Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 219 / Wednesday, November 15, 2017 / Proposed Rules 52871 

§ 25.146 [Amended] 

■ 2. In § 25.146, remove paragraph (b) 

and redesignate paragraphs (c), (d), and 

(e) as paragraphs (b), (c), and (d). 

■ 3. In § 25.217 revise paragraph (b)(1) 

to read as follows: 

§ 25.217 Default service rules. 

* * * * * 

(b)(1) For all NGSO-like satellite 

licenses for which the application was 

filed pursuant to the procedures set 

forth in § 25.157 after August 27, 2003, 

authorizing operations in a frequency 

band for which the Commission has not 

adopted frequency band-specific service 

rules at the time the license is granted, 

the licensee will be required to comply 

with the following technical 

requirements, notwithstanding the 

frequency bands specified in these rule 

provisions: §§ 25.143(b)(2)(ii) (except 

NGSO FSS systems), (iii) (except NGSO 

FSS systems), 25.204(e), 25.210(f), (i). 

* * * * * 

[FR Doc. 2017–24726 Filed 11–14–17; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6712–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

50 CFR Part 697 

[Docket No. 150401332–7999–01] 

RIN 0648–BF01 

Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative 

Management Act Provisions; American 

Lobster Fishery; Control Date for 

Lobster Conservation Management 

Areas 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Advance notice of proposed 

rulemaking (ANPR); request for 

comments. 

SUMMARY: This document announces 

that NMFS is considering changes to the 

lobster management program and may 

select a control date to restrict the 

number of permits or traps an 

individual or business entity may own, 

with specific emphasis on Lobster 

Conservation Management Areas 

(LCMAs) 2 and 3. NMFS may use the 

existing control date of January 27, 

2014, which was published in the 

Federal Register, the publication date of 

this present ANPR, or another date for 

this purpose, pending public comment 

and further input by the Atlantic States 

Marine Fisheries Commission 

(Commission). This action may be 

necessary to control effort in the 

American lobster fishery and mitigate 

impacts on the depleted Southern New 

England (SNE) lobster stock. NMFS 

intends for this document to promote 

awareness of possible rulemaking and 

notify the public that actions taken to 

acquire lobster trap allocation and 

permits after the control date may not be 

recognized in the future. 

DATES: We must receive written 

comments on or before December 15, 

2017. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments 

on this document, identified by 

NOAA–NMFS–2013–0169 by any of 

the following methods: 

D Electronic Submission: Submit all 

electronic public comments via the 

Federal e-Rulemaking Portal. Go to 

www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=

NOAA-NMFS-2013-0169, click the 

‘‘Comment Now!’’ icon, complete the 

required fields, and enter or attach your 

comments. 

D Mail: Submit written comments to 

John K. Bullard, Regional 

Administrator, National Marine 

Fisheries Service, 55 Great Republic 

Drive, Gloucester, MA 01930. Mark the 

outside of the envelope, ‘‘Comments on 

Lobster Control Date.’’ 

Instructions: Comments must be 

submitted by one of the above methods 

to ensure that the comments are 

received, documented, and considered 

by NMFS. We may not consider 

comments sent by any other method, to 

any other address or individual, or 

received after the end of the comment 

period. 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.) submitted 

voluntarily by the sender will be 

publicly accessible. Do not submit 

confidential business information, or 

otherwise sensitive or protected 

information. NMFS will accept 

anonymous comments (enter ‘‘N/A’’ in 

the required fields if you wish to remain 

anonymous). We accept attachments to 

electronic comments only in Microsoft 

Word or Excel, WordPerfect, or Adobe 

PDF file formats. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Peter Burns, Fishery Policy Analyst, 

978–281–9144. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

NMFS works cooperatively with the 

states to conserve the American lobster 

resource within the framework of the 

Atlantic States Marine Fisheries 

Commission’s Interstate Fishery 

Management Plan for American Lobster 

(ISFMP). Through the ISFMP, the 

Commission adopts fishery conservation 

and management strategies for the 

American lobster resource and 

coordinates the efforts of the states and 

NMFS to implement these strategies. 

The Commission, NMFS, and the 

affected states have worked to develop 

a strategy to address the declining SNE 

stock and control effort in the American 

lobster fishery. That strategy, which 

took shape in several addenda to 

Amendment 3 of the Commission’s 

ISFMP, attempted to achieve this goal 

while maintaining the historic character 

of the lobster fishery, which has 

traditionally been comprised of small 

owner-operator businesses. As the 

Commission’s ISFMP limited access to 

the fishery, the Commission was 

concerned that lobster permits might 

consolidate among a concentrated 

number of larger conglomerates. As a 

result, the Commission’s ISFMP 

introduced the concept of permit 

restrictions in 2003 in Addendum IV 

and again in 2005 in Addendum VII. 

These two addenda contemplated 

limiting the aggregate number of permits 

an individual or entity may own in 

LCMAs 2 and 3. 

