Magnuson-Stevens Act Provisions; Fishing Capacity Reduction Program; Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands King and Tanner Crabs; Industry Fee System for Fishing Capacity Reduction Loan, 27209-27210 [06-4358]
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Federal Register / Vol. 71, No. 90 / Wednesday, May 10, 2006 / Rules and Regulations
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Donald S. Welsh,
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[FR Doc. 06–4200 Filed 5–9–06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560–50–P
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration
50 CFR Part 600
[Docket No. 050520139–6102–04; I.D.
030305A]
RIN 0648–AS46
Magnuson-Stevens Act Provisions;
Fishing Capacity Reduction Program;
Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands King and
Tanner Crabs; Industry Fee System for
Fishing Capacity Reduction Loan
National Marine Fisheries
Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
Commerce.
ACTION: Final rule.
rmajette on PROD1PC67 with RULES
AGENCY:
SUMMARY: NMFS publishes this final
rule to exempt any crab landed under
the Community Development Quota
(CDQ) Program from the fee regulations
for the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands King
and Tanner Crab Fishing Capacity
Reduction Program, to provide that crab
buyers disburse fee collections to NMFS
not later than the 7th calendar day of
each month, and to provide that the
annual report from each crab buyer shall
be submitted to NMFS by July 1 of each
calendar year. The fee regulations
otherwise remain unchanged. The intent
of this final rule is to modify the fee
rules so that they do not apply to any
crab allocated pursuant to the CDQ
Program, and to ease the fee collection
burden for crab buyers.
DATES: This final rule is effective June
9, 2006.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Michael A. Sturtevant, Financial
Services Division, NMFS headquarters,
at 301–713–2390.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Electronic Access
This Federal Register document is
also accessible via the Internet at the
VerDate Aug<31>2005
14:26 May 09, 2006
Jkt 208001
Office of the Federal Register’s website
at http://www.access.gpo.gov/su-docs/
aces/aces140.html.
Background
Sections 312(b)-(e) of the MagnusonStevens Fishery Conservation and
Management Act (16 U.S.C. 1861a(b)
through (e)) generally authorized fishing
capacity reduction programs. In
particular, section 312(d) authorized
industry fee systems for repaying the
reduction loans which finance
reduction program costs.
Subpart L of 50 CFR part 600 is the
framework rule generally implementing
sections 312(b)-(e).
Sections 1111 and 1112 of the
Merchant Marine Act, 1936 (46 App.
U.S.C. 1279f and 1279g) generally
authorized reduction loans.
The Consolidated Appropriations Act
of 2001 (Public Law 106–554) directed
the Secretary of Commerce to establish
a $100 million fishing capacity
reduction program in the Bering Sea/
Aleutian Islands king and Tanner crab
fishery. Congress amended the
authorizing act twice (Public Law 107–
20 and Public Law 107–117), once to
change the crab reduction program’s
funding from a $50 million
appropriation and a $50 million loan to
a $100 million loan and once to clarify
provisions about crab fishery vessels.
NMFS published the crab reduction
program’s proposed implementation
rule on December 12, 2002 (67 FR
76329) and its final rule on December
12, 2003 (68 FR 69331). Anyone
interested in the program’s full
implementation details should refer to
these two documents. NMFS initially
proposed and adopted the program’s
implementation rule as section 600.1018
of Subpart L of 50 CFR part 600, but
NMFS has since, without other change,
re-designated the rule as section
600.1103 in a new subpart M of part
600.
NMFS allocated the prospective
$97,399,357.11 million reduction loan
to the six reduction endorsement
fisheries involved, as the following subamounts:
1. Bristol Bay red king,
$17,129,957.23,
2. BSAI C. opilio and C. bairdi,
$66,410,767.20,
3. Aleutian Islands brown king,
$6,380,837.19,
4. Aleutian Islands red king,
$237,588.04,
5. Pribilof red king and blue king,
$1,571,216.35, and
6. St. Matthew blue king,
$5,668,991.10.
On November 24, 2004, NMFS
published another Federal Register
PO 00000
Frm 00025
Fmt 4700
Sfmt 4700
27209
notice (69 FR 68313) advising the public
that NMFS would, beginning on
December 27, 2004, tender the crab
reduction program’s reduction
payments to the 25 accepted bidders.
On December 27, 2004, NMFS required
all accepted bidders to then
permanently stop all further fishing
with the reduction vessels and permits.
