Atlantic Highly Migratory Species; Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Quota Specifications and Effort Controls, 16318-16324 [E7-6259]
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Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 64 / Wednesday, April 4, 2007 / Proposed Rules
interpretation prospectively only.
However, we do not want to create
incentives for a carrier to rush to put
into place as many rates as possible in
hybrid ‘‘common carrier’’ agreements
during the period of unavoidable delay
associated with seeking public
comments. Therefore, should we adopt
this interpretative rule, we intend to
apply the rule to all agreements entered
into after the date of publication of this
decision in the Federal Register. Parties
are hereby placed on notice that if this
proposal is adopted, the reasonableness
of a rate reflected in a bilateral
agreement entered into after this date
will be treated as a confidential contract
governed by section 10709 and outside
the Board’s jurisdiction.
Our proposed changes to the Code of
Federal Regulations are set forth in the
appendix. Parties are specifically
invited to comment on the proposed
rules, particularly concerning 49 CFR
1313.1(c). Parties are asked to consider
whether the proposed changes would
have unforeseen consequences for
agricultural contracts and whether there
are differences between agricultural and
other types of rail transportation
contracts.
Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 605(b), the Board
certifies that this action will not have a
significant economic effect on a
substantial number of small entities
within the meaning of the Regulatory
Flexibility Act.
This action will not significantly
affect either the quality of the human
environment or the conservation of
energy resources.
Authority: 49 U.S.C. 721, 49 U.S.C. 10709.
Decided: March 28, 2007.
By the Board, Chairman Nottingham, Vice
Chairman Buttrey, and Commissioner
Mulvey.
Vernon A. Williams,
Secretary.
For the reasons set forth in the
preamble, the Surface Transportation
Board proposes to amend part 1300 and
1313 of title 49, chapter x, of the Code
of Federal Regulations as follows:
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PART 1300—DISCLOSURE,
PUBLICATION, AND NOTICE OF
CHANGE OF RATES AND OTHER
SERVICE TERMS FOR RAIL COMMON
CARRIAGE
1. The authority citation for Part 1300
continues to read as follows:
Authority: 49 U.S.C. 721(a) and 11101(f).
2. Amend § 1300.1 by adding
paragraphs (c)(1) and (c)(2) to read as
follows:
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§ 1300.1
Scope; definitions.
*
*
*
*
(c) * * *
(1) The term contract in 49 U.S.C.
10709 is defined as any bilateral
agreement between a carrier and a
shipper for rail transportation in which
the carrier agrees to a specific rate for
a specific period of time in exchange for
consideration from the shipper, such as
a commitment to tender a specific
amount of freight during a specific
period or to make specific investments
in rail facilities.
(2) Notwithstanding any
representation that a rate specified in an
agreement is a common carrier rate, a
bilateral agreement as described in
paragraph (c)(1) of this section will be
treated by the Board as a rail
transportation contract authorized
under 49 U.S.C. 10709 and therefore
outside the Board’s jurisdiction.
*
*
*
*
*
PART 1313—RAILROAD CONTRACTS
FOR THE TRANSPORTATION OF
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS
3. The authority citation for Part 1313
continues to read as follows:
Authority: 49 U.S.C. 721(a) and 10709.
4. Amend § 1313.1 by revising the
first sentence of paragraph (c) to read as
follows:
§ 1313.1
Scope; definitions of terms.
*
*
*
*
*
(c) For purposes of this part, the term
contract means a contract as defined in
49 CFR 1300.1(c), including any
amendment thereto, to provide specified
transporation of agricultural products
(including grain, as defined in 7 U.S.C.
75 and products thereof). * * *
[FR Doc. E7–6215 Filed 4–3–07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4915–01–P
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration
50 CFR Part 635
[Docket No. 070330073–7073–01; I.D.
030507A]
RIN 0648–AU87
Atlantic Highly Migratory Species;
Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Quota
Specifications and Effort Controls
National Marine Fisheries
Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
Commerce.
AGENCY:
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Proposed rule; request for
comments; notice of public hearings.
ACTION:
*
SUMMARY: NMFS proposes initial 2007
fishing year specifications for the
Atlantic bluefin tuna (BFT) fishery to set
BFT quotas for each of the established
domestic fishing categories and to set
effort controls for the General category
and Angling category. This action is
necessary to implement
recommendations of the International
Commission for the Conservation of
Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), as required by
the Atlantic Tunas Convention Act
(ATCA), and to achieve domestic
management objectives under the
Magnuson-Stevens Fishery
Conservation and Management Act
(Magnuson-Stevens Act). A minor
administrative change to the permit
regulations is also proposed. NMFS
solicits written comments and will hold
public hearings in April 2007 to receive
oral comments on these proposed
actions.
DATES: Written comments must be
received on or before May 4, 2007.
The public hearings dates are:
1. April 24, 2007, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.,
Morehead City, NC.
2. April 26, 2007, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30
p.m., West Islip, NY.
3. April 27, 2007, 3:30 p.m. to 5:30
p.m., Gloucester, MA.
