73848 Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 239 / Friday, December 12, 2014 / Rules and Regulations 

with a header stating ‘‘Confidential 

Version.’’ The unredacted version must 

be filed on the same day as the redacted 

version. 

(4) Serve one hard copy of the filed 

unredacted materials and one hard copy 

of the filed redacted materials on the 

attorney of record for each party to the 

proceeding, or, where a party is not 

represented by an attorney, each party 

to the proceeding either by hand 

delivery, overnight delivery, or email, 

together with a proof of such service in 

accordance with the requirements of 

§§ 1.47(g) and 1.735(f)(1) through (3) of 

this chapter; 

(d) Except as provided in paragraph 

(e) of this section, materials marked as 

proprietary may be disclosed solely to 

the following persons, only for use in 

prosecuting or defending a party to the 

complaint action, and only to the extent 

necessary to assist in the prosecution or 

defense of the case: 

(1) Counsel of record representing the 

parties in the complaint action and any 

support personnel employed by such 

attorneys; 

(2) Officers or employees of the 

opposing party who are named by the 

opposing party as being directly 

involved in the prosecution or defense 

of the case; 

(3) Consultants or expert witnesses 

retained by the parties; 

(4) The Commission and its staff; and 

(5) Court reporters and stenographers 

in accordance with the terms and 

conditions of this section. 

(e) The Commission will entertain, 

subject to a proper showing under 

§ 0.459 of this chapter, a party’s request 

to further restrict access to proprietary 

information. Pursuant to § 0.459 of this 

chapter, the other parties will have an 

opportunity to respond to such requests. 

Requests and responses to requests may 

not be submitted by means of the 

Commission’s Electronic Comment 

Filing System but instead must be filed 

under seal with the Office of the 

Secretary. 

(f) The individuals identified in 

paragraphs (d)(1) through (3) of this 

section shall not disclose information 

designated as proprietary to any person 

who is not authorized under this section 

to receive such information, and shall 

not use the information in any activity 

or function other than the prosecution 

or defense in the case before the 

Commission. Each individual who is 

provided access to the information shall 

sign a notarized statement affirmatively 

stating that the individual has 

personally reviewed the Commission’s 

rules and understands the limitations 

they impose on the signing party. 

(g) No copies of materials marked 

proprietary may be made except copies 

to be used by persons designated in 

paragraphs (d) and (e) of this section. 

Each party shall maintain a log 

recording the number of copies made of 

all proprietary material and the persons 

to whom the copies have been provided. 

(h) Upon termination of the pole 

attachment complaint proceeding, 

including all appeals and petitions, all 

originals and reproductions of any 

proprietary materials, along with the log 

recording persons who received copies 

of such materials, shall be provided to 

the producing party. In addition, upon 

final termination of the proceeding, any 

notes or other work product derived in 

whole or in part from the proprietary 

materials of an opposing or third party 

shall be destroyed. 

[FR Doc. 2014–28736 Filed 12–11–14; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6712–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

50 CFR Parts 229 and 697 

[Docket No. 141002823–4999–02] 

RIN 0648–BE57 

Taking of Marine Mammals Incidental 

to Commercial Fishing Operations and 

Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative 

Management Act Provisions; American 

Lobster Fishery 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Final rule. 

SUMMARY: NMFS issues this final rule to 

amend the regulations implementing the 

Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction 

Plan to modify the start date of the 

Massachusetts Restricted Area to begin 

on February 1, 2015, and to expand the 

Massachusetts Restricted Area by 912 

square miles. In addition, this rule will 

revise the Federal lobster regulations to 

be consistent with the revised start date 

of the Massachusetts Restricted Area. 

Recent Federal lobster regulations 

closed the Outer Cape Lobster 

Management Area to lobster trap fishing 

from January 15 through March 15, 

which is consistent with the lobster trap 

haul-out period in the Atlantic States 

Marine Fisheries Commission’s 

Interstate Fishery Management Plan for 

American Lobster. This rule would 

adjust the Outer Cape Lobster 

Management Area closure dates to 

February 1 through March 31. 

DATES: Effective December 12, 2014. 