Subsequently, NMFS:
1. Disbursed $97,399,357.11 in
reduction payments to 25 accepted
bidders;
2. Revoked the relinquished reduction
permits;
3. Revoked each reduction vessel’s
fishing history;
4. Notified the National Vessel
Documentation Center to revoke the
reduction vessels’ fishery trade
endorsements and appropriately
annotate the reduction vessel’s
document; and
5. Notified the U.S. Maritime
Administration to prohibit the reduction
vessel’s transfer to foreign ownership or
registry.
On July 28, 2005, NMFS published a
Federal Register document (70 FR
43673) proposing regulations to
implement the crab buyback program’s
industry fee system.
On September 16, 2005, NMFS
published a Federal Register document
(70 FR 54652) implementing the crab
buyback program’s industry fee system
regulations. Fee collection and payment
began on October 17, 2005.
On March 1, 2006, NMFS published
a Federal Register document (71 FR
10459) proposing to exempt any crab
landed by the recipients of the CDQ
allocations from the fee regulations
because they did not vote in the crab
buyback program’s fee referendum and
NMFS did not include the ex-vessel
value of crab landed under the CDQ
allocations in the required formula for
establishing the reduction loan subamounts for whose repayment the
reduction fishery was responsible. The
recipients of the CDQ allocations do not
directly benefit from the crab buyback.
In addition, NMFS was informed by
crab buyers that requiring fee principal
disbursement to NMFS on the last
business day of the month presents
problems in properly accounting for
crab landings in a timely fashion. Crab
buyers are unable to complete their
accounting process prior to the end of
that business day. Therefore, in order to
allow crab buyers sufficient time to
disburse fee principal, NMFS proposed
that deposit principal disbursement
shall be made to NMFS not later than
the 7th calendar day of each month.
NMFS also proposed that the annual
report from each crab buyer shall be
E:\FR\FM\10MYR1.SGM
10MYR1
27210
Federal Register / Vol. 71, No. 90 / Wednesday, May 10, 2006 / Rules and Regulations
submitted to NMFS by July 1 of each
calendar year. This should allow ample
time for the State of Alaska to publish
average crab price data for the previous
calendar year.
In this final rule, NMFS adopts the
proposed provisions without change.
Summary of Comments and Responses
rmajette on PROD1PC67 with RULES
NMFS received one comment from an
attorney representing the six CDQ
groups as well as individual comments
from each of the six CDQ groups.
Comment 1: Four of the comments
agreed with the proposed rule.
However, they asserted that NMFS
wrongfully interpreted the program’s
enabling legislation to include CDQ
crab.
Response: NMFS did not assert in the
proposed rule that it was taking this
action due to an incorrect interpretation
of the program’s enabling legislation.
NMFS determined that the regulations
should be changed because participants
of the CDQ program did not vote in the
crab buyback program’s fee referendum
and NMFS did not include the ex-vessel
value of crab landed under the CDQ
allocations in the required formula for
establishing the reduction loan subamounts for whose repayment the
reduction fishery was responsible.
Comment 2: All of the seven
comments strongly agree and support
the exclusion of CDQ crab allocations
from the definition of reduction fishery.
Response: NMFS concurs and
accordingly publishes this final rule.
Comment 3: All of the comments
requested that all fee collections from
CDQ allocations be repaid to the CDQ
groups and that NMFS interpret the rule
as retroactive to the effective date.
Response: NMFS determined that
CDQ landings should not be subject to
the buyback fees and is amending the
regulations accordingly. NMFS will
issue full refunds to crab buyers of any
fees paid on CDQ crab landings.
Comment 4: Four of the comments
requested that interest be repaid on all
fee collections from CDQ allocations.
Response: NMFS has no legal
authority or appropriated funding for
the payment of interest. Therefore,
NMFS is unable to pay interest on the
fees collected from CDQ allocations.
VerDate Aug<31>2005
14:26 May 09, 2006
Jkt 208001
Classification
The Assistant Administrator for
Fisheries, NOAA (AA), has determined
that this final rule is consistent with the
Magnuson-Stevens Act and other
applicable laws.
This final rule has been determined to
be not significant for purposes of
Executive Order 12866.
NMFS has certified to the Small
Business Administration, under Section
605(b) of the Regulatory Flexibility Act,
that this final rule would not have a
significant economic impact on a
substantial number of small entities.
There are currently six CDQ groups
that receive CDQ crab allocations and
participate in the BSAI crab fisheries.
