Source: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2010/12/23/2010-32340/magnuson-stevens-act-provisions-fisheries-of-the-northeastern-united-states-northeast-multispecies
Timestamp: 2018-08-21 01:12:55
Document Index: 107702708

Matched Legal Cases: ['§\u2009648', '§\u2009648', '§\u2009648', '§\u2009648', '§\u2009648', '§\u2009648', '§\u2009648', '§\u2009648', '§\u2009648', '§\u2009648', '§\u2009648', '§\u2009648', '§\u2009648', '§\u2009648', '§\u2009648', '§\u2009648', '§\u2009648', '§\u2009304', '§\u2009648', '§\u2009603']

Federal Register :: Magnuson-Stevens Act Provisions; Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Northeast Multispecies Fishery; Final Rule to Implement Addenda to 17 Fishing Year (FY) 2010 Sector Operations Plans and Contracts
A Rule by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on 12/23/2010
80720-80729 (10 pages)
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2010-32340 https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2010-32340
Start Further Info Start Printed Page 80721
A final rule, published April 9, 2010 (75 FR 18113), approved FY 2010 sector operations plans and contracts for, and made allocations of ACE to, 17 NE multispecies sectors. The Amendment 16 regulations governing the sector operations plans and contracts allow for a sector to request exemptions from Federal fishing regulations through the sector operations plan and contract submitted to NMFS for approval on an annual or bi-annual basis (§ 648.87(b)(2)(xv)). Pursuant to § 648.87(c)(2), the Regional Administrator may exempt vessels participating in a sector from certain Federal fishing regulations, in addition to the Amendment 16 universal exemptions already approved for all sectors. Regulations prohibit sectors from requesting exemptions that involve: NE multispecies year-round closure areas, permitting restrictions (e.g., vessel upgrades, etc.); gear restrictions designed to minimize habitat impacts (e.g., roller gear restrictions, etc.); and reporting requirements (not including days-at-sea (DAS) reporting requirements or Special Access Program (SAP)-specific reporting requirements). For FY 2010, the final rule implementing sectors approved several new exemptions from NE multispecies regulations for those sectors that requested the exemptions through their FY 2010 sector operations plans. Specifically, certain sectors received exemptions from the following measures: (1) 120-day block out of the fishery required for Day gillnet vessels; (2) 20-day spawning block out of the fishery required for all vessels; (3) limitation on the number of gillnets imposed on Day gillnet vessels; (4) prohibition on a vessel hauling another vessel's gillnet gear; (5) limitation on the number of gillnets that may be hauled on Georges Bank (GB) when fishing under a groundfish/monkfish DAS; (6) limits on the number of hooks that may be fished; and (7) DAS Leasing Program length and horsepower restrictions.
Among the exemptions under consideration in the proposed rule was a partial exemption from the requirement to retain and land all legal-sized fish of the 14 stocks allocated to sectors. Regulations at §§ 648.14(k)(14)(viii) and 648.87 (b)(1)(v)(A) specifically prohibit sector vessels from discarding legal-sized regulated species allocated to sectors. This requirement applies to all fish or pieces of fish above the minimum size, including fish that may be considered unmarketable, such as depredated fish. Sector members and managers raised concerns with this requirement, specifically the retention of unmarketable fish, stating that the need to separate the unmarketable fish from the food-grade product within limited deck and storage space was creating operational difficulties and potential safety hazards at sea. Although this problem was raised to the Council during the development of Amendment 16, no exceptions to this requirement were considered or recommended by the Council.
To address this concern, the proposed rule to implement sector operations plan addenda proposed a partial exemption in each sector operations plan from the prohibition on discarding of legal-sized unmarketable fish of allocated stocks, provided that the legal-sized unmarketable fish are accounted for in the sector's discard rate, as determined through observer coverage, similar to how other allowable discards are accounted for. For the purposes of this exemption, unmarketable fish is defined as any legal-sized fish the vessel Start Printed Page 80722owner/captain elects not to retain because of condition or marketability problems.
