61272 Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 197 / Friday, October 10, 2014 / Proposed Rules 

NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION 

SAFETY BOARD 

49 CFR Part 831 

[Docket No. NTSB–GC–2012–0002] 

RIN 3147–AA01 

Investigation Procedures 

AGENCY: National Transportation Safety 

Board (NTSB). 

ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking 

(NPRM); extension of comment period. 

SUMMARY: On August 12, 2014, the 

NTSB published a Notice of Proposed 

Rulemaking (NPRM) to amend its 

regulations concerning its investigation 

procedures. The NTSB is publishing 

this notice to inform the public that it 

is extending the comment period for the 

NPRM to October 31, 2014. 

DATES: Submit comments on or before 

October 31, 2014. 

ADDRESSES: A copy of this NPRM, 

published in the Federal Register (FR), 

is available for inspection and copying 

in the NTSB’s public reading room, 

located at 490 L’Enfant Plaza SW., 

Washington, DC 20594–2003. 

Alternatively, a copy is available on the 

government-wide Web site on 

regulations at http://

www.regulations.gov (Docket ID Number 

NTSB–GC–2012–0002). 

You may send comments identified 

by Docket ID Number NTSB–GC–2012– 

0002 using any of the following 

methods: 

Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to 

http://www.regulations.gov and follow 

the instructions for sending your 

comments electronically. 

Mail: Send comments to NTSB Office 

of General Counsel, 490 L’Enfant Plaza 

East SW., Washington, DC 20594–2003. 

Facsimile: Fax comments to 202–314– 

6090. 

Hand Delivery: Bring comments to 

490 L’Enfant Plaza East SW., 6th Floor, 

Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 

p.m., Monday through Friday, except 

Federal holidays. 

Privacy: We will post all comments 

we receive, without change, to http://

www.regulations.gov, including any 

personal information provided. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

David Tochen, General Counsel, (202) 

314–6080. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: After 

issuing the August 12, 2014 Notice of 

Proposed Rulemaking concerning the 

NTSB’s event investigation procedures 

(79 FR 47064), representatives from 

other Federal agencies contacted the 

NTSB to inform us they would need 

more time to submit comments. After 

considering these requests, and in light 

of the comprehensive nature of the 

NPRM, we believe it prudent to extend 

the comment period to October 31, 

2014. 

In accordance with 49 CFR 800.24(c), 

the Board has delegated to the General 

Counsel the authority to ‘‘[a]pprove or 

disapprove, for good cause shown, 

requests to extend the time for filing 

comments on proposed new or amended 

regulations.’’ I find good cause exists to 

provide the public additional time to 

submit thorough comments. Based on 

this authority, I submit this notice to 

extend the comment period for the 

NPRM concerning 49 CFR part 831 to 

October 31, 2014. 

David K. Tochen, 

General Counsel. 

[FR Doc. 2014–24360 Filed 10–9–14; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7533–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

50 CFR Part 660 

[Docket No. 140904753–4801–01] 

RIN 0648–BE34 

Magnuson-Stevens Act Provisions; 

Fisheries off West Coast States; 

Regulatory Amendment to Pacific 

Coast Groundfish Fisheries Trawl 

Rationalization Program for the Start of 

2015 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Proposed rule; request for 

comments. 

SUMMARY: This proposed rule would 

revise regulations for the Pacific Coast 

Groundfish fishery with a target 

implementation date of January 1, 2015. 

Final implementation of the 2015–2016 

biennial harvest specifications and 

management measures will likely be 

delayed beyond January 1, 2015. NMFS 

has identified two issues that must be 

addressed prior to January 1, 2015, to 

prevent interruption of ongoing fisheries 

and to allow harvest of the total 

allowable groundfish catch. This action 

would address those issues by revising 

groundfish regulations in two ways. 