This final rule revises the regulations to
expressly exclude the recipients of the
CDQ allocations from the crab buyback
program’s fee collection system. The
CDQ groups allocations did not vote in
the crab buyback program’s fee
referendum and NMFS did not include
the ex-vessel value of crab landed under
the CDQ allocations for establishing the
reduction loan sub-amounts.
The total fee to be collected for any
given year is calculated based on a
formula using projected landings, the
interest rate, and the amortization
schedule, and it is calculated in advance
for the entire year. In determining the
annual fee, the contributions from
recipients of the CDQ allocations were
not considered in the calculation. The
collection of fees on CDQ crab landings
would result in the repayment of fees
above what was expected for this year.
As a result of the additional revenue,
the buyback loan would be repaid
slightly earlier than expected and would
result in a slight decrease in the overall
amount of interest accrued on the loan.
Removal of the CDQ landings from the
fee assessment would not have a
negative impact on the expectations of
the remaining BSAI crab harvesters
since they were not expecting fee
payments from the CDQ landings based
on the fee calculations provided by
NMFS. Furthermore, the contributions
from CDQ landings are relatively small
compared to the overall reduction loan
amount. The contributions from the
CDQ crab landings would represent 10
percent of the total reduction loan
amount. This final rule is necessary to
ensure that recipients of CDQ crab are
PO 00000
Frm 00026
Fmt 4700
Sfmt 4700
excluded from the requirement to pay
fees on their BSAI crab landings. The
six CDQ groups would be positively
affected by this final rule.
List of Subjects in 50 CFR Part 600
Fisheries, Fishing capacity reduction,
Fishing permits, Fishing vessels.
Dated: May 4, 2006.
James W. Balsiger,
Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator for
Regulatory Programs, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
For the reasons set out in the
preamble, 50 CFR part 600 is amended
as follows:
I
PART 600—MAGNUSON-STEVENS
ACT PROVISIONS
1. The authority citation for part 600,
subpart M, continues to read as follows:
I
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
2. In § 600.1104, paragraph (b), the
definition of ‘‘Reduction fishery’’ is
revised and paragraph (h)(4) is revised
to read as follows:
I
§ 600.1104 Bering Sea and Aleutian
Islands (BSAI) crab species fee payment
and collection system.
*
*
*
*
*
(b) * * *
Reduction fishery means the fishery
for all crab rationalization crab,
excluding CDQ allocations, in all crab
rationalization fisheries.
*
*
*
*
*
(h) * * *
(4) Fish buyers in each reduction
endorsement fishery shall in accordance
with § 600.1014, deposit and disburse,
as well as keep records for and submit
reports about, the fees applicable to
each such fishery; except the
requirements specified under paragraph
(c) of this section concerning the deposit
principal disbursement shall be made to
NMFS not later than the 7th calendar
day of each month; and the
requirements specified under paragraph
(e) of this section concerning annual
reports which shall be submitted to
NMFS by July 1 of each calendar year;
and,
*
*
*
*
*
[FR Doc. 06–4358 Filed 5–9–06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510–22–S
E:\FR\FM\10MYR1.SGM
10MYR1
Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 90 (Wednesday, May 10, 2006)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 27209-27210]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 06-4358]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
50 CFR Part 600
[Docket No. 050520139-6102-04; I.D. 030305A]
RIN 0648-AS46
Magnuson-Stevens Act Provisions; Fishing Capacity Reduction
Program; Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands King and Tanner Crabs; Industry
Fee System for Fishing Capacity Reduction Loan
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Final rule.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: NMFS publishes this final rule to exempt any crab landed under
the Community Development Quota (CDQ) Program from the fee regulations
for the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands King and Tanner Crab Fishing
Capacity Reduction Program, to provide that crab buyers disburse fee
collections to NMFS not later than the 7th calendar day of each month,
and to provide that the annual report from each crab buyer shall be
submitted to NMFS by July 1 of each calendar year. The fee regulations
otherwise remain unchanged. The intent of this final rule is to modify
the fee rules so that they do not apply to any crab allocated pursuant
to the CDQ Program, and to ease the fee collection burden for crab
buyers.
DATES: This final rule is effective June 9, 2006.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael A. Sturtevant, Financial
Services Division, NMFS headquarters, at 301-713-2390.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Electronic Access
This Federal Register document is also accessible via the Internet
at the Office of the Federal Register's website at http://
www.access.gpo.gov/su-docs/aces/aces140.html.