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Regulations require a minimum mesh size of 6.5-inch (16.51-cm) for gillnets in the GOM RMA (§ 648.80(a)(3)(iv)). Minimum mesh size requirements have been used, along with other management measures, to reduce overall mortality on groundfish stocks, as well as to reduce discarding and improve survival of sub-legal groundfish. This exemption allows FY 2010 sector vessels to use 6-inch (15.24-cm) mesh stand-up gillnets in the GOM RMA from January 1, 2011 to April 30, 2011, to fish for haddock. Sector vessels utilizing this exemption are prohibited from using tie-down gillnets in the GOM RMA during this period. Sector vessels may transit the GOM RMA with tie-down gillnets, provided they are properly stowed and not available for immediate use in accordance with one of the methods specified at § 648.23(b). In the proposed rule, NMFS proposed that Day gillnet vessels would not be able to fish with, possess, haul, or deploy more than 30 nets per trip during this period. However, Day gillnet vessels participating in sectors granted the exemption from Day gillnet net limits are exempt from the general net limit in the GOM RMA, and would be able to fish up to 150 nets in the GOM RMA at other times of year. Therefore, to maximize the flexibility for sector vessels fishing under this exemption, NMFS is allowing Day gillnet vessels participating in a sector granted both the GOM sink gillnet mesh exemption and the general net limit exemption to fish up to 150 stand-up nets in the GOM RMA during this period (up to 150 nets total in all RMAs). Day gillnet vessels participating in a sector that has not also been approved for the general net limit exemption will be restricted to the limit of 50 stand-up sink gillnets during this period, consistent with existing net limits in the GOM RMA specified at § 648.80(a)(3)(iv)(B)(2). The Letter of Authorization (LOA) issued to the sector vessels that qualify for this exemption will specify the net restrictions to help ensure the provision is enforceable. There is no limit on the number of nets that participating Trip gillnet vessels are able to fish with, possess, haul, or deploy, during this period, because Trip gillnet vessels are required to remove all gillnet gear from the water before returning to port at the end of a fishing trip.
Recent selectivity studies have indicated that 6.5-inch (16.51-cm) sink gillnets may not be effective at retaining haddock at the current legal minimum fish size. This exemption would provide sector vessels the opportunity to utilize a smaller mesh size gillnet to potentially catch more haddock in the GOM, and, thereby, increase efficiency and revenue in the fishery. NMFS believes that impacts to allocated target stocks resulting from this exemption would be negligible, because fishing mortality by sector vessels is restricted by an ACE for Start Printed Page 80724allocated stocks, which caps overall mortality. It is possible that a higher net limit for Day gillnet vessels participating in this program could result in an increase in the number of gillnets in the water at one time and, therefore, potentially increase interactions with protected species. However, potential negative impacts to protected species from this exemption are expected to be low because additional nets may result in greater efficiency that could decrease the overall number of soak hours throughout the year as a sector's ACE is caught faster, thus potentially reducing interactions with protected species. In addition, sector vessels utilizing this exemption are still required to comply with all requirements of the Harbor Porpoise Take Reduction Plan (75 FR 12698; March 17, 2010) and Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan (73 FR 58942; October 8, 2008). The GOM sink gillnet mesh exemption is approved for Northeast Fishery Sectors II and III, V-VIII, and X-XII, the Sustainable Harvest Sector, the Port Clyde Community Groundfish Sector, the GB Cod Fixed Gear Sector and the Tri-State Sector.
The 120-day block requirement out of the fishery for Day gillnet vessels was implemented to help ensure that management measures for Day gillnet vessels were comparable to effort controls placed on other fishing gear types, given that gillnets continue to fish as long as they are in the water. Regulations at § 648.82(j)(1)(ii) require that each NE multispecies gillnet vessel declared into the Day gillnet category declare out and be out of the non-exempt gillnet fishery for 120 days each fishing year. Each period of time taken must be a minimum of 7 consecutive days, and at least 21 of the 120 days must be taken between June 1 and September 30. This exemption was previously approved for the GB Cod Fixed Gear Sector, Sustainable Harvest Sector, Port Clyde Community Groundfish Sector, Tri-State Sector, and Northeast Fishery Sectors III and XI, based upon the rationale that this measure was designed to control fishing effort and, therefore, is no longer necessary for sectors because sectors are restricted to an ACE for each groundfish stock, which limits overall fishing mortality resulting from sector operations. Approval of this exemption for additional sectors would increase the operational flexibility of sector vessels and is expected to increase profit margins of sector fishermen. For additional information on this exemption, please refer to the description of this exemption in the proposed and final rules approving FY 2010 sector operations plans (74 FR 68015 and 75 FR 18113, respectively). This exemption is approved for seven additional sectors: Northeast Fishery Sectors II, V-VIII, X, and XII.
Regulations at § 648.82(g) require vessels to declare out and be out of the NE multispecies DAS program for a 20-day period each calendar year between March 1 and May 31, when spawning is most prevalent in the GOM. This regulation was developed to reduce fishing effort on spawning groundfish stocks and an exemption from this requirement was previously approved for FY 2010 sectors based upon the rationale that the sector's ACE will restrict fishing mortality, making the requirement no longer necessary as an effort control. Exemption from this requirement is being approved for additional sectors, because it would provide vessel owners with greater flexibility to plan operations according to fishing and market conditions. For additional information on this exemption, please refer to the description of this exemption in the FY 2010 sector operations plan rules. This exemption was previously approved for the Sustainable Harvest Sector, the Tri-State Sector, and the Northeast Coastal Communities Sector. This final rule approves this exemption for an additional 13 sectors: Northeast Fishery Sectors II, III, and V-XIII; the GB Cod Fixed Gear Sector; and the Port Clyde Community Groundfish Sector.
