18156 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 75 / Tuesday, April 21, 2009 / Rules and Regulations 

State and county Location and case 

No. 

Date and name of newspaper 

where notice was published Chief executive officer of community Effective date of modification 

Community 

No. 

South Carolina: 

Lexington 

(FEMA Docket No: B– 

1023).

Unincorporated 

areas of Lexington 

County (08–04– 

1961P).

October 29, 2008; November 5, 

2008; The State.

The Honorable William C. Derrik, Chairman, Lexington County Council, 2241 

Ridge Road, Leesville, SC 29070.

March 5, 2009 ................ 450129 

Richland (FEMA 

Docket No: 

B–1019).

Unincorporated 

areas of Richland 

County (08–04– 

5022P).

October 10, 2008; October 17, 

2008; The State.

The Honorable Joseph McEachern, 

Chairman, Richland County Council, 

Richland County Administrative Building, 2020 Hampton Street, Second 

Floor, Columbia, SC 29202.

February 16, 2009 .......... 450170 

Tennessee: 

Williamson 

(FEMA Docket No: B– 

1019).

City of Brentwood 

(08–04–2646P).

October 16, 2008; October 23, 

2008; The Tennessean.

The Honorable Joe Reagan, Mayor, City 

of Brentwood, P.O. Box 788, Brentwood, TN 37024.

February 20, 2009 .......... 470205 

Williamson 

(FEMA Docket No: B– 

1019).

Unincorporated 

areas of 

Williamson County 

(08–04–2646P).

October 16, 2008; October 23, 

2008; The Tennessean.

The Honorable Rogers C. Anderson, 

Mayor, Williamson County, 1320 West 

Main Street, Suite 125, Franklin, TN 

37064.

February 20, 2009 .......... 470204 

Texas: 

Bell (FEMA 

Docket No: 

B–1023).

City of Killeen (07– 

06–1831P).

October 30, 2008; November 6, 

2008; Killeen Daily Herald.

The Honorable Timothy L. Hancock, 

Mayor, City of Killeen, P.O. Box 1329, 

Killeen, TX 76540.

March 6, 2009 ................ 480031 

Bexar (FEMA 

Docket No: 

B–1023).

Unincorporated 

areas of Bexar 

County (07–06– 

2018P).

October 31, 2008; November 7, 

2008; San Antonio Express 

News.

The Honorable Nelson W. Wolff, Bexar 

County Judge, 100 Dolorosa Street, 

Suite 120, San Antonio, TX 78205.

March 9, 2009 ................ 480035 

Bexar (FEMA 

Docket No: 

B–1023).

City of San Antonio 

(07–06–2018P).

October 31, 2008; November 7, 

2008; San Antonio Express 

News.

The Honorable Phil Hardberger, Mayor, 

City of San Antonio, P.O. Box 839966, 

San Antonio, TX 78283.

March 9, 2009 ................ 480045 

Tarrant (FEMA 

Docket No: 

B–1019).

City of Fort Worth 

(08–06–2295P).

October 9, 2008; October 16, 

2008; Fort Worth Star Telegram.

The Honorable Mike Moncrief, Mayor, 

City of Fort Worth, 1000 Throckmorton 

Street, Fort Worth, TX 76102.

February 13, 2009 .......... 480596 

Tarrant (FEMA 

Docket No: 

B–1019).

City of Keller (08– 

06–2436P).

October 9, 2008; October 16, 

2008; Fort Worth Star Telegram.

The Honorable Pat McGrail, Mayor, City 

of Keller, P.O. Box 770, Keller, TX 

76244.

February 13, 2009 .......... 480602 

Travis (FEMA 

Docket No: 

B–1023).

City of Austin (08– 

06–2992P).

November 12, 2008; November 

19, 2008; Austin American 

Statesman.

The Honorable Will Wynn, Mayor, City of 

Austin, P.O. Box 1088, Austin, TX 

78767.

October 31, 2008 ........... 480624 

Wisconsin: 

Juneau (FEMA 

Docket No: 

B–1027).

Unincorporated 

areas of Juneau 

County (08–05– 

2953P).

November 13, 2008; November 

20, 2008; The Messenger of 

Juneau County.

The Honorable Alan Peterson, Chairman, 

Juneau County, N3161 Highway G, 

Mauston, WI 53948.

December 2, 2008 .......... 550580 

Juneau (FEMA 

Docket No: 

B–1027).

Village of Union 

Center (08–05– 

2953P).

November 13, 2008; November 

20, 2008; The Messenger of 

Juneau County.

The Honorable Darold Minett, Mayor, Village of Union Center, P.O. Box 96, 

Union Center, WI 53962.