ADDRESSES: Comments may be
submitted through any of the following
methods:
• E-mail: 07BFTSPECS@noaa.gov.
Include in the subject line the following
identifier: ‘‘Comments on 2007 Atlantic
bluefin tuna specifications.’’
• Federal e-Rulemaking Portal: https://
www.regulations.gov.
• Mail: Sarah McLaughlin, Highly
Migratory Species Management
Division, Office of Sustainable Fisheries
(F/SF1), NMFS, One Blackburn Dr.,
Gloucester, MA 01930.
• Fax: (978) 281–9340.
The hearing locations are:
1. Morehead City — Carteret
Community College (Joselyn Hall, H.J.
McGee, Jr. Building), 3505 Arendell
Street, Morehead City, NC 28557.
2. West Islip — West Islip Public
Library, 3 Higbie Lane, West Islip, NY
11795.
3. Gloucester — NMFS, One
Blackburn Drive, Gloucester, MA 01930.
Supporting documents including the
Environmental Assessment, Initial
Regulatory Flexibility Analysis, and
Regulatory Impact Review are available
by sending your request to Sarah
McLaughlin at the mailing address
specified above.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Sarah McLaughlin, 978–281–9260.
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Atlantic
tunas are managed under the dual
authority of the Magnuson-Stevens Act
and the ATCA. The ATCA authorizes
the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary)
to promulgate regulations, as may be
necessary and appropriate, to
implement ICCAT recommendations.
The authority to issue regulations under
the Magnuson-Stevens Act and the
ATCA has been delegated from the
Secretary to the Assistant Administrator
for Fisheries, NOAA (AA).
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SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
On May 28, 1998, NMFS published in
the Federal Register (64 FR 29090) final
regulations, effective July 1, 1999,
implementing the Fishery Management
Plan for Atlantic Tunas, Swordfish, and
Sharks (1999 FMP). On October 2, 2006,
NMFS published in the Federal Register
(71 FR 58058) final regulations, effective
November 1, 2006, implementing the
Consolidated Atlantic Highly Migratory
Species Fishery Management Plan
(Consolidated HMS FMP), which
consolidates the management of all
Atlantic HMS (i.e., sharks, swordfish,
tunas, and billfish) into one
comprehensive FMP.
The initial specifications within this
proposed rule are published in
accordance with the Consolidated HMS
FMP and are necessary to implement
the 2006 ICCAT quota recommendation,
as required by the ATCA, and to achieve
domestic management objectives under
the Magnuson-Stevens Act. This
proposed rule would: (1) Establish
initial quota specifications consistent
with the BFT rebuilding program by
allocating the 2006 ICCATrecommended quota for the 2007 fishing
year (June 1, 2007 - December 31, 2007,
pursuant to the change in fishing year
to a calendar year as of January 2008 per
the Consolidated HMS FMP); (2)
establish General category effort
controls, including time-period
subquotas, restricted fishing days
(RFDs), and the initial retention limit;
and (3) establish Angling category
retention limits for the 2007 fishing
season. A minor administrative change
to the permit regulations is also
proposed to allow additional flexibility
during conversion back from a fishing
year to a calendar year.
Overall U.S. landings figures for the
2006 fishing year are still preliminary
and may be updated before these 2007
fishing year specifications are finalized.
The specifications and effort controls
may subsequently be adjusted during
the course of the fishing year, consistent
with the provisions of the Consolidated
HMS FMP, and, as appropriate, would
be published in the Federal Register.
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NMFS has prepared a draft
Environmental Assessment (EA),
Regulatory Impact Review (RIR), and an
Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis
(IRFA) which present and analyze
anticipated environmental, social, and
economic impacts of several alternatives
for each of the major issues contained in
this proposed rule. The complete list of
alternatives and their analysis is
provided in the draft EA/RIR/IRFA, and
is not repeated here in its entirety. A
copy of the draft EA/RIR/IRFA prepared
for this proposed rule is available from
NMFS (see ADDRESSES).
2006 ICCAT Recommendation, BFT
Underharvests, and Transfers to Other
ICCAT Contracting Parties
At its 2006 meeting, ICCAT
recommended a western Atlantic BFT
Total Allowable Catch (TAC) of 2,100
mt, to allow for continued rebuilding of
BFT through 2018. The TAC is inclusive
of dead discards and will be effective
annually for 2007 through 2008, and
thereafter until changed. The following
deductions are made from the TAC prior
to applying the U.S. share percentage: 4
mt for the United Kingdom (in respect
of Bermuda), 4 mt for France (in respect
of St. Pierre and Miquelon), 25 mt for
Mexico (to allow incidental catch in the
longline fishery in the Gulf of Mexico),
and 15 mt for Canada and 25 mt for the
United States (for bycatch related to
directed longline fisheries in the ‘‘in the
vicinity of the management boundary
area,’’ i.e., the Northeast Distant gear
restricted area (NED), which was
defined in the 2003 BFT annual
specification rulemaking process as the
Northeast Distant statistical area (68 FR
56783, October 2, 2003). The U.S. share
of the adjusted TAC is 57.48 percent, or
1,165.12 mt. Accounting for the 25 mt
NED set-aside, the total U.S. allocation
is 1,190.12 mt. The previous (2002)
ICCAT recommendation for a western
Atlantic BFT TAC of 2,700 mt included
a U.S. quota of 1,464.6 mt, which was
effective from 2003 through the end of
the 2006 fishing year, i.e., May 31, 2007,
and also included a 25–mt NED setaside, for a total of 1,489.6 mt.