First, this action would replace language 

that was inadvertently deleted after a 

series of temporary rulemakings. This 

would reinstate a mechanism whereby 

NMFS can issue interim groundfish 

allocations at the beginning of the year, 

allowing the Pacific coast groundfish 

fishery to continue in years when 

annual groundfish harvest specifications 

are expiring and new ones are not yet 

finalized, as is likely for January 1, 

2015. Second, this action would amend 

regulations to extend NMFS’ authority 

to issue the full shorebased trawl 

allocation of groundfish to current quota 

share holders in the Shorebased 

Individual Fishing Quota Program. 

Specifically, the rule would allow 

NMFS to issue that portion of the 

allowable catch currently allocated to an 

Adaptive Management Program (AMP), 

to quota share holders until final criteria 

and a process for distribution of the 

AMP quota shares is developed and 

implemented. 

DATES: Submit comments on or before 

November 10, 2014. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, 

identified by NOAA–NMFS–2014–0098, 

by any of the following methods: 

• Electronic Submissions: Submit all 

electronic public comments via the 

Federal e-Rulemaking Portal. Go to 

www.regulations.gov/

#!docketDetail;D=NOAA-NMFS-2014- 

0098, click the ‘‘Comment Now!’’ icon, 

complete the required fields, and enter 

or attach your comments. 

• Mail: William W. Stelle, Jr., 

Regional Administrator, West Coast 

Region, NMFS, 7600 Sand Point Way 

NE., Seattle, WA 98115–0070, Attn: 

Miako Ushio. 

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 publicly accessible. NMFS will 

accept anonymous comments (enter ‘‘N/ 

A’’ in the required fields if you wish to 

remain anonymous). Attachments to 

electronic comments will be accepted in 

Microsoft Word, Excel, or Adobe PDF 

file formats only. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Miako Ushio, phone: 206–526–4644; or 

email: Miako.Ushio@noaa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Electronic Access 

This rule is accessible via the Internet 

at the Office of the Federal Register 

Web site at https://

mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with PROPOSALS

Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 197 / Friday, October 10, 2014 / Proposed Rules 61273 

www.federalregister.gov. Background 

information and documents are 

available at the NMFS West Coast 

Region Web site at http://

www.westcoast.fisheries.noaa.gov/

fisheries/groundfish/index.html and at 

the Council’s Web site at http://

www.pcouncil.org. 

Background 

The Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery 

Management Plan (FMP) requires the 

Pacific Fishery Management Council 

(Council) to set harvest specifications 

and management measures for 

groundfish at least biennially. Council 

development of the 2015–2016 harvest 

specifications and management 

measures began in summer 2013 and 

culminated with a June 2014 

recommendation for harvest 

specifications and associated 

management measures, with a target 

effective date of January 1, 2015. The 

effective date of these regulations will 

likely be delayed beyond January 1, 

2015. In the event of a delay, NMFS has 

identified two issues that must be 

addressed to prevent interruption of 

ongoing fisheries and to allow harvest of 

the total allowable groundfish catch. 

Those two issues are addressed through 

this Proposed Rule. 

Issuance of Groundfish Quota 

In January 2011, NMFS implemented 

the Trawl Rationalization Program for 

the Pacific coast groundfish fishery’s 

trawl fleet (75 FR 78344, December 15, 

2010). This program included a 

provision to use a conservative estimate 

to issue Pacific whiting quota pounds 

(QP) at the beginning of the year in 

years when harvest specifications of 

Pacific whiting are not known by 

January 1. The remainder of the quota 

pounds would be issued when the final 

harvest specifications are established. A 

similar provision for non-whiting 

groundfish species was added a year 

later (76 FR 74725, December 1, 2011). 

In response to litigation, these 

provisions were amended via a 

temporary rule (77 FR 45508, August 1, 

2012, extended via 78 FR 3848 through 

July 22, 2013). With the expiration of 

this temporary rule in 2013, the 

language allowing NMFS to use a 

conservative estimate for issuance of the 

non-whiting harvest QPs was 

inadvertently deleted. That provision is 

proposed to be reinstated through this 

proposed rule. 

