 

transferring summer flounder 

commercial quota from one state to 

another. Two or more states, under 

mutual agreement and with the 

concurrence of the NMFS Greater 

Atlantic Regional Administrator, can 

transfer or combine summer flounder 

commercial quota under § 648.102(c)(2). 

The Regional Administrator is required 

to consider three criteria in the 

evaluation of requests for quota transfers 

or combinations: (1) the transfer or 

combinations would not preclude the 

overall annual quota from being fully 

harvested; (2) the transfer addresses an 

unforeseen variation or contingency in 

the fishery; and (3) the transfer is 

consistent with the objectives of the 

FMP and the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery 

Conservation and Management Act 

(Magnuson-Stevens Act). The Regional 

Administrator has determined these 

three criteria have been met for the 

transfer approved in this notification. 

North Carolina is transferring 100,000 

pounds (lb; 43,359 kilograms (kg)) to 

New York through a mutual agreement 

between the states. This transfer was 

requested to ensure New York would 

not exceed its 2023 quota. The revised 

summer flounder quotas for 2023 are 

North Carolina, 3,031,074 lb (1,374,872 

kg), and New York, 1,537,768 lb 

(697,520 kg). 

Classification 

NMFS issues this action pursuant to 

section 305(d) of the Magnuson-Stevens 

Act. This action is required by 50 CFR 

648.102(c)(2)(i) through (iv), which was 

issued pursuant to section 304(b), and is 

exempted from review under Executive 

Order 12866. 

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

Dated: December 28, 2023. 

Jon William Bell, 

Acting Director, Office of Sustainable 

Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2023–28892 Filed 12–28–23; 4:15 pm] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

50 CFR Part 648 

[Docket No. 231221–0314; RTID 0648– 

XD357] 

Fisheries of the Northeastern United 

States; Atlantic Bluefish Fishery; 2024 

and Projected 2025 Bluefish 

Specifications 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Final action. 

SUMMARY: NMFS issues final Atlantic 

bluefish specifications for the 2024 

fishing year and projects specifications 

for fishing year 2025, as recommended 

by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery 

Management Council. This action is 

necessary to establish allowable harvest 

levels for the stock to prevent 

overfishing and promote rebuilding, 

using the best scientific information 

available. This action also informs the 

public of the expected specifications for 

fishing year 2025. 

DATES: Effective January 1 2024. 

ADDRESSES: The Mid-Atlantic Fishery 

Management Council prepared an 

environmental assessment (EA) for these 

specifications that describes the action, 

other considered alternatives, and 

analyses of the impacts of all 

alternatives. Copies of the specifications 

document, including the EA, are 

available on request from Dr. 

Christopher M. Moore, Executive 

Director, Mid-Atlantic Fishery 

Management Council, Suite 201, 800 

North State Street, Dover, DE 19901. 

These documents are also accessible via 

the internet at https://www.mafmc.org/ 

supporting-documents. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Laura Hansen, Fishery Management 

Specialist, (978) 281–9225. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

The Mid-Atlantic Fishery 

Management Council (Council) and the 

Atlantic States Marine Fisheries 

Commission (Commission) jointly 

manage the Atlantic Bluefish Fishery 

Management Plan (FMP). The FMP 

requires the specification of annual 

regulatory limits for up to 3 years at a 

time, including: acceptable biological 

catch (ABC), commercial and 

recreational annual catch limits (ACL), 

commercial and recreational annual 

catch targets (ACT), a commercial quota, 

a recreational harvest limit (RHL), and 

other management measures. This 

action implements bluefish 

specifications for the 2024 fishing year, 

and projects specifications for 2025, 

based on Council and Commission 

recommendations. 

Recent research track (December 

2022) and management track (June 

2023) assessments for bluefish have 

determined that the stock is no longer 

overfished and overfishing is not 

occurring. However, the spawning stock 

biomass has not yet reached its target 

(i.e., the stock has not fully rebuilt), so 

the fishery remains under its rebuilding 

plan. These specifications decrease the 

2024 ABC by 43 percent from 2023, 

based on recommendations from the 

Council’s Scientific and Statistical 

Committee (SSC), results from these 

assessments, and the rebuilding plan for 

the stock. No uncertainty buffers were 

recommended for either the commercial 

or recreational sector in 2024 or 2025, 

but commercial discards are now 

included in the specifications process 

and are no longer considered negligible. 