Concern about fishery consolidation 

and conglomeration intensified with the 

advent of the Commission’s Trap 

Transfer Program in 2014. The Trap 

Transfer Program allows lobster 

fishermen to buy or sell partial trap 

allocations up to, but not exceeding, any 

applicable LCMA trap cap. Attrition in 

the fishery from the SNE stock decline 

resulted in a relatively high amount of 

latent trap effort in the SNE LCMAs. 

The Commission became concerned that 

businesses could cheaply purchase and 

combine latent permits and then 

activate them by transferring the trap 

allocation onto the permit or by 

activating traps that were already 

associated with a permit under the trap 

banking provisions of Addendum XVIII. 

Accordingly, the Commission revisited 

permit and effort restriction strategies in 

Addendum XXI in August 2013 and 

Addendum XXII in October 2013. These 

addenda limit the number of traps that 

any one individual or entity may own 

in LCMAs 2 and 3 and are the focus of 

this rulemaking action. Under these 

addenda, permit holders may also 

purchase traps in excess of the active 

permit cap and ‘‘bank’’ them. The 

banked allocation may be used in the 

future to offset the economic impacts 

associated with a multi-year schedule of 

annual trap reductions in LCMAs 2 and 

3 that were adopted in Addendum XVIII 


sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with PROPOSALS
52872 Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 219 / Wednesday, November 15, 2017 / Proposed Rules 

to address the continued decline in the 

SNE lobster stock. 

In response to the Commission’s 

recommendations for Federal action in 

Addenda XXI and XXII, NMFS notified 

the public that we were considering 

establishing a control date for the 

purposes of determining the number of 

traps or permits an individual or entity 

may hold in LCMAs 2 and 3. The 

notification, an advance notice of 

proposed rulemaking (79 FR 4319; 

January 27, 2014), announced that 

NMFS could use that publication date, 

January 27, 2014, or another date for 

such purpose and that it was developing 

a rulemaking action to consider the 

measures set forth in Addenda XXI and 

XXII. 

Subsequently, the Commission 

announced the results of the 2015 

American Lobster Stock Assessment 

that found the SNE lobster stock was 

severely depleted, with record low 

abundance and recruitment failure, due 

to changing environmental conditions 

and continued fishing mortality. The 

Commission then focused its efforts on 

a new addendum to the ISFMP, 

Addendum XXV, to address the 

deteriorating condition of the SNE 

stock. 

NMFS deferred action on Addenda 

XXI and XXII while the Commission 

developed draft Addendum XXV during 

2016 and 2017, because elements of 

Addendum XXV could have rendered 

the measures in the prior addenda 

unnecessary. In August 2017, the 

Commission decided to take no further 

action on Addendum XXV and 

requested that we advance the measures 

in Addenda XXI and XXII for Federal 

rulemaking. In response, we stet this 

advance notice of proposed rulemaking 

to reconsider the use of a control date 

in consideration of the measures in the 

two addenda. 

This document informs the public 

that NMFS may select January 27, 2014, 

or another date, as the control date, 

depending on public comments and 

input from the Commission. It also gives 

the public notice that interested 

participants should locate and preserve 

records that substantiate and verify their 

participation in the American lobster 

fishery. Participation in the fishery after 

the control date may not be treated the 

same as participation before the control 

date. Establishing a control date does 

not commit NMFS to develop any 

particular management regime or 

criteria for participation in these 

fisheries. Additionally, we may also 

choose to take no further action to 

control effort or consolidation in the 

American lobster fishery. NMFS is 

seeking specific comments on the 

appropriateness of using the existing 

January 27, 2014, control date. The 

public may also comment on whether 

another date is better suited as a control 

date for the lobster fishery. 

NMFS is also considering several 

clarifications to existing regulations: 

• Due to enforcement concerns, we 

are considering modifications to the 

gear marking requirement for lobster 

trap trawls with more than three traps 

to be more consistent with industry 

practices; 

• The Trap Transfer Program 

currently requires that trap transfers 

occur in increments of 10. We intend to 

remove this restriction to allow permit 

holders to transfer traps in any 

increment up to the permit cap for the 

fishing year to allow permit holders to 

take full advantage of the program; 

• NMFS is also considering adding a 

provision to allow a substitute vessel to 

haul and fish the traps of a federallypermitted lobster vessel that is 

inoperable or mechanically impaired. 

The intent is to allow a Federal permit 

holder to maintain his or her revenue 

from lobster fishing while the vessel is 

repaired or replaced. Currently, the 

regulations only allow a substitute 

vessel to bring the trap gear ashore; 

however, some states already permit the 

use of a substitute vessel to haul and 

fish traps under specific circumstances. 

Any future action taken by NMFS will 

be pursuant to the Atlantic Coastal 

Fisheries Cooperative Management Act 

and the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery 

Conservation and Management Act. 

This notification and control date do 

not impose any legal obligations, 

requirements, or expectation. 

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

5101 et seq. 

Dated: November 8, 2017. 

Samuel D. Rauch, III, 

Deputy Assistant Administrator for 

Regulatory Programs, National Marine 

Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2017–24714 Filed 11–14–17; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 


sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with PROPOSALS