Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 129 / Friday, July 9, 2021 / Rules and Regulations 36237 

First-tier subcontract means a subcontract 

awarded directly by the contractor for the 

purpose of acquiring services for 

performance of a prime contract. It does not 

include the contractor’s supplier agreements 

with vendors, such as long-term 

arrangements for materials or supplies or 

services that benefit multiple contracts and/ 

or the costs of which are normally applied to 

a contractor’s general and administrative 

expenses or indirect costs. 

(b) The contractor shall report annually, by 

October 31, at https://www.sam.gov, on 

services performed during the preceding 

Government fiscal year (October 1– 

September 30) under this contract or 

agreement for each order, including any firsttier subcontract, which exceeds $3 million 

for services in the following service 

acquisition portfolio groups: 

(1) Logistics management services. 

(2) Equipment-related services. 

(3) Knowledge-based services. 

(4) Electronics and communications 

services. 

(c) The Contractor shall report the 

following information for the order: 

(1) The total dollar amount invoiced for 

services performed during the preceding 

Government fiscal year under the order. 

(2) The number of Contractor direct labor 

hours, to include first-tier subcontractor 

direct labor hours, as applicable, expended 

on the services performed under the order 

during the previous Government fiscal year. 

(d) The Government will review the 

Contractor’s reported information for 

reasonableness and consistency with 

available contract information. In the event 

the Government believes that revisions to the 

Contractor’s reported information are 

warranted, the Government will notify the 

Contractor. Upon notification, the Contractor 

shall revise the reported information or 

provide the Government with a supporting 

rationale for the information. 

(End of clause) 

[FR Doc. 2021–14429 Filed 7–8–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 5001–06–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

50 CFR Part 660 

[Docket No: 210702–0144; RTID 0648– 

XW035] 

Fisheries Off West Coast States; 

Coastal Pelagic Species Fisheries; 

Annual Specifications; 2021–2022 

Annual Specifications and 

Management Measures for Pacific 

Sardine 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Final rule. 

SUMMARY: NMFS is implementing 

annual harvest specifications and 

management measures for the northern 

subpopulation of Pacific sardine 

(hereafter, Pacific sardine), for the 

fishing year, which runs from July 1, 

2021, through June 30, 2022. This final 

rule will prohibit most directed 

commercial fishing for Pacific sardine 

off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, 

and California. Pacific sardine harvest 

will be allowed only in the live bait 

fishery, minor directed fisheries, as 

incidental catch in other fisheries, or as 

authorized under exempted fishing 

permits. The incidental harvest of 

Pacific sardine will be limited to 20 

percent by weight of all fish per trip 

when caught with other stocks managed 

under the Coastal Pelagic Species 

Fishery Management Plan, or up to 2 

metric tons per trip when caught with 

non-Coastal Pelagic Species stocks. The 

annual catch limit for the 2021–2022 

Pacific sardine fishing year is 3,329 

metric tons. This final rule is intended 

to conserve and manage the Pacific 

sardine stock off the U.S. West Coast. 

DATES: Effective July 6, 2021. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Taylor Debevec, West Coast Region, 

NMFS, (562) 619–2052, 

Taylor.Debevec@noaa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NMFS 

manages the Pacific sardine fishery in 

the U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ) 

off the Pacific coast (California, Oregon, 

and Washington) in accordance with the 

Coastal Pelagic Species (CPS) Fishery 

Management Plan (FMP). The FMP and 

its implementing regulations require 

NMFS to set annual catch levels for the 

Pacific sardine fishery based on the 

annual specification framework and 

control rules in the FMP. These control 

rules include the harvest guideline (HG) 

control rule, which, in conjunction with 

the overfishing limit (OFL) and 

acceptable biological catch (ABC) rules 

in the FMP, are used to manage harvest 

levels for Pacific sardine, in accordance 

with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery 

Conservation and Management Act 

(MSA), 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq. 

This final rule implements the annual 

catch levels, reference points, and 

management measures for the 2021– 

2022 fishing year. The final rule adopts, 

without changes, the catch levels and 

restrictions that NMFS proposed in the 

rule published on May 26, 2021. The 

proposed rule for this action included 

additional background on the 

specifications and details of how the 

Pacific Fishery Management Council 

(Council) derived its recommended 

specifications for Pacific sardine. Those 

details are not repeated here. For 

additional information on this action, 

please refer to the proposed rule (86 FR 

28325). 

This rule implements an OFL of 5,525 

metric tons (mt) and an ABC/annual 

catch limit (ACL) of 3,329 mt, based on 

CPS FMP control rules and a biomass 

estimate of Pacific sardine of 28,276 mt. 