ADDRESSES: Copies of the supporting 

documents for this action, as well as the 

Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction 

Team meeting summaries and 

supporting documents, may be obtained 

from the Plan Web site (http://

www.greateratlantic.fisheries.noaa.gov/

protected/whaletrp/index.html) or by 

writing to Kate Swails, NMFS, Greater 

Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office, 

Protected Resources Division, 55 Great 

Republic Drive, Gloucester, MA 01930. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kate 

Swails, NMFS Greater Atlantic Regional 

Fisheries, 978–282–8481, Kate.Swails@

noaa.gov; or, Kristy Long, NMFS Office 

of Protected Resources, 206–526–4792, 

Kristy.Long@noaa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

This final rule combines two 

regulatory modifications that are 

authorized under different statutes. 

Specifically, this action amends the 

regulations implementing: (1) The 

Atlantic Large Whale Plan (Plan) 

regulations found at 50 CFR part 229 

under the authority of the MMPA; and 

(2) the Federal American lobster Fishery 

Management Plan regulations found at 

50 CFR part 697 under the authority of 

the Atlantic Coastal Fisheries 

Cooperative Management Act. 

NMFS published a final rule 

implementing an amendment to the 

Plan on June 27, 2014 (79 FR 36586) to 

address large whale entanglement risks 

associated with vertical line (or buoy 

lines) from commercial trap/pot 

fisheries. That amendment included 

gear modifications, gear setting 

requirements, a seasonal closure 

(Massachusetts Restricted Area) and 

gear marking for both the trap/pot and 

the gillnet fisheries. The Massachusetts 

Restricted Area is a seasonal closure 

effective January 1 through April 30 for 

all trap/pot fisheries. Trap/pot fisheries 

account for the largest number of 

vertical lines in the water column. 

In September 2010, in consultation 

with the Atlantic Large Whale Take 

Reduction Team (Team), NMFS 

developed protocols for considering 

modifications or exemptions to the 

regulations implementing the Plan. 

Following these protocols, on August 

18, 2014, the Massachusetts Division of 

Marine Fisheries (DMF) submitted a 

proposal to modify the Massachusetts 

Restricted Area and exempt several 

areas from the gear setting requirements 

to address safety and economic 


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concerns raised by Massachusetts 

fishermen. 

Review of Massachusetts Restricted 

Area 

The proposal submitted by DMF 

contains two components: 

(1) Modify the Massachusetts 

Restricted Area (closure), which begins 

on January 1, 2015 by: 

Æ Modifying the timing and size of 

the closure. 

Æ Establishing gear stowage areas 

during a portion of the closure. 

(2) Establish several exemption areas 

to the current minimum number of traps 

per trawl requirement, which take effect 

June 1, 2015. 

Æ Exemption areas would include 

portions of Southern New England 

waters (Buzzards Bay, Vineyard Sound, 

and Nantucket Sound) as well as state 

waters north and east of Cape Cod. 

Given the importance of addressing 

the closure before it begins on January 

1, 2015, and the time needed to 

complete the analysis of the entire suite 

of requests contained in the entire DMF 

proposal, NMFS decided to address the 

modifications to the closure and the 

exemption of the minimum number of 

traps per trawl requirements separately. 

Changes to the Plan 

This action modifies the start date of 

the closure to begin on February 1, 2015 

and expand the area by 912 square 

miles. This action responds to 

comments to improve the past action 

while balancing risk reduction 

considerations. Specifically, the action 

decreases the number of affected vessels 

and results in reductions in compliance 

costs while maintaining the same 

entanglement risk reduction as provided 

in the June 2014 amendment to the 

Plan. 

At its October 1, 2014 meeting, the 

Team discussed the requested 

modifications to the closure, as well as 

the creation of the trap/pot storage 

areas. The discussion included a review 

of the merits and analysis of the DMF 

proposal utilizing NMFS’s cooccurrence model. The model 

incorporates information on geographic 

and temporal variations in fishing effort 

and the distribution of fishing line, as 

well as whale sightings per unit of 

survey effort, and identifies areas and 

times at which whales and commercial 

fishing gear are likely to co-occur. The 

model’s final product is a set of 

indicators that provide information on 

factors that contribute to the risk of 

entanglement at various locations and at 

different points in time. These 

indicators, in particular the number of 

vertical lines in an area and the area’s 

co-occurrence score, assumed to be 

related to the relative entanglement risk 

in different locations. They also provide 

a basis for comparing the impact of 

alternative management measures on 

the potential for entanglements to occur. 