Although the stock is no longer 

overfished, and therefore transferring 


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Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 1 / Tuesday, January 2, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 35 

quota between the recreational and 

commercial sectors is no longer 

prohibited by governing regulations, no 

sector quota transfer is included in the 

2024 specifications because the fishery 

is still under a rebuilding plan. The 

resulting 2024 specifications decrease 

the commercial quota by 43 percent 

from 2023 and the RHL by 15 percent 

from the 2023 specifications. No 

changes were recommended to 

recreational management measures (i.e., 

bag limits), as the average recreational 

harvest under these limits (11.54 

million pounds (lb); 5,234 metric tons 

(mt)) remains just below the RHL for 

2024 (11.96 million lb; 5,425 mt). Status 

quo recreational measures are also 

intended to promote continued stability 

and consistency in the fishery while 

minimizing the risk of overfishing in the 

recreational sector. 

The proposed rule for this action was 

published in the Federal Register on 

November 16, 2023 (88 FR 78715), and 

comments were accepted through 

December 1, 2023. NMFS received two 

comments from the public, and no 

changes are made in this final action 

because of those comments (see 

Comments and Responses for additional 

detail). Additional background 

information regarding the development 

of these specifications was provided in 

the proposed rule and is not repeated 

here. 

Final Specifications 

This action implements the Council 

and Commission’s recommended 2024 

and projected 2025 bluefish catch 

specifications, as outlined in the 

proposed rule (table 1). These final 

specifications decrease all catch limits 

in 2024 based on best available 

information from the recent assessments 

and the rebuilding plan, but project 

increases to all limits in 2025. As 

previously mentioned, this action makes 

no changes to recreational management 

measures (such as bag limits), as the 

expected recreational landings under 

the existing measures are likely to 

achieve the 2024 RHL without 

exceeding it. 

TABLE 1—COMPARISON OF 2023, FINAL 2024, AND PROJECTED 2025 BLUEFISH SPECIFICATIONS * 

2023 2024 2025 (projected) 

Million lb Metric tons Million lb Metric tons Million lb Metric tons 

Overfishing Limit ............................................................................................... 45.17 20,490 25.87 11,734 27.49 12,467 

ABC = Fishery ACL .......................................................................................... 30.62 13,890 17.48 7,929 21.83 9,903 

Commercial ACL = Commercial ACT ............................................................... 4.29 1,945 2.45 1,110 3.06 1,386 

Recreational ACL = Recreational ACT ............................................................. 26.34 11,945 15.03 6,819 18.78 8,517 

Commercial Discards ........................................................................................ 0 0 0.02 11 0.02 11 

Recreational Accountability Measures .............................................................. 5.59 2,536 0 0 0 0 

Recreational Discards ....................................................................................... 6.64 3,012 3.08 1,396 3.08 1,396 

Commercial Total Allowable Landings (TAL) ................................................... 4.29 1,945 2.42 1,099 3.03 1,375 

Recreational TAL .............................................................................................. 14.11 6,400 11.96 5,423 15.70 7,121 

Sector Transfer ................................................................................................. 0 0 0 0 0 0 

Commercial Quota ............................................................................................ 4.29 1,945 2.42 1,099 3.03 1,375 

RHL ................................................................................................................... 14.11 6,400 11.96 5,423 15.70 7,121 

* Specifications are derived from the ABC in metric tons (mt). When values are converted to millions of pounds the numbers may shift due to rounding. The conversion factor used is 1 mt = 2204.6226 lb. 

