46226 Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 157 / Wednesday, August 18, 2021 / Notices 

Description of Proposed Activities 

section of this notice would not be 

completed by the time the IHA expires 

and a Renewal would allow for 

completion of the activities beyond that 

described in the Dates and Duration 

section of this notice, provided all of the 

following conditions are met: 

• A request for renewal is received no 

later than 60 days prior to the needed 

Renewal IHA effective date (recognizing 

that the Renewal IHA expiration date 

cannot extend beyond one year from 

expiration of the initial IHA); 

• The request for renewal must 

include the following: 

(1) An explanation that the activities 

to be conducted under the requested 

Renewal IHA are identical to the 

activities analyzed under the initial 

IHA, are a subset of the activities, or 

include changes so minor (e.g., 

reduction in pile size) that the changes 

do not affect the previous analyses, 

mitigation and monitoring 

requirements, or take estimates (with 

the exception of reducing the type or 

amount of take); and 

(2) A preliminary monitoring report 

showing the results of the required 

monitoring to date and an explanation 

showing that the monitoring results do 

not indicate impacts of a scale or nature 

not previously analyzed or authorized; 

and 

Upon review of the request for 

Renewal, the status of the affected 

species or stocks, and any other 

pertinent information, NMFS 

determines that there are no more than 

minor changes in the activities, the 

mitigation and monitoring measures 

will remain the same and appropriate, 

and the findings in the initial IHA 

remain valid. 

Dated: August 13, 2021. 

Shannon Bettridge, 

Acting Director, Office of Protected Resources, 

National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2021–17725 Filed 8–17–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

[RTID 0648–XA720] 

Fisheries of the Northeastern United 

States; Northeast Multispecies 

Fishery; Receipt of Petition for 

Rulemaking for Atlantic Cod 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Announcement of receipt of 

petition for rulemaking; request for 

comments. 

SUMMARY: NMFS announces the receipt 

of a petition for rulemaking from the 

Conservation Law Foundation. This 

petition requests NMFS prepare a 

Secretarial Amendment and take 

specific emergency action to end 

overfishing and rebuild Atlantic cod. 

DATES: Comments must be received on 

or before October 4, 2021. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, 

identified by NOAA–NMFS–2021–0039, 

by either of the following methods: 

• Electronic Submission: Submit all 

electronic public comments via the 

Federal e-Rulemaking Portal. Go to 

http://www.regulations.gov and enter 

NOAA–NMFS–2021–0039 in the Search 

box. Click on the ‘‘Comment’’ icon, 

complete the required fields, and enter 

or attach your comments. 

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, etc.), 

confidential business information, or 

otherwise sensitive information 

submitted voluntarily by the sender will 

be publically accessible. NMFS will 

accept anonymous comments (enter 

‘‘N/A’’ in the required fields if you wish 

to remain anonymous). 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Peter Christopher, Supervisory Fishery 

Policy Analyst, telephone 978–281– 

9288, email: peter.christopher@

noaa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) has 

petitioned NMFS to implement 

emergency regulations and a Secretarial 

Amendment for the Northeast 

multispecies fishery, and other relevant 

fisheries that use gear capable of 

catching more than a minimal amount 

of Atlantic cod. CLF’s petition asserts 

that NMFS has repeatedly approved 

New England Fishery Management 

Council actions that have failed to 

prevent and end overfishing and rebuild 

Atlantic cod stocks. CLF is petitioning 

NMFS to implement conservation and 

management measures it deems 

necessary to end overfishing and rebuild 

the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank cod 

stocks. 