NMFS compared the impacts of the 

current and new closure areas for 

conservation benefit using its cooccurrence model and economic 

analysis. The methods and data sources 

used in this analysis are consistent with 

those applied in the Final 

Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) 

for the 2014 Plan amendments referred 

to above. The changes to the closure 

would allow approximately 125 vessels 

to continue to fish during a lucrative 

time of year for the fishing industry and 

would require a slightly greater number 

of vessels to suspend activity from 

February through April. This is because 

the new closure area is larger than the 

current closure area, an increase of 912 

square miles. On average, the new 

closure area offers a similar reduction in 

co-occurrence to that of the current 

closure (38.2%) while providing less of 

an economic burden. Therefore, this 

action minimizes potential economic 

impacts without increasing risk to large 

whales. 

At the conclusion of the October 1, 

2014, meeting, the Team, by consensus, 

recommended that we modify the 

Massachusetts Restricted Area as 

proposed by DMF. However, the Team 

recommended that NMFS not act on 

DMF’s proposed trap/pot storage areas. 

The remainder of DMF’s proposal will 

be analyzed and discussed with the 

Team during its January 2015 meeting. 

The Team will provide NMFS a 

recommendation at that time on 

whether to move forward with the 

remaining components of the DMF 

proposal. 

Changes to American Lobster 

Regulations 

On April 7, 2014, NMFS published a 

final rule (79 FR 19015) that 

implemented the Outer Cape Area 

lobster haul-out period. In that rule, 

NMFS acknowledged in the preamble 

that it might need to adjust the closure 

dates if Massachusetts ultimately 

requested a different time period (See 

Response to Comment 22, 78 FR 35217, 

June 12, 2013). Now that Massachusetts 

has done so, the original Outer Cape 

Area lobster closure dates would 

become outdated and may create 

unintended impacts to Federal lobster 

fishers. For example, if NMFS did not 

adjust the January 15 start date, Federal 

lobster fishers would have to remove 

their traps from the Outer Cape Area 

two weeks earlier than the February 1 

start date that exists in the 

Massachusetts regulations and the Plan. 

Therefore, in this rule, NMFS changes 

the start date of the Outer Cape Lobster 

Management Area closure dates from 

January 15 to February 1. Further, 

NMFS adjusts the end of the Outer Cape 

Area haul-out period by two weeks from 

March 15 to March 31, to continue with 

a full two-month haul-out period as 

dictated by the Commission. NMFS 

considered extending the haul-out 

period to April 30, to be consistent with 

the Plan. However, the southwestern 

portion of the Outer Cape Area is not 

included in the Plan’s revised closure 

area, and would be closed for an 

additional month longer than the 

Commission’s two-month haul-out 

period. Accordingly, NMFS will simply 

shift the Outer Cape Area haul-out 

period dates ahead by two weeks. After 

March 31, lobster trap fishermen in the 

Massachusetts Restricted Area will be 

held to the more restrictive Plan dates 

through April 30. 

Comments and Responses 

NMFS published the proposed rule 

amending the Plan in the Federal 

Register on November 6, 2014 (79 FR 

65918). Upon its publication, NMFS 

issued a press email announcing the 

rule; posted the proposed rule on the 

Plan Web site; and notified affected 

fishermen and interested parties via 

several NMFS email distribution outlets. 

The publication of the proposed rule 

was followed by a 15-day public 

comment period, which ended on 

November 21, 2014. NMFS received 

fourteen substantive comments via 

electronic submission. All comments 

received were thoroughly reviewed by 

NMFS. Comments were in full support 

of the action or in partial support of the 

action with some concerns. The 

comments addressed several topics, 

including adequacy of the model, need 

for enforcement of the closure, and 

confusion over changes to the 

Massachusetts Restricted Area closure 

vs the Outer Cape Lobster Management 

Area closure. The comments received 

are summarized below, followed by 

NMFS’s responses. 

