7816 Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 29 / Thursday, February 12, 2015 / Proposed Rules 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

50 CFR Part 679 

RIN 0648–XD682 

Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic 

Zone Off Alaska; Small Vessel 

Exemptions; License Limitation 

Program 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notification of availability of 

fishery management plan amendments; 

request for comments. 

SUMMARY: The North Pacific Fishery 

Management Council (Council) has 

submitted to the Secretary of Commerce 

(Secretary) Amendment 108 to the 

Fishery Management Plan for 

Groundfish of the Bering Sea and 

Aleutian Islands Management Area 

(BSAI FMP), Amendment 100 to the 

Fishery Management Plan for 

Groundfish of the Gulf of Alaska (GOA 

FMP), and Amendment 46 to the 

Fishery Management Plan for Bering 

Sea/Aleutian Islands King and Tanner 

Crabs (Crab FMP). If approved, these 

amendments would correct text 

omissions in the BSAI FMP, the GOA 

FMP, and the Crab FMP. These 

amendments would make the fishery 

management plan (FMP) texts that 

establish vessel length limits for small 

vessels exempted from the license 

limitation program (LLP) in the Bering 

Sea and Aleutian Islands Management 

Area (BSAI) groundfish and king and 

Tanner crab fisheries, and the Gulf of 

Alaska (GOA) groundfish fisheries, 

consistent with the original intent of the 

LLP, current operations in the fisheries, 

and Federal regulations. This action 

would promote the goals and objectives 

of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery 

Conservation and Management Act, the 

FMPs, and other applicable laws. 

DATES: Submit comments on 

Amendment 108 to the BSAI FMP, 

Amendment 100 to the GOA FMP, and 

Amendment 46 to the Crab FMP on or 

before April 13, 2015. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments 

on this document, identified by NOAA– 

NMFS–2015–0161, by any of the 

following methods: 

• Electronic Submission: Submit all 

electronic public comments via the 

Federal eRulemaking Portal. Go to 

www.regulations.gov/

#!docketDetail;D=NOAA-NMFS-2015- 

0161, click the ‘‘Comment Now!’’ icon, 

complete the required fields, and enter 

or attach your comments. 

• Mail: Submit written comments to 

Glenn Merrill, Assistant Regional 

Administrator, Sustainable Fisheries 

Division, Alaska Region NMFS, Attn: 

Ellen Sebastian. Mail comments to P.O. 

Box 21668, Juneau, AK 99802–1668. 

Instructions: Comments sent by any 

other method, to any other address or 

individual, or received after the end of 

the comment period, may not be 

considered by NMFS. 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), 

confidential business information, or 

otherwise sensitive information 

submitted voluntarily by the sender will 

be publicly accessible. NMFS will 

accept anonymous comments (enter ‘‘N/ 

A’’ in the required fields, if you wish to 

remain anonymous). 

Electronic copies of Amendment 108 

to the BSAI FMP, Amendment 100 to 

the GOA FMP, Amendment 46 to the 

Crab FMP, and the analysis prepared for 

this action are available from the Alaska 

Region NMFS Web site at http://

www.alaskafisheries.noaa.gov/regs/

summary.htm. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Seanbob Kelly, 907–271–5195. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

Magnuson-Stevens Fishery 

Conservation and Management Act 

(Magnuson-Stevens Act) requires that 

each regional fishery management 

council submit proposed amendments 

to a fishery management plan to the 

Secretary for review and approval, 

disapproval, or partial approval. The 

Magnuson-Stevens Act also requires 

that, upon receiving an FMP 

amendment, the Secretary immediately 

publish in the Federal Register a notice 

that the amendment is available for 

public review and comment. This notice 

announces that proposed Amendment 

108 to the BSAI FMP, Amendment 100 

to the GOA FMP, and Amendment 46 to 

the Crab FMP are available for public 

review and comment. No changes to 

Federal regulations would be necessary 

to implement the proposed 

amendments. 

Amendment 108 to the BSAI FMP, 

Amendment 100 to the GOA FMP, and 

Amendment 46 to the Crab FMP were 

adopted by the Council on December 15, 

2014. If approved by the Secretary, the 

FMP amendments would modify the 

following sections: Amendment 108 

would amend Table ES–2 and Section 

3.3.1 of the BSAI FMP; Amendment 100 

would amend Table ES–2 and Section 

3.3.1 of the GOA FMP; and Amendment 

46 would amend Section 8.1.4.2 of the 

Crab FMP. 

