Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 181 / Wednesday, September 17, 2008 / Rules and Regulations 53763 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

50 CFR Part 660 

[Docket No. 080408542–8615–01] 

RIN 0648–XK03 

Fisheries off West Coast States; 

Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery; End 

of the Pacific Whiting Primary Season 

for the Catcher-processor, Mothership 

and Shore-based Sectors 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Fishing restrictions; request for 

comments. 

SUMMARY: To minimize impacts on 

canary rockfish, NMFS announces the 

end of the 2008 Pacific whiting primary 

season for the catcher-processor, 

mothership and shore-based sectors at 

noon local time (l.t.) August 19, 2008. 

This action is intended to keep the 

harvest of canary rockfish, an overfished 

species, within its 2008 optimum yield 

(OY). 

DATES: Effective from noon l.t. August 

19 2008, until the start of the 2009 

primary seasons, unless modified, 

superseded or rescinded. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Becky Renko, Office of Sustainable 

Fisheries, Northwest Region, NMFS, 

7600 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA 

98115 0070; tel: 206–526–6110; fax: 

206–526–6736; or, e-mail: becky.renko@ 

noaa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This 

action is authorized by regulations 

implementing the Pacific Coast 

Groundfish Fishery Management Plan 

(FMP), which governs the groundfish 

fishery off Washington, Oregon, and 

California. 

The 2008 non-tribal commercial OY 

for whiting is 232,545 mt. Regulations at 

50 CFR 660.323(a)(4) divide the 

commercial whiting OY into separate 

allocations for the catcher-processor, 

mothership, and shore-based sectors. 

The catcher-processor sector is 

composed of vessels that harvest and 

process whiting. The mothership sector 

is composed of catcher vessels that 

harvest whiting and mothership vessels 

that process, but do not harvest whiting. 

The shore-based sector is composed of 

vessels that harvest whiting for delivery 

to land-based processors. Each 

commercial sector is allocated a portion 

of the commercial OY. For 2008 the 

catcher-processors received 34 percent 

(79,065 mt), motherships received 24 

percent (55,811 mt), and the shore-based 

sector received 42 percent (97,669 mt) 

(73 FR 26325; May 9, 2008). 

Overfished Species 

The limited availability of overfished 

species that can be taken as incidental 

catch in the whiting fisheries, 

particularly canary, darkblotched and 

widow rockfish, led NMFS to 

implement bycatch limits for those 

species. With bycatch limits, the 

industry has the opportunity to harvest 

a larger whiting OY, providing the 

incidental catch of overfished species 

does not exceed the adopted bycatch 

limits. If a bycatch limit is reached, all 

non-tribal sectors of the whiting fishery 

are closed for the remainder of the year. 

For 2008, the following bycatch limits 

were specified for the non-tribal whiting 

sectors: 4.7 mt for canary rockfish, 40 mt 

for darkblotched rockfish, and 275 mt 

for widow rockfish. 

The best available information as of 

August 18, 2008, indicated that the 

canary rockfish bycatch limit was 

reached. Accoringly, the primary 

seasons for the catcher/processors 

sector, mothership sector and the shorebased sectors was ended at noon l.t. 

August 19, 2008, through actual notice 

to the fishery participants. Actual notice 

was provided by facsimile on August 

18th. The closure announcement was 

also posted on the NWR internet site for 

the Pacific whiting fishery. 

NMFS Action 

This notice announces that the 

primary seasons for the catcherprocessor sector, mothership sector and 

the shore-based sectors of the whiting 

fishery, were ended on August 19, 2008 

because the best available information 

indicated that 4.7 mt of canary rockfish 

had been taken in the non-tribal whiting 

fisheries. For the reasons stated here 

and in accordance with the regulations 

at 50 CFR 660.373(b) and 50 CFR 

660.232(b), NMFS herein announces 

that effective noon l.t. August 19, 2008: 

(1) further taking and retaining, 

receiving or at-sea processing of whiting 

by a catcher-processor is prohibited; (2) 

Further receiving or at-sea processing of 

whiting by a mothership is prohibited 

and no additional unprocessed whiting 

may be brought on board after at-sea 

processing is prohibited, and (3) no 

more than 10,000-lb (4,536 kg) per trip 

of whiting may be taken and retained, 

possessed or landed by any vessel 

participating in the shore-based sector 

of the whiting fishery, unless otherwise 

announced in the Federal Register. For 

vessels in the at-sea processing sectors, 

no additional unprocessed whiting may 

be brought on board after at-sea 

processing is prohibited, but a catcherprocessor or mothership may continue 

to process whiting that was on board 

before at-sea processing was prohibited. 

For vessels in the shore-based sector 

fishing shoreward of the 100 fm (183 m) 

contour in the Eureka area (43°-40°30′ 

N. lat.) at any time during a fishing trip, 

the 10,000-lb (4,536 kg) trip limit 

applies, as announced in the 

management measures in § 660.373 (d). 

Classification 

This action is authorized by the 

regulations implementing the FMP. The 

determination to take this action is 

based on the most recent data available. 

The Assistant Administrator for 

Fisheries, NMFS, finds good cause to 

waive the requirement to provide prior 

notice and opportunity for comment on 

this action pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 553 

(3)(b)(B), because providing prior notice 

and opportunity would be 

impracticable. It would be impracticable 

because if this closure were delayed in 

order to provide notice and comment, 

the catch of canary rockfish would be 

expected to result in the rebuildingbased OY being exceeded. The delay 

needed to provide a cooling off period 

also would be expected to result in the 

rebuilding-based OY for canary rockfish 

being exceeded. Therefore, good cause 

also exists to waive the 30-day delay in 

effectiveness requirement of 5 U.S.C. 

553 (d)(3). The aggregate data upon 

which the determination is based are 

available for public inspection at the 

Office of Sustainable Fisheries during 

business hours. This action is taken 

under the authority of 50 CFR 660.373 

(b) and 50 CFR 660.232(b)and is exempt 

from review under E.O. 12866. 

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

Dated: September 9, 2008. 

James P. Burgess, 

Acting Director, Office of Sustainable 

Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. E8–21744 Filed 9–16–08; 8:45 am] 

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