Adequacy of Co-occurrence Model 

Comment 1: Several commenters 

questioned the adequacy of the cooccurrence model and the data used to 

develop the model. They stated that the 

data are several years old, may be 

flawed, and may not accurately reflect 

the current fishing effort in the area. 

Response: We believe the information 

in the model is accurate but does have 

some limitations. We previously 

provided model documentation 


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describing the fishing effort data upon 

which the model relies, including a 

detailed discussion of the models 

limitations. We plan on updating the 

model with more current information as 

time allows for future rulemakings. The 

data used for this action are the same as 

the data used for the June 27, 2014 final 

rule implementing the most recent 

amendment to the Plan(79 FR 36586). 

This allows us to conduct a comparison 

between the effects of the new closure 

area verses the previously approved 

closure area. 

Enforcement 

Comment 2: One commenter stated 

that NMFS needs to do a better job 

enforcing/supporting the Endangered 

Species Act and not just rely on the 

Marine Mammal Protection Act 

measures to reduce entanglements with 

lobster gear. 

Response: Although NMFS agrees that 

law enforcement is a critically 

important component to the success of 

its conservation measures, NMFS 

disagrees with the claim that it relies 

solely on the conservation measures 

implemented through the Marine 

Mammal Protection Act. NMFS has 

allocated funding for enforcement of 

take reduction plan regulations on an 

annual basis through its Endangered 

Species Act-based Joint Enforcement 

Agreements (JEA) with its state partners 

(Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, 

Rhode Island, and New Jersey). In 

addition, over the past two years NMFS 

has also provided additional funding set 

aside for law enforcement to investigate 

potential ‘‘hot spots.’’ Hot spots are 

those areas identified as areas of 

concern and in need of additional 

enforcement. 

Comment 3: One commenter stated 

that there is a need for strict 

enforcement of the February 1 date for 

gear removal. The commenter stated 

that the Plan’s requirements require 

robust monitoring and enforcement 

efforts. 

Response: We agree that the efficacy 

of the Plan depends on strong 

monitoring and enforcement of the 

regulations. We work closely with the 

U.S. Coast Guard, NOAA Office of Law 

Enforcement and state partners through 

Joint Enforcement Agreements to 

enforce the regulations and we will 

continue to do so. We will also conduct 

numerous outreach efforts to ensure the 

industry knows of the impending 

closure and the requirements to remove 

gear. 

Changes to Massachusetts Restricted 

Area vs Outer Cape Lobster 

Management Area 

Comment 4: One commenter voiced 

confusion over the conflicting dates of 

the modified Massachusetts Restricted 

Area closure and the adjustment of the 

gear haul-out closure period for the 

Outer Cape Lobster Management Area. 

Response: The February 1–March 31 

gear haul-out period in NMFS’s lobster 

regulations does not conflict with the 

February 1–April 30 modified 

Massachusetts Restricted Area closure 

period in NMFS’s large whale Plan 

regulations. In short, the two closures 

pertain to two different, albeit mostly 

overlapping areas, which are being 

closed for two separate reasons. The 

different closure dates maintain the 

distinction in their purpose, i.e., the 

February 1–March 31 closure benefits 

the lobster resource, while the February 

1–April 30 closure benefits whales. 

Where the lobster and whale areas 

overlap, fishers will have to abide by 

both closures, including the whale 

closure during the month of April. 

The final rule will adjust the 

Massachusetts Restricted Area closure 

area, consistent with the revised timing 

and area proposed by the 

Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The 

revised closure area is expanded by 912 

square miles and includes most, but not 

all, of the Outer Cape Area. Under the 

June 2014 large whale Plan final rule, 

only the northern portion of the Outer 

Cape Area remained within the 

Massachusetts Restricted Area closure 

area. Additionally, this action revises 

the Massachusetts Restricted Area 

closure period to more effectively align 

with the co-occurrence model, by 

shifting the closure period from January 

1–April 30, to February 1–April 30. 