This biomass estimate is from the 2020 

benchmark stock assessment and was 

recommended for use this year by the 

Council’s Scientific and Statistical 

Committee after identifying significant 

uncertainties in the 2021 catch-only 

projection. Because the estimated 

biomass is less than the value of the 

CUTOFF parameter in the CPS FMP 

(150,000 mt), the harvest guideline is set 

to 0 mt, meaning there is no primary 

directed fishery for Pacific sardine. This 

is the seventh consecutive year the 

primary directed fishery has been 

closed. Because the estimated biomass 

is below the minimum stock size 

threshold (50,000 mt) the FMP requires 

that incidental catch of Pacific sardine 

in other CPS fisheries be limited to an 

incidental allowance of no more than 20 

percent by weight. Although these 

management measures, triggered by the 

FMP, are expected to keep catch far 

below the ACL as they have done in 

recent history, this rule also implements 

an annual catch target (ACT) of 3,000 mt 

and implements management measures 

to ensure harvest opportunity 

throughout the year. 

A summary of the 2021–2022 fishing 

year specifications can be found in 

Table 1, and management measures in 

the list below. 


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36238 Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 129 / Friday, July 9, 2021 / Rules and Regulations 

TABLE 1—HARVEST SPECIFICATIONS FOR THE 2021–2022 SARDINE FISHING YEAR IN METRIC TONS

[mt] 

Biomass estimate OFL ABC HG ACL ACT 

28,276 5,525 3,329 0 3,329 3,000 

Measures for commercial sardine 

harvest during the 2021–2022 fishing 

year: 

(1) If landings in the live bait fishery 

reach 1,800 mt of Pacific sardine, then 

a 1-mt per-trip limit of sardine would 

apply to the live bait fishery. 

(2) An incidental per-landing limit of 

20-percent (by weight) Pacific sardine 

applies to other CPS primary directed 

fisheries (e.g., Pacific mackerel). 

(3) If the ACT of 3,000 mt is attained, 

then a 1-mt per-trip limit of Pacific 

sardine would apply to all CPS fisheries 

(i.e., 1) and 2) would no longer apply). 

(4) An incidental per-landing 

allowance of 2 mt of Pacific sardine 

would apply to non-CPS fisheries until 

the ACL is reached. 

All sources of catch, including any 

exempted fishing permit (EFP) setasides, the live bait fishery, and other 

minimal sources of harvest, such as 

incidental catch in CPS and non-CPS 

fisheries and minor directed fishing, 

will be accounted for against the ACT 

and ACL. At the April 2021 Council 

meeting, the Council approved 830 mt 

of the ACL for three EFP proposals to 

support stock assessments for Pacific 

sardine. Any Pacific sardine harvested 

between July 1, 2021, and the effective 

date of the final rule will count toward 

the 2021–2022 ACT. 

The NMFS West Coast Regional 

Administrator will publish a 

notification in the Federal Register to 

announce when catch reaches the 

incidental limits as well as any changes 

to allowable incidental catch 

percentages. Additionally, to ensure that 

the regulated community is informed of 

any closure, NMFS will make 

announcements through other means 

available, including emails to 

fishermen, processors, and state fishery 

management agencies. 

Comments and Responses 

On May 26, 2021, NMFS published a 

proposed rule for this action and 

solicited public comments through June 

10, 2021 (86 FR 28325). NMFS received 

one public comment letter containing 

multiple comments from the 

environmental group Oceana. After 

considering the public comment, NMFS 

made no changes from the proposed 

rule. NMFS summarizes and responds 

to the comment letter from Oceana 

below. 

Comment: Oceana states that the 

proposed harvest specifications are not 

based on the best available science, fail 

to prevent overfishing, and will impede 

rebuilding. Oceana requests that NMFS 

revise the proposed specifications to 

reduce catch limits. Specifically, 

Oceana suggests that NMFS use a 

different EMSY value to calculate the 

OFL, ABC, and ACL, which would 

result in an OFL of 1,230 mt, an ABC 

of 741 mt, and an ACL lower than 741 

mt. Oceana also suggests that NMFS 

reduce catch by limiting live bait 

harvest of sardine, denying EFP 

applications that propose to land or sell 

sardine or limiting their catch to 10 mt, 

and limiting incidental catch of sardine 

in other directed CPS fisheries to no 

more than 10 percent of landings. 