Extension of AMP Quota Pass-Through 

As part of the Trawl Rationalization 

Program, NMFS created an Adaptive 

Management Program (AMP) 

(§ 660.140(d)(1)(ii)(A)) to address 

multiple purposes: community stability, 

processor stability, conservation, 

unintended/unforeseen consequences of 

the Trawl Rationalization Program, or to 

facilitate new entrants. The program 

reserved 10 percent of non-whiting 

quota share (QS) for these purposes. 

However, because the method for 

distributing the resulting QP from AMP 

QS has not yet been established, 

consistent with the program, NMFS has 

been issuing the QP to current QS 

holders in proportion to their nonwhiting QS. For the first years of the 

program, this allocation policy was seen 

as a means to ease the transition of the 

QS fisheries into the Trawl 

Rationalization Program with the 

expectation that the trawl program 

would be modified to address changes 

in the fishery. Both the Council and 

NMFS have monitored this fishery, and 

have not identified any concerns related 

to communities, processors, 

conservation, or other matters that 

would need to be addressed now by the 

AMP quota. 

The Pacific Fishery Management 

Council intends to conduct a formal 5- 

year review of the Trawl Rationalization 

program, as required under Magnuson 

Steven Act 303A(c)(1)(G). The passthrough mechanism is currently set to 

expire at the end of 2014, and this rule 

proposes, in accordance with the 

Council’s recommendations from its 

March, 2014 meeting, to extend the pro 

rata pass-through until the 

implementation of appropriate 

regulations resulting from the 5-year 

review. NMFS is proposing to extend 

the pro rata pass-through so that the fish 

authorized for harvest through the 

biennial specifications process will 

continue to be available to benefit the 

fishing industry, dependent 

communities, and consumers. Without 

this rulemaking, 10 percent of the nonwhiting QS would not be issued. Based 

on 2013 non-whiting groundfish 

revenues of $28.2 million, this would 

result in a loss of approximately $2.8 

million to the shorebased trawl fleet. 

Classification 

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

Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA), the 

NMFS Assistant Administrator has 

preliminarily determined that this 

proposed rule is consistent with the 

PCGFMP, other provisions of the 

Magnuson-Stevens, Act, and other 

applicable law, subject to further 

consideration after public comment. 

A draft Environmental Assessment 

(EA) was prepared for the pass-through 

of adaptive management quota pounds 

portion of this proposed action, and can 

be found on the NOAA Fisheries 

Groundfish Trawl Catch Share Web site 

at www.westcoast.fisheries.noaa.gov/

fisheries/groundfish_catch_shares. 

The Chief Counsel for Regulation of 

the Department of Commerce certified 

to the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the 

Small Business Administration that this 

proposed rule, if adopted, would not 

have a significant economic impact on 

a substantial number of small entities. 

This rule concerns the allocation of 

Quota shares via the AMP pass through 

provisions. Quota share holders are 

comprised of fishermen, processors, and 

non-profit organizations. As part of the 

2014 QS application renewal process, 

quota share holders were asked if they 

considered themselves a ‘‘small’’ 

business based on a review of the Small 

Business Association (SBA) affiliation 

size criteria, including the $19.0 million 

size standard for finfish fishing. The 

size standard for finfish fishing has 

recently changed. On June 12, 2014, the 

SBA issued an interim final rule 

revising the small business size 

standards for several industries effective 

July 14, 2014. 79 FR 33467 (June 12, 

2014). The rule increased the size 

standard from $19.0 to $20.5 million for 

finfish fishing, from $5 to $5.5 million 

for shellfish fishing, and from $7.0 

million to $7.5 million for other marine 

fishing, for-hire businesses, and 

marinas. A small organization is any 

nonprofit enterprise that is 

independently owned and operated and 

is not dominant in its field. For those 

finfish companies that reported 

themselves as ‘‘large’’ under the $19.0 

million standard, NMFS has reviewed 

available data on ownership, affiliation, 

industry Web sites, and recent analysis 

(NMFS-Alaska Region). NMFS did not 

find any information that would change 

their status under the new finfish 

standard. Based on this analysis, NMFS 

estimates that the 138 quota share 

accounts are held by 99 entities, of 

which 87 are small entities. 

