Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 5 / Friday, January 7, 2022 / Rules and Regulations 887 

ACTION: Temporary rule; correction. 

SUMMARY: NMFS corrects the temporary 

rule that published in the Federal 

Register on January 3, 2022, which 

announced the incorrect effective date 

of January 3, 2022, for the closure of the 

Atlantic southern zone to commercial 

harvest of Spanish mackerel. The 

correct effective date for the closure is 

January 5, 2022. NMFS identified 

several errors with references to 

incorrect dates, so the purpose of this 

correction is to fix those errors. 

DATES: This correction to the temporary 

rule is effective on January 5, 2022. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Mary Vara, NMFS Southeast Regional 

Office, telephone: 727–824–5305, or 

email: mary.vara@noaa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Corrections 

In the Federal Register of January 3, 

2022, in FR Doc. 2021–28442, make the 

following corrections: 

1. On page 53, in the first and second 

columns, correct the second and third 

sentences of the SUMMARY caption to 

read: ‘‘NMFS has determined that the 

commercial quota for Spanish mackerel 

in the Atlantic southern zone will be 

reached by January 5, 2022. Therefore, 

NMFS closes the Atlantic southern zone 

to commercial harvest of Spanish 

mackerel on January 5, 2022.’’ 

2. On page 53, in the second column, 

correct the DATES caption to read: ‘‘This 

temporary rule is effective from 6 a.m. 

eastern time on January 5, 2022, until 

12:01 a.m. eastern time on March 1, 

2022.’’ 

3. On page 53, in the third column, 

correct the last two sentences which 

begin at the eighth line of the paragraph 

carrying over from the second to the 

third column of the SUPPLEMENTARY

INFORMATION caption to read: ‘‘NMFS 

has determined that the commercial 

quota for Atlantic Spanish mackerel in 

the southern zone will be reached by 

January 5, 2022. Accordingly, the 

commercial sector for Atlantic Spanish 

mackerel in the southern zone is closed 

effective at 6 a.m. eastern time on 

January 5, 2022, through February 28, 

2022, the end of the current fishing 

year.’’ 

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

Dated: January 4, 2022. 

Ngagne Jafnar Gueye, 

Acting Director, Office of Sustainable 

Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2022–00124 Filed 1–4–22; 4:15 pm] 

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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

50 CFR Part 648 

[Docket No. 220103–0001; RTID 0648– 

XX077] 

Fisheries of the Northeastern United 

States; Atlantic Herring Fishery; 

Adjustments to 2022 Specifications 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Temporary final rule; 

adjustment of specifications. 

SUMMARY: In accordance with the 

regulations implementing the Atlantic 

Herring Fishery Management Plan, this 

action adjusts the 2022 harvest 

specifications for the herring fishery. 

Specifically, it adjusts catch limits in 

the four herring management areas 

(Areas 1A, 1B, 2, and 3) to account for 

catch overages and underages in those 

areas during 2020. This action is 

necessary to help prevent overfishing 

ensure and support the harvest of 

optimum yield consistent with the 

requirements of the Atlantic Herring 

Fishery Management Plan. 

DATES: Effective January 4, 2022, 

through December 31, 2022. 

ADDRESSES: Copies of supporting 

documents, including Framework 8 to 

Atlantic Herring Fishery Management 

Plan (FMP), are available from the 

Sustainable Fisheries Division, Greater 

Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office, 55 

Great Republic Drive, Gloucester, MA 

01930, telephone (978) 281–9315, or 

online at: https://www.nefmc.org and 

https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/ 

atlantic-herring#management. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Carrie Nordeen, Fishery Policy Analyst, 

978–281–9272. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

The Atlantic herring harvest in the 

United States is managed under the 

Atlantic Herring FMP developed by the 

New England Fishery Management 

Council and approved by NMFS. The 

FMP divides the herring annual catch 

limit (ACL) among three management 

areas, one of which has two sub-areas. 

It divides Area 1 (located in the Gulf of 

Maine (GOM)) into an inshore section 

(Area 1A) and an offshore section (Area 

1B). Area 2 is located in the coastal 

waters between Massachusetts and 

North Carolina, and Area 3 is on 

Georges Bank (GB). The FMP considers 

the herring stock complex to be a single 

stock, but there are inshore (GOM) and 

offshore (GB) stock components. The 

GOM and GB stock components 

segregate during spawning and mix 

during feeding and migration. Each 

management area has its own sub-ACL 

to allow greater control of the fishing 

mortality on each stock component. 