Response: NMFS has determined this 

action is based on the best available 

science, prevents overfishing, and will 

not impede rebuilding. NMFS disagrees 

with Oceana’s suggestion that setting a 

lower ACL, specifically an ACL lower 

than 741 mt, is necessary to prevent 

overfishing. The reference points being 

implemented through this action were 

recommended by the Council based on 

the control rules in the FMP and were 

endorsed by the Council’s Scientific and 

Statistical Committee (SSC) as the best 

scientific information available for 

setting the 2021–2022 harvest 

specifications for Pacific sardine. In 

addition, the management measures 

adopted by the Council, including an 

ACT that was set even lower than the 

ACL (3,000 mt), are more than adequate 

to ensure catch does not exceed the 

ACL/ABC and OFL, and therefore add 

an additional measure for preventing 

overfishing. Furthermore, although the 

SSC did not endorse the 2021 catchonly projection due to uncertainty in the 

model (including the level of catch by 

Mexico), more precaution was built into 

the Council’s ABC recommendation to 

account for this uncertainty and to 

ensure overfishing is prevented. The 

reference points implemented through 

this action should also be viewed in the 

context of the non-discretionary harvest 

restrictions already in place, pursuant to 

the CPS FMP, which generally restrict 

the fishery from catching the full ACL. 

These non-discretionary restrictions 

include the continued closure of the 

primary directed fishery (i.e., the largest 

fishery that takes the majority of Pacific 

sardine catch) and restrictions on 

incidental harvest of Pacific sardine in 

other CPS fisheries (which are currently 

less than half of typical incidental 

limits). 

NMFS also finds it unnecessary to 

further limit the landings of sardine by 

implementing any of the additional 

measures recommended by Oceana— 

i.e., limiting live bait harvest, denying 

EFP applications or limiting their 

allowable catch, and reducing the 

percentage of landings allowed in other 

directed CPS fisheries. The Council 

considered the overfished status of 

Pacific sardine, as well as the 

uncertainty around the 2021 catch 

update due to the inability to collect 

survey data during the COVID–19 

pandemic, and incorporated 

precautionary measures in their 

recommendations to NMFS to account 

for those factors. Those precautionary 

measures included: (1) Deeming the 

assessment Tier 3 (high uncertainty); (2) 

using a P* value of 0.4 (high 

uncertainty); (3) reducing the ACT from 

the ACL; (4) reducing the EFP allowance 

from the requested amount; (5) limiting 

incidental sardine landings in CPS 

fisheries to 20 percent; and (6) 

incorporating accountability measures. 

These accountability measures include: 

(1) Limiting live bait landings to 1 mt 

per landing once 1,800 mt of sardine is 

attained; (2) imposing a per-trip limit of 

1 mt of sardine in all CPS fisheries once 

the ACT is attained; and (3) 

implementing an incidental per-landing 

allowance of 2 mt in non-CPS fisheries 

until the ACL is reached. 

Finally, although changes to how 

EMSY is calculated is beyond the scope 

of this rulemaking, NMFS would 

nevertheless like to respond to Oceana’s 

suggestion in this regard. NMFS is 

aware of the 2019 scientific publication 

referenced by Oceana in their comment 

letter and of ongoing Council 

discussions related to EMSY. NMFS is 

committed to participating in 

discussions about new science and 

whether that science justifies a change 

to how EMSY is calculated for 

management purposes. Regarding the 

2019 paper mentioned by Oceana that 

was authored by researchers at the 

SWFSC, NMFS notes that research 

related to the appropriate temperature 


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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 129 / Friday, July 9, 2021 / Rules and Regulations 36239 

index to inform EMSY is ongoing. NMFS 

has not yet determined whether, based 

on that paper, a change in how EMSY is 

calculated is necessary for management 

purposes. NMFS will continue to 

examine whether this new publication 

warrants a change in management; 

however, at this time NMFS has 

determined that the reference points set 

through this action are based on the best 

scientific information available. 

Regarding recent Council discussions 

related to EMSY, NMFS notes that the 

Council’s SSC—the scientific advisory 

body that is responsible for 

recommending changes to EMSY—has 

the ability to recommend changes to 

EMSY at any time, and it has not 

determined that a change is necessary at 

this time. The Council’s SSC previously 

made such a recommendation in 2014 

when it recommended that NMFS 

switch from using the 3-year average of 

Scripps Institution of Oceanography 

(SIO) sea surface temperature 

measurements to using the 3-year 

average of CalCOFI sea surface 

temperature measurements to inform 

EMSY. In 2014 the SSC also 

recommended an interim measure of a 

static EMSY of 18 percent until that 

change, from SIO to CalCOFI, could be 

adopted after being properly analyzed. 

Classification 

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

MSA, the NMFS Assistant 

Administrator has determined that this 

final rule is consistent with the CPS 

FMP, other provisions of the MSA, and 

other applicable law. 