Accordingly, we have also shifted the 

two-month Outer Cape Area gear haulout period in the Federal lobster 

regulations to fall within the threemonth Massachusetts Restricted Area 

closure period. 

Under the Federal lobster regulations, 

the Outer Cape Area is subject to a gear 

haul-out period, which requires all 

Outer Cape Area lobster trap fishers to 

remove their trap gear from this Area 

from January 15–March 15 each year. 

These dates were adopted in the lobster 

regulations because they match the 

dates adopted for this purpose in the 

Atlantic States Marine Fisheries 

Commission’s Interstate Fishery 

Management Plan for Lobster and are 

consistent with those dates currently in 

place by the Commonwealth of 

Massachusetts. The intent of the haulout period is to facilitate the 

enforcement of trap limits and is timed 

when lobster trap fishing activity in the 

area is at a relatively low level. 

Before we adopted the gear haul-out 

period into the Federal lobster 

regulations, as recommended by the 

Commission, the Commonwealth of 

Massachusetts was considering shifting 

the two-month Outer Cape Area haulout period in state waters from the 

original January 15–March 15 period, to 

February 1–March 31, to better address 

the needs of the Outer Cape fishery. 

Consequently, in the proposed rule for 

this measure, NMFS considered and 

sought comment on similarly shifting 

the haul-out dates should Massachusetts 

ultimately do so (see response to 

Comment 22, 78 FR 35217). By the time 

the final rule implementing the lobster 

management action published in the 

Federal Register (April 7, 2014, 79 FR 

19015), Massachusetts had not changed 

the gear haul-out period, so NMFS 

implemented in that rule the dates that 

were in place at the time in the 

Massachusetts regulations (January 15– 

March 15), to be consistent with the 

Commonwealth and the Commission’s 

Plan. At the time, the start and end dates 

of the two-month gear haul-out period 

fell within the initial four-month 

Massachusetts Restricted Area closure 

dates under consideration in the Plan 

proposed rule (January 1–April 30). So, 

the small portion of the Outer Cape Area 

that overlapped into the initial 

Massachusetts Restricted Area closure 

area would continue to be closed to 

lobster traps after the haul-out period 

ended, under the Plan, because the 

haul-out period would end before the 

Plan closure period ends. 

Since the lobster gear haul-out 

regulations were implemented, the 

Commonwealth has come forward with 

a comprehensive revision to the 

Massachusetts Restricted Area closure 

area, which now includes all of the 

Outer Cape Area, with the exception of 

a small portion located west of 70 

degrees north longitude, in Nantucket 

Sound. The Massachusetts proposal also 

shifts the closure dates for the 

Massachusetts Restricted Area closure 

to begin on February 1. Therefore, we 

have adjusted the lobster regulations 

governing the Outer Cape Area gear 

haul-out period, so that Outer Cape 

lobster trap fishers operating inside the 

affected area would not be impacted by 

the closure two weeks earlier due to the 

fact that the Outer Cape Area gear haulout period is currently set for a January 

15 closure. Additionally, we did not 

extend the full three-month closure date 

to the entire Outer Cape Area, because 

we did not want to unnecessarily 

impact trap fishers operating in the 


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western portion of the Outer Cape Area, 

which is outside of the modified 

Massachusetts Restricted Area closure 

area. 

Upon receipt of the Massachusetts 

proposal, NMFS assessed the impacts 

associated with the revised closure area, 

but did not formally assess the potential 

impacts in the portion of the Outer Cape 

Area that falls outside of the revised 

closure area (that area west of 70 

degrees north longitude). Additionally, 

because the initial assessment on the 

Outer Cape Area gear haul out-period 

included only a variable two-month 

period, NMFS did not have the 

information needed to justify aligning 

the entire Outer Cape Area gear haul-out 

period with the three-month closure 

period for the vertical line rule, 

particularly because it could potentially 

impact those fishers operating in April 

in the portion of the Outer Cape Area 

that falls outside the vertical line 

closure area. Regardless, this final rule 

revises the Outer Cape Area lobster trap 

gear haul-out period to fall within the 

Massachusetts Restricted Area closure 

period. Therefore, when the gear haulout period ends on March 15, all traps/ 

pots (including lobster traps) will 

remain prohibited in the Massachusetts 

Restricted area through April 30, under 

the Plan. Shifting the dates, but 

maintaining the length of the two-month 

gear haul-out period will prevent those 

fishermen fishing in the Outer Cape 

Area west of 70 degrees north longitude 

from being subject to a three-month 

closure, when not required under the 

Plan. 