Background 

In 1998, the Secretary implemented 

the LLP to place an upper limit on the 

number of vessels that could be 

deployed in the crab and groundfish 

(other than sablefish) fisheries off 

Alaska. The LLP was originally 

intended to address concerns that the 

harvesting fleet had expanded beyond 

the size necessary to harvest efficiently 

the optimum yield of the fisheries off 

Alaska. The LLP established several 

exemptions to the requirement that a 

vessel be named on an LLP license, 

including an exemption for small 

vessels. The LLP was established by 

Amendment 39 to the BSAI FMP, 

Amendment 41 to the GOA FMP, and 

Amendment 5 to the Crab FMP, which 

were implemented by NMFS on October 

1, 1998 (63 FR 52642). Additional 

information about the LLP can be found 

in the preamble to the proposed rule for 

these amendments (62 FR 43866, 

August 15, 1997). 

The Council and the Secretary 

intended that the LLP would retain the 

vessel length limits that were 

established for the small vessel 

exemption from the vessel moratorium 

program (60 FR 40763; August 10, 1995) 

as an exemption from the LLP; however, 

the vessel length limits for the small 

vessel exemption that were included in 

the FMPs do not mirror the vessel 

moratorium small vessel exemption. 

The current FMP texts do not carry out 

the Council’s and the Secretary’s intent 

that vessels that were exempted from 

the moratorium also would be exempt 

from the LLP and are not consistent 

with the Federal regulations that 

implement the LLP. The FMP text 

authorizing the LLP modified the GOA 

FMP text from ‘‘vessels 26 ft or less 

LOA’’ to ‘‘vessels less than 26 ft LOA,’’ 

modified the Crab FMP text from 

‘‘vessels 32 ft or less LOA’’ to vessels ‘‘< 

32’’’ and modified the BSAI FMP text 

from ‘‘vessels 32 ft or less LOA’’ to 

‘‘vessels less than 32 ft LOA’’. The 

revised FMP texts omit vessels that are 

exactly 26 ft (7.9 m) LOA or 32 ft (9.8 

m) LOA. The omitted text is necessary 

for consistency with Federal regulations 

that exempt from the LLP vessels that 

do ‘‘not exceed 26 ft (7.9 m) LOA’’ in 

the GOA and vessels that do ‘‘not 

exceed 32 ft (9.8 m) LOA’’ in the BSAI; 

the Crab FMP only applies to the BSAI. 

Additional information can be found in 

the analysis prepared for this action 

(See ADDRESSES). 


Rmajette on DSK2VPTVN1PROD with PROPOSALS
Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 29 / Thursday, February 12, 2015 / Proposed Rules 7817 

If approved by the Secretary, 

proposed Amendment 108 to the BSAI 

FMP, proposed Amendment 100 to the 

GOA FMP, and proposed Amendment 

46 to the Crab FMP would correct the 

omissions in each FMP by adding ‘‘or 

equal to’’ to the length limits. 

Specifically, these FMP amendments 

would add vessels 26 ft (7.9 m) LOA in 

the GOA and vessels 32 ft (9.8 m) LOA 

in the BSAI, including BSAI Crab, to the 

LLP exemption. Since the 

implementation of the LLP, fisheries in 

the BSAI and GOA have been conducted 

according to Federal regulations and not 

the FMP texts; therefore, there would be 

no impact to license holders and no 

change to fishing behavior or fisheries 

management in the U.S. Exclusive 

Economic Zone off Alaska if these 

amendments are approved. These 

amendments are necessary to make the 

three FMPs consistent with the original 

intent of the Council and Secretary, 

current operations in the fisheries, and 

Federal regulations. The inconsistencies 

among FMP text, regulatory text, and 

Council and Secretarial intent were not 

identified until August 2014. 

Public comments are being solicited 

on the proposed FMP amendments and 

must be received by the end of the 

comment period (see DATES) on 

Amendment 108 to the BSAI FMP, 

Amendment 100 to the GOA FMP, and 

Amendment 46 to the Crab FMP to be 

considered in the approval/disapproval 

decision on each amendment. All 

comments received by the end of the 

comment period will be considered in 

the approval/disapproval decision on 

the amendments. To be considered, 

comments must be received, not just 

postmarked or otherwise transmitted, by 

the end of the comment period. 