Current gear restrictions in the groundfish RMAs restrict Day gillnet vessels from fishing more than: 100 gillnets (of which no more than 50 can be roundfish gillnets) in the GOM RMA (§ 648.80(a)(3)(iv)(B)(2)); 50 gillnets in the GB RMA (§ 648.80(a)(4)(iv)(B)(1); and 75 gillnets in the Southern New England (SNE) and Mid-Atlantic (MA) RMAs (§§ 648.80(b)(2)(iv)(B)(1) and 648.80(c)(2)(v)(B)(1), respectively). This exemption, as previously approved for the Sustainable Harvest Sector in the final sector rule for FY 2010, allows sector vessels to fish up to 150 nets (any combination of flatfish or roundfish nets) in each of the RMAs (up to 150 total), and would provide greater operational flexibility to sector vessels in deploying gillnet gear. This exemption was originally approved, and is being approved for additional sectors, based upon the rationale that it is designed to control fishing effort and is no longer necessary for sector vessels, since each sector is restricted by an ACE for each stock, which caps overall fishing mortality. For additional information on this exemption, please refer to the description of this exemption in the FY 2010 sector operations plan rules. This final rule approves this exemption for 12 additional sectors: Northeast Fishery Sectors II, III, V-VIII, and X-XII; the GB Cod Fixed Gear Sector; the Port Clyde Community Groundfish Sector; and the Tri-State Sector.
Northeast Fishery Sectors III and XI received an exemption for FY 2010 from current regulations that prohibit one vessel from hauling another vessel's gillnet gear (§§ 648.14(k)(6)(ii)(A) and 648.84(a)) in order to share fixed gear among sector vessels. This exemption was originally approved for FY 2010 sectors and is being expanded to allow sector vessels to reduce costs by pooling gillnet gear, and because it was determined that the regulations pertaining to hauling and setting responsibilities are no longer necessary when sectors are confined to an ACE for each stock. Consistent with the exemption as originally approved, the sectors that requested this exemption proposed that all vessels utilizing community fixed gear be jointly liable for any violations associated with that gear. For additional information on this exemption, please refer to the description of this exemption in the FY 2010 sector operations plan rules. Note that the description of this exemption in the FY 2010 sector operations plan rules and the proposed rule to implement FY 2010 sector operations plan addenda incorrectly referred to the entirety of § 648.84. This exemption was intended to exempt sector vessels only partially from § 648.84(a), to allow a sector vessel to haul gillnet gear marked by another vessel participating in this exemption. The regulation citation has been corrected in this final rule and will be reflected in the LOA issued to each sector vessel. This exemption is approved for an 11 additional sectors: Northeast Fishery Sectors II, V-VIII, X, and XII; the GB Cod Fixed Gear Sector; the Sustainable Harvest Sector; the Port Clyde Community Groundfish Sector; and the Tri-State Sector.Start Printed Page 80725
The GB Cod Fixed Gear Sector received an exemption for FY 2010 from the limit on the number of gillnets that may be hauled on GB when fishing under a groundfish/monkfish DAS. Current regulations at § 648.80(a)(4)(iv) prohibit Day gillnet vessels fishing on a groundfish DAS from possessing, deploying, fishing, or hauling more than 50 nets on GB, and were implemented as a groundfish mortality control under Amendment 13. This exemption was previously approved, and is being expanded to additional sectors, because it would allow nets deployed under existing net limits of the Monkfish FMP to be hauled more efficiently by vessels dually permitted under both FMPs. For additional information on this exemption, please refer to the description of this exemption in the FY 2010 sector operations plan rules. This exemption is approved for an additional 12 sectors for FY 2010: Northeast Fishery Sectors II, III, V-VIII, and X-XII; the Sustainable Harvest Sector; the Port Clyde Community Groundfish Sector; and the Tri-State Sector.
The GB Cod Fixed Gear Sector was granted an exemption for FY 2010 from the number of hooks that a vessel may fish on a given fishing trip. Current regulations at § 648.80 prohibit vessels from fishing or possessing more than 2,000 rigged hooks in the GOM RMA, more than 3,600 rigged hooks in the GB RMA, more than 2,000 rigged hooks in the Southern New England (SNE) RMA, or 4,500 rigged hooks in the MA RMA. This exemption was approved in the final rule approving sector operations plans for FY 2010 and is being approved here for additional sectors because it would allow sector vessels to more efficiently harvest ACE and is no longer a necessary control on effort by sector vessels. For additional information on this exemption, please refer to the description of this exemption in the FY 2010 sector operations plan rules. This action exempts 13 additional sectors from this requirement: Northeast Fishery Sectors II, III, V-VIII, and X-XII; the Sustainable Harvest Sector; the Port Clyde Community Groundfish Sector; the Tri-State Sector; and the Northeast Coastal Communities Sector.
