Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 228 / Wednesday, November 26, 2014 / Proposed Rules 70497 

Issued in Washington, DC, on November 

19, 2014 under authority delegated in 49 CFR 

1.95, 501.5, and 501.8. 

R. Ryan Posten, 

Associate Administrator for Rulemaking. 

[FR Doc. 2014–27871 Filed 11–25–14; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–59–C 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

50 CFR Part 660 

RIN 0648–BE27 

Fisheries Off West Coast States; 

Amendment 24 to the Pacific Coast 

Groundfish Fishery Management Plan 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice of availability of 

proposed fishery management plan 

amendment; request for comments. 

SUMMARY: NMFS announces that the 

Pacific Fishery Management Council 

(Council) has submitted Amendment 24 

to the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery 

Management Plan (PCGFMP) for 

Secretarial review. Amendment 24 

would modify the PCGFMP to 

implement default harvest control rules, 

make minor changes to clarify routine 

management measure adjustment and 

implementation procedures, add two 

rockfish species to the PCGFMP, and 

designate several species as Ecosystem 

Component Species. 

DATES: Comments on Amendment 24 

must be received on or before January 

26, 2015. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments 

on this document, identified by NOAA– 

NMFS–2014–0138, by any of the 

following methods: 

• Electronic Submission: Submit all 

electronic public comments via the 

Federal e-Rulemaking Portal. Go to 

www.regulations.gov/

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

0138, click the ‘‘Comment Now!’’ icon, 

complete the required fields, and enter 

or attach your comments. 

• Mail: Submit written comments to 

William W. Stelle, Jr., Regional 

Administrator, 7600 Sand Point Way, 

NE., Seattle, WA, 98115. 

• Fax: 206–525–4736; Attn: Sarah 

Williams 

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. 

Information relevant to Amendment 

24, which includes a draft 

environmental impact statement (EIS), a 

regulatory impact review (RIR), and an 

initial regulatory flexibility analysis 

(IRFA) are available for public review 

during business hours at the office of 

the Pacific Fishery Management Council 

(Council), at 7700 NE Ambassador 

Place, Portland, OR 97220, phone: 503– 

820–2280, or at www.pcouncil.org. 

Copies of additional reports referred to 


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70498 Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 228 / Wednesday, November 26, 2014 / Proposed Rules 

in this document may also be obtained 

from the Council. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Sarah Williams, phone: 206–526–4646, 

fax: 206–526–6736, or email: 

sarah.williams@noaa.gov 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Electronic Access 

This notice is accessible via the 

Internet at the Office of the Federal 

Register Web site at https://

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 Magnuson-Stevens Act requires 

that each regional fishery management 

council submit any FMP or plan 

amendment it prepares to NMFS for 

review and approval, disapproval, or 

partial approval. The Magnuson-Stevens 

Act also requires that NMFS, upon 

receiving an FMP or amendment, 

immediately publish a notice that the 

FMP or amendment is available for 

public review and comment. NMFS will 

consider the public comments received 

during the comment period described 

above in determining whether to 

approve Amendment 24 to the 

PCGFMP. 

Amendment 24 consists of three 

components: (1) Default harvest control 

rules; (2) a suite of minor changes, 

including clarification of routine 

management measures and adjustments 

to those measures, clarification to the 

harvest specifications decision making 

schedule, changes to the description of 

the biennial management cycle process, 

technical changes, updates to make the 

FMP consistent with SSC guidance on 

the FMSY proxy for elasmobranchs, and 

clarifications to definitions; and (3) 

addition of two rockfish species to the 

PCGFMP and the designation of EC 

species. 

Default Harvest Control Rules, 

Clarifications, and Adding Species 

Over the past 3 years, the Council has 

been examining the harvest 

specifications and management 

measures decision-making process, and 

related analytical requirements in an 

effort to simplify these processes. 

