40744 Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 130 / Friday, July 8, 2022 / Rules and Regulations 

(iv) The recreational ACL for red 

grouper in gutted weight is 2.02 million 

lb (0.92 million kg). The recreational 

ACT for red grouper in gutted weight is 

1.84 million lb (0.83 million kg). 

* * * * * 

[FR Doc. 2022–14545 Filed 7–7–22; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

50 CFR Part 660 

[RTID 0648–XB763] 

Fisheries Off West Coast States; 

Standardized Bycatch Reporting 

Methodology Amendments to the 

Fishery Management Plans for Coastal 

Pelagic Species, West Coast Highly 

Migratory Species, and Pacific Coast 

Salmon 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice of Agency decision. 

SUMMARY: NMFS announces the 

approval of three fishery management 

plan (FMP) amendments: Amendment 

19 to the FMP for Coastal Pelagic 

Species (CPS FMP), Amendment 7 to 

the FMP for the West Coast Highly 

Migratory Species (HMS FMP), and 

Amendment 22 to the FMP for Pacific 

Coast Salmon Fisheries (Salmon FMP) 

(collectively Amendments). These 

Amendments modify language in the 

CPS, HMS, and Salmon FMPs to more 

clearly describe and align the FMPs 

with the way bycatch is currently 

reported in the fisheries managed by the 

Council. These Amendments ensure 

conformance with national guidance for 

compliance with the standardized 

bycatch reporting methodology (SBRM) 

requirement in the Magnuson-Stevens 

Fishery Conservation and Management 

Act (MSA). 

DATES: The Amendments were approved 

on July 5, 2022. 

ADDRESSES: Electronic copies of the 

Amendments may be obtained from 

www.regulations.gov or the West Coast 

Region website at https://

www.fisheries.noaa.gov/action/ 

standardized-bycatch-reportingmethodology-amendments-fisherymanagement-plans-coastal. Additional 

documents can be found on the 

Council’s website at www.pcouncil.org. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For 

CPS—Taylor Debevec at (562) 980–4066 

or taylor.debevec@noaa.gov. For HMS— 

Celia Barroso at (562) 432–1850 or 

celia.barroso@noaa.gov. For Salmon— 

Jeromy Jording at (360) 763–2268 or 

jeromy.jording@noaa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

The Magnuson-Stevens Act requires 

that each regional fishery management 

council submit any FMP amendment it 

prepares to NMFS for review and 

approval, disapproval, or partial 

approval by the Secretary. 16 U.S.C. 

1854(a). NMFS manages the CPS, HMS, 

and salmon fisheries in the Pacific Coast 

exclusive economic zone under the CPS, 

HMS, and Salmon FMPs, respectively. 

The Pacific Fishery Management 

Council (Council) prepared these FMPs 

under the authority of the MagnusonStevens Act, 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq. 

Regulations governing U.S. fisheries and 

implementing the FMPs appear at 50 

CFR parts 600 and 660. 

Section 303(a)(11) of the MagnusonStevens Act requires that any FMP 

establish a SBRM to assess the amount 

and type of bycatch occurring in the 

fishery, and include conservation and 

management measures that, to the 

extent practicable and in the following 

priority—(A) minimize bycatch, and (B) 

minimize the mortality of bycatch that 

cannot be avoided. (16 U.S.C. 

1853(a)(11)) 

On January 19, 2017, NMFS 

published a final rule (82 FR 6317) 

establishing national guidance 

regulations at 50 CFR 600.1600 through 

50 CFR 600.1610 for compliance with 

the Magnuson-Stevens Act SBRM 

requirement (SBRM regulations). The 

SBRM regulations require regional 

fishery management councils, in 

coordination with NMFS, to review 

their FMPs and make any necessary 

changes so all FMPs are consistent with 

the guidance. 

The SBRM regulations define an 

SBRM as a consistent procedure or 

procedures used to collect, record, and 

report bycatch data in a fishery managed 

under an FMP. This information, in 

conjunction with other relevant sources, 

is used to assess the amount and type 

of bycatch occurring in the fishery and 

inform the development of conservation 

and management measures to minimize 

bycatch. The SBRM regulations require 

the Council to explain how each FMP’s 

SBRM meets the purpose described in 

the national guidelines, based on an 

analysis of four considerations: (1) 

Characteristics of bycatch in the fishery, 

(2) the feasibility of the reporting 

methodology, (3) the uncertainty of data 

resulting from the methodology, and (4) 

how the data will be used to assess the 

amount and type of bycatch occurring in 

the fishery (50 CFR 600.1610(a)). The 

Council undertook a review of its FMPs 

to ensure they met this requirement. 

That review resulted in the three 

Amendments referenced in this notice 

that make additions and modifications 

to the CPS, HMS, and Salmon FMPs to 

clearly and accurately describe the 

SBRM for those fisheries, consistent 

with the SBRM regulations. 

Further detail describing the 

Amendments was provided in the 

Notice of Availability for this action and 

is not repeated here. 

Procedural Aspects of the Amendments 

The Council submitted the 

Amendments to the Secretary for review 

on April 4, 2022. On April 12, 2022, 

NMFS published a notice of availability 

(NOA) for the Amendments, including 

background on the rationale for how the 

respective amendments proposed to 

satisfy the requirements of the SBRM 

regulations, and requested public 

review and comment (87 FR 21603). 

Public comments were received 

pertaining to the Salmon FMP 

amendment and are addressed below. 

The Amendments do not add any new 

reporting requirements and do not 

change any regulatory requirements. 

Therefore, no proposed or final rule was 

prepared. This action only modifies 

language in the CPS, HMS, and Salmon 

FMPs to more clearly describe and align 

with how bycatch is currently reported 

in the fisheries managed by the Council. 

Comments and Responses 

NMFS received a combined 17,355 

comments regarding the Amendment 22 

for the Salmon FMP. These comments 

were directed at actions to protect 

Southern Resident Killer Whales 

(SRKW) and are not relevant to the 

development of SBRM for ocean salmon 

fisheries. Rather, these comments 

reiterated comments NMFS previously 

addressed in the final environmental 

assessment (EA) for FMP Amendment 

21 (https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov//

action/amendment-21-pacific-coastsalmon-fishery-management-plan), in 

the notice of agency decision (86 FR 

51017, September 14, 2021), and the 

West Coast Salmon Fisheries 2022 


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Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 130 / Friday, July 8, 2022 / Rules and Regulations 40745 

Specifications and Management 

Measures (https://

www.federalregister.gov/documents/ 

2022/05/16/2022-10430/fisheries-offwest-coast-states-west-coast-salmonfisheries-2022-specifications-andmanagement). 

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

Dated: July 5, 2022. 

Samuel D. Rauch III, 

Deputy Assistant Administrator for 

Regulatory Programs, National Marine 

Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2022–14597 Filed 7–7–22; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 


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