December 2, 2008 .......... 550207 

Juneau (FEMA 

Docket No: 

B–1027).

Village of Wonewoc 

(08–05–2953P).

November 13, 2008; November 

20, 2008; The Messenger of 

Juneau County.

The Honorable Kevin Jennings, President, Village of Wonewoc, P.O. Box 37, 

Wonewoc, WI 53968.

December 2, 2008 .......... 550208 

(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance No. 

97.022, ‘‘Flood Insurance.’’) 

Dated: April 13, 2009. 

Michael K. Buckley, 

Acting Assistant Administrator, Mitigation 

Directorate, Department of Homeland 

Security, Federal Emergency Management 

Agency. 

[FR Doc. E9–9069 Filed 4–20–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 9110–12–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

50 CFR Part 679 

[Docket No. 080310410–9585–02] 

RIN 0648–AW54 

Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic 

Zone Off Alaska; Revisions to the 

Pollock Trip Limit Regulations in the 

Gulf of Alaska 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Final rule. 

SUMMARY: NMFS issues a final rule to 

prohibit a catcher vessel from landing 

more than 300,000 lb (136 mt) of 

unprocessed pollock during a calendar 

day, and from landing a cumulative 

amount of unprocessed pollock from 

any Gulf of Alaska reporting area that 

exceeds 300,000 lb multiplied by the 

number of calendar days the pollock 

fishery is open to directed fishing in a 

season. This rule will prevent catcher 

vessels from circumventing the intent of 

current trip limit regulations when 

making deliveries of pollock. Amending 

the current trip limit regulation to limit 

a vessel to 300,000 lb of pollock caught 

in a day will continue to disperse 

catches of pollock in a manner that is 

consistent with the intent of Steller sea 

lion protection measures in the Gulf of 

Alaska. This action is intended to 

promote the goals and objectives of the 

Magnuson-Stevens Fishery 

Conservation and Management Act and 

other applicable laws. 

DATES: Effective May 21, 2009. 

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Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 75 / Tuesday, April 21, 2009 / Rules and Regulations 18157 

ADDRESSES: Copies of the Regulatory 

Impact Review/Final Regulatory 

Flexibility Analysis (RIR/FRFA) 

prepared for this action are available 

from the Alaska Region NMFS at the 

address above or from the Alaska Region 

NMFS website at http:// 

alaskafisheries.noaa.gov/regs/ 

summary.htm. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Jeffrey L. Hartman, 907 586 7442. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NMFS 

manages the U.S. groundfish fisheries of 

the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) off 

Alaska under the Fishery Management 

Plan for Groundfish of the Gulf of 

Alaska (FMP). The North Pacific Fishery 

Management Council prepared the FMP 

pursuant to the Magnuson-Stevens 

Fishery Conservation and Management 

Act, 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq. (MagnusonStevens Act). Regulations implementing 

the FMP appear at 50 CFR part 679. 

General regulations that pertain to U.S. 

fisheries appear at subpart H of 50 CFR 

part 600. The FMP also authorizes the 

use of fishery management measures to 

protect marine mammals, particularly 

for species that have been listed as 

endangered or threatened under the 

Endangered Species Act. 

Background and Need for Action 

The background and need for this 

action were described in detail in the 

preamble to the proposed rule 

published in the Federal Register on 

October 20, 2008, (73 FR 62241). In 

summary, trip limits regulate the 

amount of a species that may be landed 

by a vessel during a fishing trip and 

often are specific to a management, 

regulatory, or reporting area; to fishing 

gear type or programs (such as Steller 

sea lion protection or the Community 

Development Quota Program); and to 

specific intervals of time during a year 

or season. 

Regulations at § 679.7(b)(2) establish 

trip limits for pollock in the Western 

and Central Gulf of Alaska (GOA). 

Pollock trip limits were intended to 

protect Steller sea lions in part by 

temporally dispersing the pollock 

fishery in the GOA, thus reducing 

competition for prey species between 

the fishery and Steller sea lions. Trip 

limits were to accomplish this by 

decreasing daily pollock catches in 

areas that were in close proximity to 

foraging Steller sea lions. 

These GOA pollock trip limits have 

not been completely effective at 

restricting catches of pollock to 300,000 

lb per day. Some trawl catcher vessels 

were circumventing the intent of the 

trip limit by making more than one trip 

per calendar day, delivering more than 

300,000 lb to a tender in a day, and 

towing codends to a tender that 

exceeded 300,000 lb at the point of 

landing. Catch data prepared by NMFS 

for the RIR/FRFA for this rule confirmed 

that the trip limit regulation has not 

been fully effective because vessels in 

the GOA pollock fishery exceeded 

landings of 300,000 lb in a day, 241 

times from 1999 to 2006. 