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

Dated: February 6, 2015. 

Samuel D. Rauch III, 

Deputy Assistant Administrator for 

Regulatory Programs, National Marine 

Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2015–02890 Filed 2–11–15; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

50 CFR Part 680 

[Docket No. 130820737–5111–01] 

RIN 0648–BD61 

Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic 

Zone off Alaska; Bering Sea and 

Aleutian Islands Crab Rationalization 

Program; Amendment 45; Pacific Cod 

Sideboard Allocations in the Gulf of 

Alaska 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Proposed rule; request for 

comments. 

SUMMARY: NMFS issues a proposed rule 

that would implement Amendment 45 

to the Fishery Management Plan for 

Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands King and 

Tanner Crabs (Crab FMP). If approved, 

Amendment 45 would establish, for a 

limited period of time, a process for 

NMFS to permanently remove Pacific 

cod catch limits, known as sideboard 

limits, which are applicable to certain 

hook-and-line catcher/processors in the 

Central and Western Gulf of Alaska 

(GOA) Regulatory Areas. This action 

would authorize NMFS to remove these 

Pacific cod sideboard limits in the 

Central and/or Western GOA if all 

eligible participants in the hook-andline catcher/processor sector in a 

regulatory area sign and submit a 

request that NMFS remove the 

sideboard limit. Each eligible 

participant would be required to submit 

the request to NMFS within 1 year of 

the date of publication of a final rule 

implementing Amendment 45, if it is 

approved by the Secretary of Commerce 

(Secretary). This action is necessary to 

provide participants in the Central and 

Western GOA hook-and-line catcher/

processor sectors with an opportunity to 

cooperatively coordinate harvests of 

Pacific cod through private arrangement 

to the participants’ mutual benefit, 

which would remove the need for 

sideboard limits in these regulatory 

areas. This action is intended to 

promote the goals and objectives of the 

Magnuson-Stevens Fishery 

Conservation and Management Act 

(Magnuson-Stevens Act), the Crab FMP, 

and other applicable laws. 

DATES: Submit comments on or before 

March 16, 2015. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, 

identified by NOAA-NMFS-2013-0133, 

by any of the following methods: 

• Electronic Submission: Submit all 

electronic public comments via the 

Federal eRulemaking Portal. Go to 

www.regulations.gov/

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

0133, click the ‘‘Comment Now!’’ icon, 

complete the required fields, and enter 

or attach your comments. 

• Mail: Submit written comments to 

Glenn Merrill, Assistant Regional 

Administrator, Sustainable Fisheries 

Division, Alaska Region NMFS, Attn: 

Ellen Sebastian. Mail comments to P.O. 

Box 21668, Juneau, AK 99802–1668. 

Instructions: Comments sent by any 

other method, to any other address or 

individual, or received after the end of 

the comment period, may not be 

considered by NMFS. 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), 

confidential business information, or 

otherwise sensitive information 

submitted voluntarily by the sender will 

be publicly accessible. NMFS will 

accept anonymous comments (enter ‘‘N/ 

A’’ in the required fields if you wish to 

remain anonymous). Attachments to 

electronic comments will be accepted in 

Microsoft Word, Excel, or Adobe PDF 

file formats only. 

Electronic copies of the following 

documents may be obtained from 

http://www.regulations.gov or from the 

NMFS Alaska Region Web site at http:// 

alaskafisheries.noaa.gov: 

• The Regulatory Impact Review/

Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis 

(RIR/IRFA), and the Categorical 

Exclusion prepared for this action 

(collectively referred to as the 

‘‘Analysis’’); 

• The Harvest Specifications 

Supplemental Information Report (SIR) 

prepared for the final 2014 and 2015 

harvest specifications; 

• The Final Environmental 

Assessment/Final RIR/Initial IRFA for 

Amendment 83 to the Fishery 

Management Plan for Groundfish of the 

Gulf of Alaska (GOA FMP) Allocation of 

Pacific cod Among Sectors in the 

Western and Central GOA; and 

• The Alaska Groundfish Harvest 

Specifications Final Environmental 

Impact Statement (Harvest 

Specifications EIS). 

Written comments regarding the 

burden-hour estimates or other aspects 

of the collection-of-information 

requirements contained in this action 

may be submitted to NMFS at the above 

address and by email to OIRA_


Rmajette on DSK2VPTVN1PROD with PROPOSALS