Response 2: Although NMFS is not approving this exemption request for FY 2010, NMFS disagrees with Oceana's assertions about this exemption. Amendment 16 does not explicitly Start Printed Page 80726address the handling of unmarketable fish by sector vessels at sea, as was determined when NMFS staff raised this issue with the Council's Groundfish Oversight Committee at their June 16, 2010, meeting. At that time, the Committee requested that NMFS consider methods to rectify this issue in the near-term. Thus, NMFS proposed a partial exemption from the prohibition on discarding legal-size fish, pursuant to the regulations at § 648.87(c)(2), which specify that sectors may request and be approved for exemptions from any NE multispecies regulation (with specific exceptions). This exemption was proposed in the proposed rule to implement addenda to FY 2010 sector operations plans, but removed as an option in the final rule for the reasons stated above. This exemption will instead be considered for FY 2011 sectors in the proposed rule to implement FY 2011 sector operations plans. Neither of these actions proposes to modify the no-discard provision, but rather proposes sector operations plan exemptions under the authority provided to the RA through Amendment 16.
Pursuant to § 304(b)(1)(A) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act), the Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, NOAA, has determined that this final rule is consistent with the FMP, other provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, and other applicable law.
These regulations from which sector vessels are exempt remain in place for vessels in the common pool. Pursuant to the regulations at §§ 648.87(b)(2)(xv) and 648.87(c)(2), a sector may request and be exempt from regulations of the NE Multispecies FMP, with few exceptions, through its annual or bi-annual operations plan. On May 1, 2010, operations plans were Start Printed Page 80727implemented for 17 sectors for the 2010 fishing year, including exemptions from certain NE multispecies regulations. The final rule implementing FY 2010 sector operations plans only approved exemptions for those sectors that had originally requested them through their FY 2010 sector operations plans. The sectors that had not requested certain exemptions in their operations plans were required to continue to comply with the regulations otherwise exempted for other sectors, which include effort controls such as required time out of the fishery and gear restrictions.
A Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis (FRFA) has been prepared for this rule as required by § 603 of the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA). The FRFA is comprised of the economic impacts identified in the Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis (IRFA), the preamble of the proposed rule and this rule, the supplemental EA prepared for this action, and the discussions, including responses to public comments, included in this rule. This FRFA describes the economic impact that the proposed rule, if adopted, would have on small entities. A description of the action, why it is being considered, and the legal basis for this action are contained in the preamble to this final rule and in sections 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 of the supplemental EA prepared for this action and, thus, are not repeated here.
The GOM sink gillnet mesh exemption is being requested by Northeast Fishery Sectors II and III, V-VIII, and X-XII, the GB Cod Fixed Gear Sector, the Sustainable Harvest Sector, the Port Clyde Community Groundfish Sector, and the Tri-State Sector, which represent 616 permits. The exemption Start Printed Page 80728will allow the use of 6-inch (15.24-cm) mesh gillnets in the GOM RMA from January 1, 2011-April 30, 2011. This exemption would provide participating sector vessels an opportunity to retain more GOM haddock, a healthy stock, and share in the benefits from the stock recovery. To utilize this exemption, it would be necessary for participating sector vessels to purchase 6-inch (15.24-cm) mesh gillnets. However, it would allow a greater catch of haddock, which may increase revenues for gillnet fishermen and the ports where they land their fish, particularly if participating vessels are able to change fishing behavior to selectively target this stock and minimize catch of other allocated target stocks.
Northeast Fishery Sectors II-XIII, the GB Cod Fixed Gear Sector, and the Port Clyde Community Groundfish Sector, are granted an exemption from regulations that currently limit leasing of DAS to vessels within specified length and horsepower restrictions. Current restrictions create a system in which a small vessel may lease DAS from virtually any other vessel, but is limited in the number of vessels that it may lease to. The opposite is true for larger vessels. Exemption from these restrictions allows greater flexibility to lease DAS between vessels of different sizes and could expand the market of potential lessees for some vessels. The efficiency gains of this exemption as approved for the Tri-State Sector and the Sustainable Harvest Sector were limited because the exemption would only apply to leases between Tri-State Sector and Sustainable Harvest Sector members, representing 135 permits. This action extends this exemption to an additional 609 permits, which could not only potentially increase efficiency for the additional sectors for which this exemption is approved, but also for members of the Tri-State and Sustainable Harvest Sectors by expanding the pool of potential lessees with this exemption. Since DAS are not required while fishing for groundfish, the economic importance of this exemption would be associated with the need to use NE multispecies DAS when fishing in other fisheries, for example, monkfish.Start Printed Page 80729