This rule would not result in any 

immediate impacts on revenues or costs 

for the small entities because it 

maintains the current AMP passthrough processes used in this fishery 

since 2011. This rule making does not 

contain any new management measures 

that would have specific economic 

impacts on the fishery. Therefore, this 

proposed rule, if promulgated, would 

not have a significant economic impact 

on a substantial number of small 

entities. As a result, an initial regulatory 

flexibility analysis is not required and 

none has been prepared. NMFS will 

conduct the appropriate analyses for 

any subsequent rulemakings stemming 

from this proposed rule. 

mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with PROPOSALS

61274 Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 197 / Friday, October 10, 2014 / Proposed Rules 

This proposed rule has been 

determined to be not significant for 

purposes of Executive Order 12866. 

List of Subjects in 50 CFR Part 660 

Fisheries, Fishing, and Indian 

fisheries. 

Dated: October 2, 2014. 

Samuel D. Rauch III, 

Deputy Assistant Administrator for 

Regulatory Programs, National Marine 

Fisheries Service. 

For the reasons set out in the 

preamble, NMFS proposes to amend 50 

CFR part 660 as follows: 

PART 660—FISHERIES OFF WEST 

COAST STATES 

■ 1. The authority citation for part 660 

continues to read as follows: 

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

U.S.C. 773 et seq. 

■ 2. In § 660.140, revise paragraphs 

(d)(1)(ii)(A) introductory text, 

(d)(1)(ii)(A)(1) and (2), (d)(1)(ii)(B)(1) 

and (2), and paragraph (l)(2) to read as 

follows: 

§ 660.140 Shorebased IFQ Program. 

* * * * * 

(d) * * * 

(1) * * * 

(ii) * * * 

(A) Non-whiting QP annual suballocations. NMFS will issue QP for IFQ 

species other than Pacific whiting and 

Pacific halibut annually by multiplying 

the QS permit owner’s QS for each such 

IFQ species by that year’s shorebased 

trawl allocation for that IFQ species. 

Deposits to QS accounts for IFQ species 

other than Pacific whiting and Pacific 

halibut will be made on or about 

January 1 each year. Until the 

implementation of any regulatory 

changes developed pursuant to the first 

program review for the trawl 

rationalization program, the resulting 

AMP QP will be issued to all QS permit 

owners in proportion to their nonwhiting QS. 

(1) In years where the groundfish 

harvest specifications are known by 

January 1, deposits to QS accounts for 

IFQ species will be made on or about 

January 1. 

(2) In years where the groundfish 

harvest specifications are not known by 

January 1, NMFS will issue QP in two 

parts. On or about January 1, NMFS will 

deposit QP based on the shorebased 

trawl allocation multiplied by the lower 

end of the range of potential harvest 

specifications for that year. After the 

final harvest specifications are 

established later in the year, NMFS will 

deposit additional QP to the QS 

account. 

* * * * * 

(B) * * * 

(1) In years where the Pacific whiting 

harvest specification is known by 

January 1, deposits to QS accounts for 

Pacific whiting will be made on or about 

January 1. 

(2) In years where the Pacific whiting 

harvest specification is not known by 

January 1, NMFS will issue Pacific 

whiting QP in two parts. On or about 

January 1, NMFS will deposit Pacific 

whiting QP based on the shorebased 

trawl allocation multiplied by the lower 

end of the range of potential harvest 

specifications for Pacific whiting for 

that year. After the final Pacific whiting 

harvest specifications are established 

later in the year, NMFS will deposit 

additional QP to QS accounts. 

* * * * * 

(l) * * * 

(2) AMP QP pass through. The 10 

percent of non-whiting QS will be 

reserved for the AMP, but the resulting 

AMP QP will be issued to all QS permit 

owners in proportion to their nonwhiting QS until the implementation of 

any regulatory changes developed 

pursuant to the first program review for 

the trawl rationalization program. 

[FR Doc. 2014–24192 Filed 10–9–14; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 

mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with PROPOSALS