Several biennial harvest specifications 

cycles have not met their intended 

January 1 start date and it was thought 

that efficiencies could be gained by 

adjusting Council decision-making and 

the analysis undertaken each biennial 

cycle. Therefore, the Council undertook 

Amendment 24 to examine ways to 

streamline the Council decision-making 

in each biennium to implement the 

harvest specifications and management 

measures. This resulted in several 

changes to how the Council will address 

harvest specifications beginning in the 

2017–2018 biennium. 

The use of default harvest control 

rules and their addition to the FMP is 

intended to simplify the Council’s 

harvest specifications process and 

acknowledge that the Council generally 

maintains the policy choices from the 

previous biennium to determine the 

annual catch limits for the next 

biennium. Under Amendment 24, the 

harvest control rules used to determine 

the previous biennium’s harvest 

specifications (i.e., overfishing limits, 

acceptable biological catches, and 

annual catch limits) would 

automatically be applied to the best 

scientific information available to 

determine the future biennium’s harvest 

specifications. NMFS would implement 

harvest specifications based on the 

default harvest control rules unless the 

Council makes a different 

recommendation. In addition to the use 

of defaults to simplify the harvest 

specifications process, Amendment 24 

makes changes to the description of the 

type of management measures that may 

be addressed through the biennial 

process. Clarifying that the management 

measures should be: (1) Management 

measures to be classified as routine the 

first time these measures are used; (2) 

adjustments to current management 

measures that are classified as routine; 

and (3) new management measures, not 

previously analyzed. This clarifies the 

focus of management measures and is 

intended to simplify the management 

measures proposed through each 

biennial cycle. 

The addition of sunset rockfish to the 

PCGFMP recognizes new information 

from the most recent stock assessment 

on vermillion rockfish, which shows 

that there are two stocks (vermillion and 

sunset rockfish) instead of one as 

previously thought. Blackspotted 

rockfish are being added to the PCGFMP 

because blackspotted/rougheye were 

assessed as one stock and a sorting 

requirement is proposed for 

blackspotted/rougheye rockfish through 

the 2015–2016 harvest specifications 

and management measures proposed 

rule. 

Designation of Ecosystem Component 

Species 

Finally, Amendment 24 designates 

several species and species groups as 

Ecosystem Component (EC) species. The 

concept of EC species was added to the 

PCGFMP under Amendment 23, which 

revised the PCGFMP to comply with the 

revised MSA National Standard 1 

Guidelines. However, no species were 

designated as EC species at that time. 

Generally, EC species should be a nontarget stock, not be subject to 

overfishing or determined to be 

overfished or approaching an overfished 

condition, and not likely to become so 

in the absence of management measures; 

and not generally retained for sale or 

personal use. Amendment 24 proposes 

to designate the following species, 

which were already in the PCGFMP, as 

EC species: big skate, California skate, 

Pacific grenadier, soupfin shark, spotted 

ratfish, and finescale codling. 

Additionally, the following species or 

species groups are proposed to be added 

to the PCGFMP as EC species: Aleutian 

skate, Bering/sandpaper skate, 

roughtail/black skate, all other skates, 

giant grenadier, and all other grenadiers. 

EC species are not considered ‘‘in the 

fishery’’, and do not require 

establishment of harvest specifications 

(e.g. OFLs, ABCs and ACLs). 

Public Comments 

NMFS welcomes comments on the 

proposed FMP amendment through the 

end of the comment period. A proposed 

rule to implement Amendment 24 has 

been submitted for Secretarial review 

and approval. NMFS expects to publish 

and request public review and comment 

on proposed regulations to implement 

Amendment 24, along with the 

groundfish specifications and 

management measures for 2015 and 

2016, in the near future. Public 

comments on the proposed rule must be 

received by the end of the comment 

period on the amendment to be 

considered in the approval/disapproval 

decision on the amendment. All 

comments received by the end of the 

comment period for the amendment, 

whether specifically directed to the 

amendment or the proposed rule, will 

be considered in the approval/

disapproval decision. 

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

Dated: November 21, 2014. 

Emily H. Menashes, 

Acting Director, Office of Sustainable 

Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2014–28034 Filed 11–25–14; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 

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