NEPA/ESA Analysis 

Comment 5: One commenter was 

concerned with the analysis the Agency 

conducted for this action under the 

Endangered Species Act (ESA) and 

National Environmental Policy Act 

(NEPA) saying that it is not legally 

sufficient. The commenter stressed that 

future changes to the Plan must be 

evaluated using a full and proper NEPA 

analysis and reinitiation of the ESA 

Section 7 consultation. 

Response: We feel the analysis we 

conducted for this action is sufficient. 

After considering the proposed action, 

new information and new 

circumstances, we determined that it is 

not necessary to supplement the 2014 

Plan Final Environmental Impact 

Statement (FEIS) and Record of Decision 

(ROD) because: (1) the shift of the 

closure in time/area and its impacts are 

not substantially different from what 

was originally considered and analyzed; 

and (2) no new information or 

circumstances exist that are 

significantly different from when the 

ROD was signed on June 20, 2014. The 

FEIS and ROD remain valid to support 

this action. NMFS has also determined 

that it is not necessary to supplement 

the American Lobster FMP 2014 FEIS 

and ROD because: (1) there are no 

additional impacts from shifting the 

closure period by two weeks; and (2) no 

new information or circumstances exist 

that are significantly different from 

when the ROD was signed on April 7, 

2014. The FEIS and ROD remain valid 

to support this action. Also, NMFS 

believes that the changes to the rule 

amending the Plan do not constitute a 

modification to the operation of the Plan 

that would cause an effect to ESA-listed 

species or critical habitat not considered 

in the previous consultations. Therefore, 

the proposed measures do not meet the 

triggers for reinitiation of consultation. 

Should activities under this action 

change or new information become 

available that changes the basis for this 

determination, then consultation should 

be reinitiated. 

Lack of Management Measures 

Comment 6: One commenter was 

concerned that there seems to be a lack 

of policies for addressing climate 

change through adaptive management 

when protecting right whales. The 

commenter suggests instead of shifting 

the date of the closure to begin on 

February 1 the Agency should manage 

the area using Dynamic Area 

Management procedures instead of 

opening the whole area to fishing for the 

whole month of January. 

Response: As stated in response to 

similar comments in the June 27, 2014 

final rule, we acknowledge that it is 

challenging to manage resources in the 

face of changing environmental 

conditions. The Plan is an evolving Plan 

and should NMFS discover that 

conservation measures are no longer 

appropriate as a result of climate change 

and shifting baselines, we have the 

ability to make changes to the measures. 

Comment 7: One commenter 

supported the closure but wanted the 

measures to extend to the gillnet fishery. 

Response: As we have stated in 

response to comments on the June 27, 

2014 final rule, including gillnets in the 

recent management measures was 

analyzed in the FEIS and rejected (See 

Chapter 3, Appendix 3–A of the May 

2014 FEIS). The co-occurrence model 

shows that 99% of the vertical lines 

coastwide are from lobster trap/pot and 

other trap/pot fisheries. For this reason, 

we chose to focus this closure (and 

recent management measures) on trap/

pot gear only. 

Classification 

The Office of Management and Budget 

(OMB) has determined that this action 

is not significant for the purposes of 

Executive Order 12866. 

The Chief Counsel for Regulation of 

the Department of Commerce has 

certified to the Chief Counsel for 

Advocacy of the Small Business 

Administration (SBA) that this final rule 

would not have a significant economic 

impact on a substantial number of small 

entities. The factual basis for this 

certification was published with the 

proposed rule and is not repeated here. 

No comments were received regarding 

the economic impact of this final rule. 