The final coastwide commercial quota 

is allocated among the coastal states 

from Maine to Florida based on percent 

shares specified in the FMP, and the 

phased-in changes to these share 

allocations specified in Amendment 7 to 

the FMP (86 FR 66977, November 24, 

2021). The final 2024 and projected 

2025 state-allocated commercial quotas 

are shown below in table 2. No states 

exceeded their allocated quota in 2022 

or are projected to do so in 2023; 

therefore, no accountability measures 

for the commercial fishery are required 

for the 2024 fishing year based on the 

data available at this time. 

TABLE 2—2024 AND PROJECTED 2025 BLUEFISH STATE COMMERCIAL QUOTA ALLOCATIONS

State 

2024 2025 (projected) 

Percent 

share 

Quota 

(lb) 

Quota 

(kg) 

Percent 

share 

Quota 

(lb) 

Quota 

(kg) 

Maine ......................................................................................... 0.43 10,388 4,712 0.35 10,575 4,797 

New Hampshire ......................................................................... 0.33 7,975 3,618 0.30 9,116 4,135 

Massachusetts .......................................................................... 8.17 198,025 89,823 8.66 262,473 119,056

Rhode Island ............................................................................. 8.01 194,025 88,008 8.41 254,876 115,610 

Connecticut ............................................................................... 1.19 28,821 13,073 1.16 35,284 16,004

New York ................................................................................... 14.40 348,947 158,280 15.74 477,171 216,441 

New Jersey ............................................................................... 14.40 348,898 158,258 14.26 432,316 196,095 

Delaware ................................................................................... 1.29 31,139 14,124 1.09 32,966 14,953 

Maryland .................................................................................... 2.54 61,471 27,883 2.38 72,213 32,755 

Virginia ...................................................................................... 9.30 225,380 102,231 8.44 255,939 116,092 

North Carolina ........................................................................... 32.05 776,452 352,193 32.04 971,305 440,577 

South Carolina .......................................................................... 0.06 1,561 708 0.07 2,248 1,020 

Georgia ...................................................................................... 0.05 1,194 541 0.06 1,895 860 

Florida ....................................................................................... 7.80 188,899 85,683 7.04 213,469 96,828 

Total ................................................................................... 100 2,422,880 1,099,000 100 3,031,356 1,375,000 

Although catch limits are decreasing, 

neither the recreational nor the 

commercial sector of the fishery is 

expected to be substantially impacted 

by this action. Harvest in both sectors 

has been decreasing in recent years. 

Coastwide commercial landings have 

not exceeded 2.2 million lb (998 mt) in 

the last 3 years, and recreational harvest 


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36 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 1 / Tuesday, January 2, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 

averaged 11.54 million lb (5,234 mt), 

both lower than the new 2024 limits. 

The 2025 specifications are projected 

based on the new assessment data and 

the fourth year of the rebuilding plan 

model. The Council will review the 

projected 2025 specifications in light of 

any new information to determine if 

changes are needed prior to their 

implementation. NMFS will publish a 

notice prior to the 2025 fishing year to 

confirm these limits as projected or 

announce any necessary changes. 

Comments and Responses 

The public comment period for the 

proposed rule ended on December 1, 

2023, and NMFS received two 

comments from the public. No changes 

were made to this final action as a result 

of these comments. The first comment 

asked that NMFS raise the recreational 

bag limit for for-hire vessels from five 

fish per person to six or seven fish per 

person. The commenter explained that 

the perception of a possible higher catch 

is important to attract and maintain 

business, but that most customers are 

unlikely to take home more than four or 

five fish anyway, so the requested 

increase would have little impact on the 

bluefish population. Based on recent 

recreational data, the expected 

recreational landings under the current 

bag limit for for-hire vessels of five fish 

per person are likely to come very close 

to the 2024 RHL. Any liberalization in 

the bag limit would substantially 

increase the risk of a recreational 

overage, and the Council did not find a 

compelling reason to make changes to 

existing measures at this time. 

The next commenter supported the 

catch limit reductions in 2024, as they 

and their colleagues have personally 

seen fewer bluefish available for 

recreational fishing recently. They also 

questioned the projected increases in 

2025, but trust the expert opinions of 

the scientists involved. NMFS agrees 

that the proposed reductions are 

necessary to prevent overfishing and 

promote continued rebuilding based on 

the 2023 assessment and best available 

science. The 2025 specifications will 

also be reviewed before their 

publication to ensure the fishery can 

support the projected future increases. 