NMFS issued a final rule that 

implemented Amendment 4 to the FMP 

(76 FR 11373; March 2, 2011) to address 

ACL and accountability measure (AM) 

requirements. As a way to account for 

ACL/sub-ACL overages in the herring 

fishery, Amendment 4 established an 

AM that requires NMFS to deduct any 

ACL/sub-ACL overages from the 

corresponding ACL/sub-ACL of the year 

following the catch overage 

determination. Amendment 4 also 

specified that NMFS will announce 

overage deductions in the Federal 

Register prior to the start of the fishing 

year, if possible. 

NMFS published a final rule 

implementing Framework 2 to the FMP 

and the 2013–2015 specifications for the 

herring fishery on October 4, 2013 (78 

FR 61828). Among other measures, 

Framework 2 allowed for the carryover 

of unharvested catch (i.e., underages) in 

the year following catch determination. 

Provided that annual total catch does 

not exceed the ACL, up to 10 percent of 

each sub-ACL may be carried over and 

added to the following year’s sub-ACL. 

The carryover provision allows a subACL increase for a management area, 

but it does not allow a corresponding 

increase to the ACL. 

NMFS published the 2021–2023 

specifications for the herring fishery in 

Framework 8 to the FMP on April 1, 

2021 (86 FR 17081). Framework 8 also 

revised the carryover provision to 

reduce the amount of carryover 

available to be added to sub-ACLs in 

2022. Specifically, it reduced the 2020 

sub-ACL percentages that could be 

carried over and added to the 2022 subACLs from 10 percent to 5 percent. 

Because carryover does not increase the 

ACL, the carryover of 2020 underages to 

the relatively lower sub-ACLs in 2022 

could potentially restrict fishing later in 

the year in areas not receiving carryover 

if the sub-ACLs in areas with carryover 

are harvested early in the year. 

Provisions Implemented Through This 

Final Rule 

NMFS recently completed the catch 

accounting for 2020 and determined 

there were catch overages in Areas 1A 

and 1B and catch underages in Areas 2 

and 3. To account for the overages, this 

action deducts the 2020 catch overages 


tkelley on DSK125TN23PROD with RULES1
888 Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 5 / Friday, January 7, 2022 / Rules and Regulations 

in Areas 1A and 1B from the 2022 ACL 

and sub-ACLs for Areas 1A and 1B. To 

account for the underages, this action 

carries over unharvested 2020 catch to 

the 2022 herring sub-ACLs in Areas 2 

and 3. The carryover equals the amount 

of each area’s underage or up to 5 

percent of the 2020 sub-ACL, whichever 

is less. Table 1 provides catch details for 

2020 and the corresponding adjustments 

for the 2022 sub-ACLs. Because the 

adjusted Area 1B sub-ACL is zero, none 

of the sub-ACL is available for harvest 

in 2022 and a vessel may not fish for, 

possess, or retain herring from Area 1B 

for the remainder of the 2022 fishing 

year. A vessel may transit Area 1B with 

herring on board provided herring were 

caught in an area where the sub-ACL is 

available for harvest and gear is stowed 

and not available for immediate use. 

TABLE 1—HERRING CATCH LIMITS, CATCH, AND CARRYOVER

[mt] 

Final 2020 

sub-ACLs 2020 catch 

2020 overages 

(+) underages 

(¥) 

Allowable 

carryover (up 

to 5 percent *) 

Initial 2022 

sub-ACLs 

Adjusted 2022 

sub-ACLs 

Area 1A .................................................... 4,244 4,353 + 109 NA 1,184 1,075 

Area 1B .................................................... 483 831 + 348 NA 176 ** 0 

Area 2 ...................................................... 3,120 353 ¥2,767 156 1,139 1,295 

Area 3 ...................................................... 4,378 4,054 ¥324 219 1,598 1,817 

ACL *** ..................................................... 12,224 9,591 NA NA 4,098 3,813 

* Carryover is based on 5 percent of the initial 2020 sub-ACLs: Area 1A = 3,244 mt; Area 1B = 483 mt; Area 2 = 3,120 mt; and Area 3 = 4,378 

mt. These initial sub-ACLs were adjusted inseason to become the final 2020 sub-ACLs. 

** Because the 2020 overage in Area 1B exceeds the initial 2022 Area 1B sub-ACL, the adjusted 2022 Area 1B sub-ACL is zero. 

*** The ACL is reduced by overages but not increased by carryover; therefore, the adjusted 2022 ACL is only affected by the 2020 overages in 

Areas 2 and 3. 