The need to implement these 

measures in a timely manner to ensure 

they are in place as soon as possible 

after the start of the fishing season, July 

1, 2021, constitutes good cause under 

authority contained in 5 U.S.C. 

553(d)(3), to establish an effective date 

less than 30 days after date of 

publication. In accordance with the 

FMP, this rule was recommended by the 

Council at its meeting in April 2021, the 

contents of which were based on the 

best available new information on the 

population status of Pacific sardine that 

became available at that time. Making 

these final specifications effective as 

soon as possible after July 1, the first 

day of the fishing year, is necessary for 

the conservation and management of the 

Pacific sardine resource because last 

year’s restrictions on harvest are not 

effective after June 30. The FMP 

requires a prohibition on primary 

directed fishing for Pacific sardine for 

the 2021–2022 fishing year because the 

sardine biomass has dropped below the 

CUTOFF. The purpose of the CUTOFF 

in the FMP, and for prohibiting a 

primary directed fishery when the 

biomass drops below this level, is to 

protect the stock when biomass is low 

and provide a buffer of spawning stock 

that is protected from fishing and can 

contribute to rebuilding the stock. A 

delay of a full 30 days in the date of 

effectiveness for this rule would result 

in the re-opening of the primary 

directed commercial fishery on July 1. 

Delaying the effective date of this rule 

much beyond July 1 would be contrary 

to the public interest because it would 

jeopardize the sustainability of the 

Pacific sardine stock. Furthermore, most 

affected fishermen are aware that the 

Council recommended that primary 

directed commercial fishing be 

prohibited for the 2021–2022 fishing 

year, and are fully prepared to comply 

with the prohibition. 

This final rule 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 for the purposes of the 

Regulatory Flexibility Act. The factual 

basis for the certification was published 

in the proposed rule and is not repeated 

here. As a result, a regulatory flexibility 

analysis was not required, and none was 

prepared. 

Pursuant to Executive Order 13175, 

this rule was developed after 

meaningful consultation and 

collaboration with the Council’s tribal 

representative, who has agreed with the 

provisions that apply to tribal vessels. 

This action does not contain a 

collection-of-information requirement 

for purposes of the Paper Reduction Act. 

There are no relevant Federal rules that 

may duplicate, overlap, or conflict with 

the action. 

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

Dated: July 6, 2021. 

Samuel D. Rauch, III, 

Deputy Assistant Administrator for 

Regulatory Programs, National Marine 

Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2021–14643 Filed 7–6–21; 4:15 pm] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

50 CFR Part 665 

[Docket No. 210701–0142] 

RIN 0648–BK28 

Pacific Island Fisheries; Exemption for 

Large U.S. Longline Vessels To Fish in 

Portions of the American Samoa Large 

Vessel Prohibited Area; Court Order 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Final rule. 

SUMMARY: NMFS implements a 

regulatory exemption that allows certain 

U.S. longline vessels 50 ft (15.2 m) and 

larger (‘‘large longline vessels’’) to fish 

in portions of the American Samoa 

Large Vessel Prohibited Area (LVPA). 

The intent is to comply with a U.S. 

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision 

and Order that reversed a district court 

ruling that had vacated and set aside the 

exemption. 

DATES: Effective July 6, 2021. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Bob 

Harman, NMFS PIRO Sustainable 

Fisheries, 808–725–5170. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NMFS and 

the Western Pacific Fishery 

Management Council (Council) manage 

pelagic fisheries in the U.S. Pacific 

Islands under the Fishery Ecosystem 

Plan for Pelagic Fisheries of the Western 

Pacific Region. In 2016, NMFS 

published a final rule (81 FR 5619, 

February 3, 2016) that allowed U.S. 

longline vessels greater than 50 feet that 

hold a Federal American Samoa 

longline limited entry permit to fish 

within the LVPA to within about 12–17 

nm (22–31 km) from shore around 

Swains Island, Tutuila, and the Manua 

Islands. Large longline vessels 

continued to be restricted from fishing 

within the remaining portions of the 

LVPA. The intent of the rule was to 

improve the viability of the American 

Samoa longline fishery and achieve 

optimum yield, while preventing 

overfishing in accordance with National 

Standard 1 of the Magnuson-Stevens 

Fishery Conservation and Management 

Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act). Additional 

information about the LVPA exemptions 

is available in the proposed rule (80 FR 

51527, August 25, 2015) and final rule. 

In July 2016, the Territory of 

American Samoa sued NMFS in the U.S. 

District Court for the District of Hawaii 

(Territory of American Samoa v. NMFS, 


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