Background
Sections 312(b)-(e) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation
and Management Act (16 U.S.C. 1861a(b) through (e)) generally
authorized fishing capacity reduction programs. In particular, section
312(d) authorized industry fee systems for repaying the reduction loans
which finance reduction program costs.
Subpart L of 50 CFR part 600 is the framework rule generally
implementing sections 312(b)-(e).
Sections 1111 and 1112 of the Merchant Marine Act, 1936 (46 App.
U.S.C. 1279f and 1279g) generally authorized reduction loans.
The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2001 (Public Law 106-554)
directed the Secretary of Commerce to establish a $100 million fishing
capacity reduction program in the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands king and
Tanner crab fishery. Congress amended the authorizing act twice (Public
Law 107-20 and Public Law 107-117), once to change the crab reduction
program's funding from a $50 million appropriation and a $50 million
loan to a $100 million loan and once to clarify provisions about crab
fishery vessels.
NMFS published the crab reduction program's proposed implementation
rule on December 12, 2002 (67 FR 76329) and its final rule on December
12, 2003 (68 FR 69331). Anyone interested in the program's full
implementation details should refer to these two documents. NMFS
initially proposed and adopted the program's implementation rule as
section 600.1018 of Subpart L of 50 CFR part 600, but NMFS has since,
without other change, re-designated the rule as section 600.1103 in a
new subpart M of part 600.
NMFS allocated the prospective $97,399,357.11 million reduction
loan to the six reduction endorsement fisheries involved, as the
following sub-amounts:
1. Bristol Bay red king, $17,129,957.23,
2. BSAI C. opilio and C. bairdi, $66,410,767.20,
3. Aleutian Islands brown king, $6,380,837.19,
4. Aleutian Islands red king, $237,588.04,
5. Pribilof red king and blue king, $1,571,216.35, and
6. St. Matthew blue king, $5,668,991.10.
On November 24, 2004, NMFS published another Federal Register
notice (69 FR 68313) advising the public that NMFS would, beginning on
December 27, 2004, tender the crab reduction program's reduction
payments to the 25 accepted bidders. On December 27, 2004, NMFS
required all accepted bidders to then permanently stop all further
fishing with the reduction vessels and permits.
Subsequently, NMFS:
1. Disbursed $97,399,357.11 in reduction payments to 25 accepted
bidders;
2. Revoked the relinquished reduction permits;
3. Revoked each reduction vessel's fishing history;
4. Notified the National Vessel Documentation Center to revoke the
reduction vessels' fishery trade endorsements and appropriately
annotate the reduction vessel's document; and
5. Notified the U.S. Maritime Administration to prohibit the
reduction vessel's transfer to foreign ownership or registry.
On July 28, 2005, NMFS published a Federal Register document (70 FR
43673) proposing regulations to implement the crab buyback program's
industry fee system.
On September 16, 2005, NMFS published a Federal Register document
(70 FR 54652) implementing the crab buyback program's industry fee
system regulations. Fee collection and payment began on October 17,
2005.
On March 1, 2006, NMFS published a Federal Register document (71 FR
10459) proposing to exempt any crab landed by the recipients of the CDQ
allocations from the fee regulations because they did not vote in the
crab buyback program's fee referendum and NMFS did not include the ex-
vessel value of crab landed under the CDQ allocations in the required
formula for establishing the reduction loan sub-amounts for whose
repayment the reduction fishery was responsible. The recipients of the
CDQ allocations do not directly benefit from the crab buyback.
In addition, NMFS was informed by crab buyers that requiring fee
principal disbursement to NMFS on the last business day of the month
presents problems in properly accounting for crab landings in a timely
fashion. Crab buyers are unable to complete their accounting process
prior to the end of that business day. Therefore, in order to allow
crab buyers sufficient time to disburse fee principal, NMFS proposed
that deposit principal disbursement shall be made to NMFS not later
than the 7th calendar day of each month.
NMFS also proposed that the annual report from each crab buyer
shall be
[[Page 27210]]
submitted to NMFS by July 1 of each calendar year. This should allow
ample time for the State of Alaska to publish average crab price data
for the previous calendar year.
In this final rule, NMFS adopts the proposed provisions without
change.
Summary of Comments and Responses
NMFS received one comment from an attorney representing the six CDQ
groups as well as individual comments from each of the six CDQ groups.
Comment 1: Four of the comments agreed with the proposed rule.
However, they asserted that NMFS wrongfully interpreted the program's
enabling legislation to include CDQ crab.