CLF cites numerous reasons for NMFS 

to take Secretarial action. CLF asserts 

that NMFS has consistently approved 

management measures that failed to 

address low recruitment, neglected to 

account for model errors and 

uncertainty when setting catch advice, 

approved uncertainty buffers that do not 

account for this uncertainty, and 

approved the use of an inadequate 

acceptable biological catch (ABC) 

control rule. In addition, CLF states that 

NMFS has failed to conduct adequate 

rebuilding progress reviews for both the 

Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank cod 

stocks as required under the MagnusonStevens Fishery Conservation and 

Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens 

Act), or as required by the supplemental 

rebuilding program review process 

implemented in Framework Adjustment 

51 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery 

Management Plan (FMP). This review 

process requires the Council to review 

a rebuilding plan if: The total catch 

limit for a stock has not been exceeded 

during the rebuilding program; new 

scientific information indicates that the 

stock is not rebuilding according to the 

program trajectory; and if the fishing 

mortality associated with rebuilding 

(Frebuild) drops below 75 percent of the 

fishing mortality associated with 

maximum sustainable yield (FMSY)). 

According to CLF, the Gulf of Maine cod 

stock has met all three of these criteria, 

but the Council has not initiated its 

required rebuilding program review. 

Further, CLF asserts that NMFS has 

failed to recognize or account for the 

findings of a National Research Council 

(NRC) Rebuilding Committee, which 

identified several reasons why stocks 

may not rebuild as expected under their 

respective rebuilding plans. Finally, 

CLF states that in NMFS’s denial of a 

2015 petition for rulemaking on Gulf of 

Maine cod, NMFS committed to prevent 

overfishing, rebuild the stock, and 

adjust management measures as needed 

in response to the findings of a 2015 

assessment. CLF asserts that these 

commitments were not upheld, and that 

NMFS did not properly balance 

biological and socioeconomic impacts 

in its rationale to deny the 2015 

petition. 

CLF’s petition also alleges that 

inadequate at-sea monitoring coverage 

in the sector fishery has failed to 

provide sufficiently accurate and 

precise data to prevent and end 

overfishing or rebuild the cod stocks. 

CLF asserts that inadequate monitoring 

coverage targets, coupled with low 

quotas, have created incentives for the 

fishing industry to illegally discard and 

misreport cod catch. Additionally, CLF 

relies on recent analyses in the 

development of Amendment 23 to the 

Northeast Multispecies FMP indicating 


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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 157 / Wednesday, August 18, 2021 / Notices 46227 

that there is an observer effect in the 

Northeast multispecies fishery. This 

observer effect could mean observed 

trips are not representative of 

unobserved trips. CLF also states that, 

without accurate and precise catch data, 

managers cannot appropriately apply 

the accountability measures that are 

designed to prevent overfishing. 

Last, CLF states that measures to 

protect essential fish habitat, help 

rebuild cod stock age structure, account 

for sub-populations, and account for 

climate change impacts, are critical to 

cod recovery. CLF asserts that the 

rebuilding plans that have been 

implemented for cod do not identify 

and protect critical cod spawning areas 

or adequately conserve habitat for 

juvenile cod. CLF also states that past 

management actions have failed to 

address truncated cod stock age 

structures, which may contribute to 

reduced recruitment and decreased 

resilience to stressors. CLF asserts that 

managing cod as two stocks (Gulf of 

Maine and Georges Bank) fails to 

account for sub-populations, and that 

recent research by the Atlantic Cod 

Stock Working Group suggests that at 

least three sub-populations exist. 

Differences in the characteristics of 

these sub-populations, such as 

differences in spawning seasonality, are 

important for stock recovery. Finally, 

CLF states that stock assessments and 

management measures for Atlantic cod 

must account for impacts to the stock 

due to climate change, especially since 

temperature and other environmental 

conditions have been shown to impact 

cod biology. 

The CLF petition requests NMFS 

implement all of the following 

conservation and management 

measures. 

1. 100-percent at-sea monitoring on 

all commercial groundfish trips. 

2. Measures to prohibit directed 

commercial and recreational fishing for 

Atlantic cod that: 

a. Implement large area closures once 

a stock’s incidental limit is caught; 

b. Reduce the incidental catch rate 

annually, consistent with the current 

ABC control rule until overfishing is 

ended; 

c. Prioritize the allocation of 

incidental catch to groundfish vessels, 

consistent with the current 

methodology; and 

d. Ensure that any incidental catch 

history during the closure of the 

directed fishery will not count towards 

future potential sector contributions. 

3. Area closures to protect all 

identified Atlantic cod spawning 

locations and favorable habitat for 

juvenile and adult cod. 