Summary of Regulatory Changes 

This final rule adds two major 

provisions to the current GOA trip limit 

regulation. The first provision adds a 

daily landing limit at § 679.7(b)(2)(ii) for 

pollock by prohibiting a trawl catcher 

vessel from landing more than 300,000 

lb of unprocessed pollock during a 

calendar day. The daily landing limit 

will partially close the loophole in 

regulations that has allowed vessel 

operators to exceed the trip limit. The 

second provision adds a seasonal 

landing limit at § 679.7(b)(2)(iii) that 

prohibits a trawl catcher vessel from 

landing a cumulative amount of pollock 

that exceeds 300,000 lb multiplied by 

the number of calendar days that the 

directed fishery is open in a reporting 

area. 

Minor regulatory amendments are 

also included in this rule. A definition 

for ‘‘calendar day’’ is added at § 679.2 to 

specify the interval of time in a day 

from 0001 hours Alaska local time to 

2400 hours Alaska local time that a 

catcher vessel is prohibited from 

exceeding a daily or seasonal pollock 

landing limit Regulations governing the 

prohibitions on pollock trip limits at 

§ 679.7(b)(2) are moved to 

§ 679.7(b)(2)(i) to reorganize 

§ 679.7(b)(2). Figure 3 to part 679 is 

revised, to increase the accuracy of the 

geographic boundaries shown on the 

map and by changing the figure title 

from ‘‘Gulf of Alaska Statistical and 

Reporting’’ to read ‘‘Gulf of Alaska 

Reporting Areas.’’ 

This action is consistent with the 

original intent of pollock trip limits to 

temporally and spatially disperse 

catches of pollock in the GOA. The 

daily landing limit portion of this action 

will temporally disperse catches of 

pollock in the GOA by prohibiting 

operators of catcher vessels from 

exceeding 300,000 lb of pollock landed 

in a calendar day. The seasonal landing 

limit will temporally disperse pollock 

catches by constraining pollock vessels 

from exceeding an average daily catch of 

300,000 lb of pollock over the period of 

a season, in a specific GOA regulatory 

area. 

Response to Comments 

The proposed rule for this action was 

published in the Federal Register on 

October 20, 2008 (73 FR 62241). NMFS 

received one letter of comment from 

industry on the proposed rule. 

Comment: The commenter indicated 

support for the proposed action, without 

revision. 

Response: NMFS acknowledges this 

comment of support. 

Changes From the Proposed Rule 

In the proposed rule, NMFS did not 

specify that prohibitions for GOA trip 

limits, daily landing limits and seasonal 

landing limits would apply to only the 

vessels that are issued a Federal Fishing 

Permit (FFP). The final rule corrects that 

error at § 679.7(b)(2)(i), (ii), and (iii), by 

prohibiting catcher vessels issued an 

FFP from (1) retaining more than 

300,000 lb of unprocessed pollock on 

board at anytime during a fishing trip, 

and (2) landing to a processor or tender 

more than 300,000 lb of unprocessed 

pollock harvested from any GOA 

reporting area on a catcher vessel issued 

a FFP multiplied by the number of 

calendar days the directed fishery is 

open in that reporting area. This 

correction is necessary to clarify that 

these regulations apply to vessels 

fishing with an FFP. 

Classification 

The Administrator, Alaska Region, 

NMFS, determined that this regulatory 

amendment to revise pollock trip limits 

is necessary for the conservation and 

management of the groundfish fisheries 

and that it is consistent with the 

Magnuson-Stevens Act and other 

applicable laws. 

This final rule has been determined to 

be not significant for the purposes of 

Executive Order 12866. 

A final regulatory flexibility analysis 

(FRFA) was prepared. The FRFA 

incorporates the IRFA, a summary of the 

significant issues raised by the public 

comments in response to the IRFA, and 

NMFS responses to those comments, 

and a summary of the analyses 

completed to support the action. A copy 

of this analysis is available from NMFS 

(see ADDRESSES). The public comment 

period ended on April 21, 2008. One 

comment was received in support of the 

rule. No comments were received on the 

IRFA or on the economic impacts of the 

rule. 

The objective of this action is to 

prevent catcher vessels from 

circumventing the intent of current trip 

limit regulations when making 

deliveries of pollock and continue to 

disperse catches of pollock in a manner 

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18158 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 75 / Tuesday, April 21, 2009 / Rules and Regulations 

that is consistent with the intent of 

Steller sea lion protection measures in 

the GOA. NMFS has identified more 

than 140 small entities that could be 

impacted by this action. The effect of 

this action on regulated entities is likely 

to be distributional, with some of the 

small entities increasing catches of 

pollock and others decreasing catches. If 

these regulations are approved, some of 

the small entities that have been 

circumventing the intent of current 

pollock trip limits may experience an 

increase in costs to catch the same 

number of pollock. 