Response: NMFS did not assert in the proposed rule that it was
taking this action due to an incorrect interpretation of the program's
enabling legislation. NMFS determined that the regulations should be
changed because participants of the CDQ program did not vote in the
crab buyback program's fee referendum and NMFS did not include the ex-
vessel value of crab landed under the CDQ allocations in the required
formula for establishing the reduction loan sub-amounts for whose
repayment the reduction fishery was responsible.
Comment 2: All of the seven comments strongly agree and support the
exclusion of CDQ crab allocations from the definition of reduction
fishery.
Response: NMFS concurs and accordingly publishes this final rule.
Comment 3: All of the comments requested that all fee collections
from CDQ allocations be repaid to the CDQ groups and that NMFS
interpret the rule as retroactive to the effective date.
Response: NMFS determined that CDQ landings should not be subject
to the buyback fees and is amending the regulations accordingly. NMFS
will issue full refunds to crab buyers of any fees paid on CDQ crab
landings.
Comment 4: Four of the comments requested that interest be repaid
on all fee collections from CDQ allocations.
Response: NMFS has no legal authority or appropriated funding for
the payment of interest. Therefore, NMFS is unable to pay interest on
the fees collected from CDQ allocations.
Classification
The Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, NOAA (AA), has
determined that this final rule is consistent with the Magnuson-Stevens
Act and other applicable laws.
This final rule has been determined to be not significant for
purposes of Executive Order 12866.
NMFS has certified to the Small Business Administration, under
Section 605(b) of the Regulatory Flexibility Act, that this final rule
would not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of
small entities.
There are currently six CDQ groups that receive CDQ crab
allocations and participate in the BSAI crab fisheries. This final rule
revises the regulations to expressly exclude the recipients of the CDQ
allocations from the crab buyback program's fee collection system. The
CDQ groups allocations did not vote in the crab buyback program's fee
referendum and NMFS did not include the ex-vessel value of crab landed
under the CDQ allocations for establishing the reduction loan sub-
amounts.
The total fee to be collected for any given year is calculated
based on a formula using projected landings, the interest rate, and the
amortization schedule, and it is calculated in advance for the entire
year. In determining the annual fee, the contributions from recipients
of the CDQ allocations were not considered in the calculation. The
collection of fees on CDQ crab landings would result in the repayment
of fees above what was expected for this year. As a result of the
additional revenue, the buyback loan would be repaid slightly earlier
than expected and would result in a slight decrease in the overall
amount of interest accrued on the loan. Removal of the CDQ landings
from the fee assessment would not have a negative impact on the
expectations of the remaining BSAI crab harvesters since they were not
expecting fee payments from the CDQ landings based on the fee
calculations provided by NMFS. Furthermore, the contributions from CDQ
landings are relatively small compared to the overall reduction loan
amount. The contributions from the CDQ crab landings would represent 10
percent of the total reduction loan amount. This final rule is
necessary to ensure that recipients of CDQ crab are excluded from the
requirement to pay fees on their BSAI crab landings. The six CDQ groups
would be positively affected by this final rule.
List of Subjects in 50 CFR Part 600
Fisheries, Fishing capacity reduction, Fishing permits, Fishing
vessels.
Dated: May 4, 2006.
James W. Balsiger,
Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Programs, National
Marine Fisheries Service.
0
For the reasons set out in the preamble, 50 CFR part 600 is amended as
follows:
PART 600--MAGNUSON-STEVENS ACT PROVISIONS
0
1. The authority citation for part 600, subpart M, continues to read as
follows:
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
0
2. In Sec. 600.1104, paragraph (b), the definition of ``Reduction
fishery'' is revised and paragraph (h)(4) is revised to read as
follows:
Sec. 600.1104 Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) crab species fee
payment and collection system.
* * * * *
(b) * * *
Reduction fishery means the fishery for all crab rationalization
crab, excluding CDQ allocations, in all crab rationalization fisheries.
* * * * *
(h) * * *
(4) Fish buyers in each reduction endorsement fishery shall in
accordance with Sec. 600.1014, deposit and disburse, as well as keep
records for and submit reports about, the fees applicable to each such
fishery; except the requirements specified under paragraph (c) of this
section concerning the deposit principal disbursement shall be made to
NMFS not later than the 7th calendar day of each month; and the
requirements specified under paragraph (e) of this section concerning
annual reports which shall be submitted to NMFS by July 1 of each
calendar year; and,
* * * * *
[FR Doc. 06-4358 Filed 5-9-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-S