As a result, a final regulatory flexibility 

analysis is not required and one was not 

prepared. 

The Assistant Administrator finds 

good cause under 5 U.S.C. 553(d)(3) to 

waive the 30-day delay in effectiveness. 

The contents of this action serve to 

remove existing commercial fishing 

restrictions and to prevent negative 

economic impacts from otherwise 

occurring as the Massachusetts 

Restricted Area would have been 

effective beginning January 1, 2014. 

Delaying the effectiveness of this rule is 

contrary to the public interest, because 

any delay will prevent the additional 

fishery activities implemented by this 

rule, thereby reducing revenues, and 

providing no additional meaningful 

benefit to large whales. Accordingly, the 

30-day delay in effectiveness is both 

unnecessary and contrary to the public 

interest, and as such, this rule will 

become effective immediately. 

List of Subjects 

50 CFR Part 229 

Administrative practice and 

procedure, Confidential business 

information, Fisheries, Marine 

mammals, Reporting and recordkeeping 

requirements. 

50 CFR Part 697 

Fisheries, fishing. 

Dated: December 8, 2014. 

Samuel D. Rauch III, 

Deputy Assistant Administrator for 

Regulatory Programs, National Marine 

Fisheries Service. 

For the reasons set out in the 

preamble, 50 CFR parts 229 and 697 are 

amended to read as follows: 

PART 229—AUTHORIZATION FOR 

COMMERCIAL FISHERIES UNDER THE 

MARINE MAMMAL PROTECTION ACT 

OF 1972 

■ 1. The authority citation for 50 CFR 

part 229 continues to read as follows: 


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Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1361 et seq.; 

§ 229.32(f) also issued under 16 U.S.C. 1531 

et seq. 

■ 2. In § 229.32, paragraph (c)(3) is 

revised to read as follows: 

§ 229.32 Atlantic large whale take 

reduction plan regulations. 

* * * * * 

(c) * * * 

(3) Massachusetts Restricted Area—(i) 

Area. The Massachusetts restricted area 

is bounded by the following points 

connected by straight lines in the order 

listed, and bounded on the west by the 

shoreline of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. 

Point N. lat. W. long. 

MRA1 .... 42°12′ 70°44′ 

MRA2 .... 42°12′ 70°30′ 

MRA3 .... 42°30′ 70°30′ 

MRA4 .... 42°30′ 69°45′ 

MRA5 .... 41°56 .5′ 69°45′ 

MRA6 .... 41°21 .5′ 69°16′ 

MRA7 .... 41°15 .3′ 69°57 .9′ 

Point N. lat. W. long. 

MRA8 .... 41°20 .3′ 70°00′ 

MRA9 .... 41°40 .2′ 70°00′ 

(ii) Closure. From February 1 to April 

30, it is prohibited to fish with, set, or 

possess trap/pot gear in this area unless 

stowed in accordance with § 229.2. 

(iii) Area-specific gear or vessel 

requirements. From May 1 through 

January 31, no person or vessel may fish 

with or possess trap/pot gear in the 

Massachusetts Restricted Area unless 

that gear complies with the gear 

marking requirements specified in 

paragraph (b) of this section, the 

universal trap/pot gear requirements 

specified in paragraph (c)(1) of this 

section, and the area-specific 

requirements listed in (c)(2) of this 

section, or unless the gear is stowed as 

specified in § 229.2. 

* * * * * 

PART 697—ATLANTIC COASTAL 

FISHERIES COOPERATIVE 

MANAGEMENT 

■ 3. The authority citation for part 697 

continues to read as follows: 

Authority: 16 U.S.C. 5101 et seq. 

■ 4. In § 697.7, revise paragraph 

(c)(1)(xxx) introductory text to read as 

follows: 

§ 697.7 Prohibitions. 

* * * * * 

(c) * * * 

(1) * * * 

(xxx) Outer Cape Area seasonal 

closure. The Federal waters of the Outer 

Cape Area shall be closed to lobster 

fishing with traps by Federal lobster 

permit holders from February 1 through 

March 31. 

* * * * * 

[FR Doc. 2014–29195 Filed 12–11–14; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 


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