NMFS has not identified a significant 

alternative to the proposed action that 

would meet the objectives of the action 

and would have a smaller adverse 

impact on directly regulated small 

entities. The no action alternative was 

rejected because it is not consistent with 

the intent of the original 1999 Steller sea 

lion protection measures. Another 

alternative to the preferred alternative, 

considered and rejected, was to limit the 

applicability of the action to the Federal 

EEZ. Trawl pollock fisheries in the GOA 

are managed in the Federal EEZ by 

NMFS under the FMP, and within State 

waters by the State of Alaska. The 

alternative to apply daily and seasonal 

trip limits to only the Federal EEZ 

would not encompass activities within 

State waters by federally permitted 

vessels. As discussed in the RIR/FRFA 

for this action, the pollock resource and 

the fishery within the GOA occur both 

within Federal and State waters. 

Applying trip limits, daily landing 

limits, and seasonal landing limits to 

fishing in Federal waters only would 

limit the effectiveness of this action, 

since participants in the pollock trawl 

fishery would be free to move to the 

area where trip limits do not apply. 

This regulation does not impose new 

recordkeeping and reporting 

requirements on the regulated small 

entities. 

Small Entity Compliance Guide 

Section 212 of the Small Business 

Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 

1996 states that, for each rule or group 

of related rules for which an agency is 

required to prepare a FRFA, the agency 

shall publish one or more guides to 

assist small entities in complying with 

the rule, and shall designate such 

publications as ‘‘small entity 

compliance guides.’’ The agency shall 

explain the actions a small entity is 

required to take to comply with a rule 

or group of rules. The preamble to the 

proposed rule and this final rule fully 

explain the regulatory amendments that 

will be implemented to revise trip limits 

for pollock in the GOA. The proposed 

rule, final rule, and regulations 

governing the groundfish fisheries off 

Alaska are the best source of 

information about how to comply with 

the regulatory amendment and, 

therefore, collectively they represent the 

small entity compliance guide for this 

final rule. These documents are 

available from NMFS (see ADDRESSES) 

and from the NMFS Alaska Region’s 

Web site at http:// 

alaskafisheries.noaa.gov. 

List of Subjects in 50 CFR Part 679 

Alaska, Fisheries. 

Dated: April 16, 2009. 

Samuel D. Rauch III, 

Deputy Assistant Administrator for 

Regulatory Programs, National Marine 

Fisheries Service. 

■ For the reasons set out in the 

preamble, 50 CFR part 679 is amended 

as follows: 

PART 679—FISHERIES OF THE 

EXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONE OFF 

ALASKA 

■ 1. The authority citation for part 679 

continues to read as follows: 

Authority: 16 U.S.C. 773 et seq.; 1801 et 

seq.; 3631 et seq.; Pub. L. 108–447. 

■ 2. In § 679.2 add a definition for 

‘‘Calendar day’’ in alphabetical order to 

read as follows: 

§ 679.2 Definitions. 

* * * * * 

Calendar day means a 24–hour period 

that starts at 0001 hours Alaska local 

time and ends at 2400 hours Alaska 

local time. 

* * * * * 

■ 3. In § 679.7, revise paragraph (b)(2) to 

read as follows: 

§ 679.7 Prohibitions. 

* * * * * 

(b) * * * 

(2) Catcher vessel harvest limit for 

pollock. (i) Retain more than 300,000 lb 

(136 mt) of unprocessed pollock on 

board a catcher vessel issued a FFP at 

any time during a fishing trip as defined 

at § 679.2; 

(ii) Land more than 300,000 lb (136 

mt) of unprocessed pollock harvested in 

any GOA reporting area from a catcher 

vessel issued a FFP to any processor or 

tender vessel during a calendar day as 

defined at § 679.2; and 

(iii) Land a cumulative amount of 

unprocessed pollock harvested from any 

GOA reporting area from a catcher 

vessel issued a FFP during a directed 

fishery that exceeds the amount in 

paragraph (b)(2)(ii) of this section 

multiplied by the number of calendar 

days that occur during the time period 

the directed fishery is open in that 

reporting area. 

* * * * * 

■ 4. In Figure 3 to part 679, the figure 

heading and map are revised to read as 

follows: 

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* * * * * 

[FR Doc. E9–9107 Filed 4–20–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–S 


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