NMFS calculated the amount of 

herring landings in 2020 based on 

dealer reports (Federal and state) of 

herring purchases, supplemented by 

vessel trip reports (VTR) and vessel 

monitoring system (VMS) reports 

(Federal and states of Maine and 

Massachusetts) of herring landings. 

NMFS generally uses dealer reports to 

estimate herring landings; however, if 

the amount of herring reported via VTR 

exceeded the amount of herring 

reported by the dealer by 10 percent or 

more, NMFS assumes the dealer report 

for that trip was in error and uses the 

VTR report instead. NMFS assigns 

herring landings to individual herring 

management areas using VMS reports or 

latitude and longitude coordinates from 

VTR reports when a VMS report is not 

available. NMFS uses recent fishing 

activity to assign landings to a 

management area if dealer reports do 

not have a corresponding VTR or VMS 

catch report. 

NMFS estimates herring discards by 

extrapolating discards from herring trips 

observed by the Northeast Fisheries 

Observer Program to all herring trips 

(observed and unobserved) according to 

gear and herring management area. 

Because research set-aside (RSA) is 

removed from management area subACLs at the beginning of the fishery 

year, when appropriate, NMFS tracks 

RSA catch but does not count it towards 

the herring sub-ACLs. No RSA is 

specified for 2022. 

Classification 

The NMFS Assistant Administrator 

has determined that this final rule is 

consistent with the FMP, other 

provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens 

Fishery Conservation and Management 

Act, and other applicable law. 

Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B), there 

is good cause to waive prior notice and 

an opportunity for public comment on 

this action. Notice and comment are 

impracticable and contrary to the public 

interest because a delay would 

potentially impair achievement of the 

management plan’s objectives of 

preventing overfishing and achieving 

optimum yield by impairing a vessels’ 

ability to harvest available catch 

allocations. Allowing for prior notice 

and public comment on this adjustment 

is also impracticable because the 

adjustments need to be announced prior 

to the January 1 start of the fishing year, 

or as soon as possible thereafter. 

Further, this is a nondiscretionary 

action required by provisions of 

Amendment 4 and Frameworks 2, 6, 

and 8, which were previously subject to 

public notice and comment. The 

adjustments required by these 

regulations are formulaic. This action 

simply effectuates these mandatory 

calculations. The proposed and final 

rules for Frameworks 2 and 6 and 

Amendment 4 explained the need and 

likelihood for adjustments to the subACLs based on final catch. Frameworks 

2 and 8, specifically, provided prior 

notice of the need to distribute 

carryover catch. These actions provided 

a full opportunity for the public to 

comment on the substance and process 

of this action. 

For the same reasons as noted above, 

there is good cause under 5 U.S.C. 

553(d)(3) to waive the 30-day delay in 

effective date and make the rule 

effective upon publication in the 

Federal Register. To prevent confusion 

and potential overharvests, it will be in 

the best interest of the fleet and the 

herring resource to adjust the 

specifications prior to the January 1 start 

of the fishing year, or as soon as 

possible thereafter. Management Areas 

1B, 2, and 3 open on January 1 and Area 

1A opens on June 1. The adjustments in 

this action reduce catch in Areas 1A and 

1B, in particular reducing the Area 1B 

sub-ACL to zero, and increase catch in 

Areas 2 and 3. Putting in place the 

adjusted specifications as soon as 

possible will provide the fleet with an 

opportunity to develop their business 

plans in sufficient time to avoid an 

overharvest in Area 1B and facilitate the 

harvest of additional catch in Areas 2 

and 3. 

This action is required by 50 CFR part 

648, subpart K, and is exempt from 

review under Executive Order 12866. 

This final rule does not contain a 

collection-of-information requirement 

for purposes of the Paperwork 

Reduction Act. 


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Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 5 / Friday, January 7, 2022 / Rules and Regulations 889 

Because prior notice and opportunity 

for public comment are not required for 

this rule by 5 U.S.C. 553, or any other 

law, the analytical requirements of the 

Regulatory Flexibility Act, 5 U.S.C. 601 

et seq., are inapplicable. Therefore, a 

regulatory flexibility analysis is not 

required and has not been prepared. 

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

Dated: January 3, 2022. 

Samuel D. Rauch, III, 

Deputy Assistant Administrator for 

Regulatory Programs, National Marine 

Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2022–00055 Filed 1–4–22; 4:15 pm] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 


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