Changes From the Proposed Rule 

There are no substantive changes from 

the proposed rule. 

Classification 

Pursuant to section 304(b)(3) of the 

Magnuson Stevens Fishery Conservation 

and Management Act (MagnusonStevens Act), the Assistant 

Administrator for Fisheries, NOAA, has 

determined that these final 

specifications are necessary for the 

conservation and management of the 

Atlantic bluefish fishery, and that they 

are consistent with the Atlantic Bluefish 

FMP, the Magnuson-Stevens Act, and 

other applicable law. 

The Assistant Administrator for 

Fisheries, NOAA, finds good cause 

under 5 U.S.C. 553(d)(3) to waive the 

30-day delay in effective date for this 

action to ensure that the final 

specifications are in place as close as 

practicable to the start of the bluefish 

fishing year on January 1, 2024. This 

action establishes the final 

specifications (i.e., catch limits) for the 

2024 bluefish fishery. The need to 

implement these measures in a timely 

manner to ensure that these final 

specifications are in place for the start 

of the 2024 bluefish fishing year 

constitutes good cause to waive the 30- 

day delay in effective date of this action. 

This action is being issued at the 

earliest possible date. To ensure that the 

action is based on the best available 

science and in compliance with the 

National Environmental Policy Act, the 

rulemaking process is dependent on the 

EA which is prepared by the Council. 

The proposed rule was prepared in 

October 2023 upon receipt of the EA 

from the Council, and published in 

November 2023 once proper reviews 

could be completed. The public 

comment period ended on December 1, 

2023, and this final action was written 

and reviewed as quickly as possible 

with the intent to publish in time to be 

effective for the January 1 start of the 

fishing year. 

Furthermore, regulated parties do not 

require any additional time to come into 

compliance with this action, and thus, 

a 30-day delay before it becomes 

effective does not provide any benefit. 

Unlike actions that require an 

adjustment period, vessels fishing for 

bluefish will not have to purchase new 

equipment or otherwise expend time or 

money to comply with these 

management measures. Rather, 

complying with this final action simply 

means adhering to the new catch limits 

set for the 2024 fishing year. Fishery 

stakeholders have also been involved in 

the development of this action and are 

anticipating this action. 

Finally, a 30-day delay in 

effectiveness would postpone 

implementation of these catch limits 

well beyond the start of this fishing 

year, which is contrary to the public 

interest as it could create confusion in 

the bluefish industry around current 

state quotas. The longer these 

specifications are delayed, the longer it 

will take for some state agencies to 

implement respective regulations and 

annual management measures, which 

causes further industry confusion, and 

tension with state partners. A delay in 

effectiveness could also compromise the 

efficacy of the new, lower limits to 

promote the growth and rebuilding of 

the stock, by limiting the time they are 

in place during fishing year 2024. 

For these reasons, NMFS finds that a 

30-day delay in effectiveness would be 

contrary to the public interest, and, 

therefore, waives the requirement 

consistent with 5 U.S.C. 553(d)(3). As a 

result, there is good cause to implement 

this action upon filing in the Federal 

Register. 

This final action is exempt from 

review under 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 during 

the proposed rule stage that this action 

would not have a significant economic 

impact on a substantial number of small 

entities. The factual basis for the 

certification was published in the 

proposed rule and is not repeated here. 

No comments were received regarding 

this certification and the initial 

certification remains unchanged. As a 

result, a final regulatory flexibility 

analysis is not required and none was 

prepared. 

This action would not establish any 

new reporting or record-keeping 

requirements. 

This final action does not duplicate, 

conflict, or overlap with any existing 

Federal rules. 

This action contains no information 

collection requirements under the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. 

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

Dated: December 26, 2023. 

Samuel D. Rauch, III, 

Deputy Assistant Administrator for 

Regulatory Programs, National Marine 

Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2023–28792 Filed 12–29–23; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 


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