4. A requirement to use modified 

groundfish gear, such as haddock 

separator trawl or other selective fishing 

technology, throughout the U.S. range of 

Atlantic cod to reduce incidental cod 

catch. 

5. Additional measures in the 

recreational fisheries to reduce the 

mortality of incidental catch of Atlantic 

cod. 

In a letter dated June 10, 2020, NMFS 

requested the New England Fishery 

Management Council consider the 

petition. Because Council development 

of fishery management measures is the 

core of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, 

NMFS wanted to ensure that the 

Council considered the petition and had 

the opportunity to take appropriate 

action through the Council process if it 

deemed that such action was necessary. 

After considering the petition at its June 

Council meeting, the Council sent a 

letter to NMFS on November 27, 2020, 

describing its consideration and 

conclusions. The Council concluded 

that the petition does not have merit 

based on its rejection of CLF’s assertions 

underlying its claim that the Council 

has failed to take measures necessary to 

protect cod and declined to consider a 

majority of CLF’s recommended 

measures. The Council stated that it 

already approved increasing monitoring 

requirements in Amendment 23 to the 

Northeast Multispecies FMP. Also, it is 

important to note that the Council plans 

to consider how new cod stock structure 

information may affect development of 

conservation and management measures 

and is advocating for the development 

of a new data-limited modeling 

approach for the Eastern George Bank 

cod. See ADDRESSES for the Council’s 

letter and grounds for its decision. 

The Magnuson-Stevens Act authorizes 

regional fishery management councils to 

develop fishery management measures, 

and specifically provides the New 

England Fishery Management Council 

with the authority to manage the Gulf of 

Maine and Georges Bank cod stocks. For 

the reasons described above and in the 

Council’s letter to NMFS, the Council 

declined to take additional action on 

Atlantic cod after reviewing the 

contents of the petition. However, CLF 

has provided sufficient information and 

support in its request for Secretarial 

action to warrant publication of a notice 

seeking public comment. 

In addition to the petition and 

information provided by CLF and the 

Council, NMFS will consider comments 

received when determining whether to 

proceed with the development of 

conservation and management measures 

suggested by the petition. Upon 

determining whether to initiate the 

rulemaking suggested by the petition, 

the Assistant Administrator for 

Fisheries, NOAA, will publish a notice 

of the agency’s decision or action in the 

Federal Register. 

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

Dated: August 12, 2021. 

Kelly Denit, 

Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator for 

Regulatory Programs, National Marine 

Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2021–17674 Filed 8–17–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 

COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING 

COMMISSION 

Agency Information Collection 

Activities: Notice of Intent To Renew 

Collection Number 3038–0007, 

Regulation of Domestic ExchangeTraded Options 

AGENCY: Commodity Futures Trading 

Commission. 

ACTION: Notice; extension of an existing 

collection. 

SUMMARY: The Commodity Futures 

Trading Commission (CFTC) is 

announcing an opportunity for public 

comment on the proposed extension of 

a collection of certain information by 

the agency. Under the Paperwork 

Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), Federal 

agencies are required to publish notice 

in the Federal Register concerning each 

proposed collection of information, 

including each proposed extension of an 

existing collection of information, and 

to allow 60 days for public comment in 

response to the notice. This notice 

solicits comments on rules related to 

risk disclosure concerning exchangetraded commodity options. 

DATES: Comments must be submitted on 

or before October 18, 2021. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, 

identified by ‘‘OMB Control No. 3038– 

0007,’’ by any of the following methods: 

• The CFTC website, at http://

comments.cftc.gov/. Follow the 

instructions for submitting comments 

through the website. 

• Mail: Christopher Kirkpatrick, 

Secretary of the Commission, 

Commodity Futures Trading 

Commission, Three Lafayette Centre, 

1155 21st Street NW, Washington, DC 

20581. 

• Delivery/Courier: Same as Mail 

above. 

Please submit your comments using 

only one method and identify that it is 

for the extension/renewal of Collection 

Number 3038–0007. All comments must 

be submitted in English, or if not, 


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