The 2006 ICCAT recommendation
also includes provisions to: (1) limit
carryover of underharvest to no more
than 50 percent of a contracting party’s
initial TAC; (2) limit mortality of school
BFT to an average of 10 percent of the
initial TAC, calculated on a four-year
basis; and (3) allow a contracting party
with a TAC allocation to make a onetime transfer within a fishing year of up
to 15 percent of its TAC allocation to
other contracting parties with TAC
allocations, consistent with domestic
obligations and conservation
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considerations. Regarding the third
provision, the ICCAT recommendation
stipulates that the quota transfer may
not be used to cover overharvests, and
that a contracting party that receives a
one-time quota transfer may not
retransfer that quota. For the United
States, the 15–percent limit on quota
transfer equates to 178.5 mt. In
considering whether the United States
could enter into an arrangement with
another ICCAT contracting party,
several factors would need to be taken
into account, including, but not limited
to, the amount of quota to be
transferred, the projected ability of U.S.
vessels to harvest the U.S. TAC before
the end of the fishing year, the potential
benefits of the transfer to U.S. fishing
participants (such as access to the EEZ
of the receiving contracting party for the
harvest of a designated amount of BFT),
potential ecological impacts, and the
contracting party’s ICCAT compliance
status. NMFS intends to undertake any
transfer of U.S. quota to another ICCAT
contracting party via a separate action
proposed in the Federal Register, if the
situation arises.
Initial landings estimates (as of
January 15, 2007) per category are as
follows: General category — 159.8 mt;
Harpoon category — 22.2 mt; Longline
category — 31.4 mt; Angling category —
186.8 mt; Trap category — 0 mt; and
Purse Seine category — 3.6 mt. These
preliminary landings estimates, totaling
403.8 mt, indicate that the total 2006
underharvest is 2,435.4 mt.
Underharvests per category are
preliminarily determined to be as
follows: General category — 1,003.5 mt;
Harpoon category — 101.8 mt; Longline
category — 236.6 mt; Angling category
— 195.2 mt; Trap category — 5.3 mt;
and Purse Seine category — 620.5 mt.
Based on the estimated amount of
Reserve that NMFS maintains for the
landing of BFT taken during ongoing
scientific research projects and/or
potential overharvests in certain
categories, NMFS estimates that 282.3
mt of Reserve remains from the 2006
fishing year.
In anticipation of a cap on carryover
for the 2007 fishing year, i.e., 595.1 mt,
or one half of the initial U.S. TAC of
1,190.12 mt, and in anticipation of a
substantial underharvest of the 2006
fishing year domestic quota, the United
States agreed at the 2006 ICCAT meeting
to transfer a total of 275 mt of current
U.S. underharvest (i.e., underharvest of
the 2006 fishing year quota) as follows:
75 mt and 100 mt for 2007 and 2008,
respectively, to Mexico, and 50 mt for
each of the years 2007 and 2008 to
Canada. Based on these transfers, the
remaining amount of underharvest (as of
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January 15, 2007) is 2,160.4 mt.
However, the ICCAT-recommended cap
limits the amount the United States may
carry over for 2007 to 595.1 mt.
Domestic Quota Allocation
The 1999 FMP and its implementing
regulations established baseline
percentage quota shares for the domestic
fishing categories. These percentage
shares were based on allocation
procedures that NMFS developed over
several years. The baseline percentage
quota shares established in the 1999
FMP and contained in the Consolidated
HMS FMP for fishing years beginning
June 1, 1999, and continuing to the
present are as follows: General category
— 47.1 percent; Harpoon category — 3.9
percent; Purse Seine category — 18.6
percent; Angling category — 19.7
percent; Longline category — 8.1
percent; Trap category — 0.1 percent;
and Reserve category — 2.5 percent.
These proposed initial 2007 fishing
year specifications, consistent with the
BFT rebuilding program, would allocate
the 2006 ICCAT-recommended quota for
the 2007 fishing year among the several
established domestic fishing categories
based on the current BFT quota
allocation percentages per the
Consolidated HMS FMP, and would
allocate 25 mt to the longline north NED
subquota.
As described further below, these
specifications also would apply 595.1
mt of the underharvest of BFT quota
from the 2006 fishing year, consistent
with the ICCAT-recommended 50–
percent cap on quota carryover to the
2007 fishing year quota, and distribute
that underharvest in such a manner to:
(1) Allow for potential transfer of a
portion (up to 15 percent) of the 2007
U.S. quota to other ICCAT Contracting
Parties, if warranted; (2) ensure that the
Longline category has sufficient quota to
operate during the 2007 fishing year
while also considering accounting for
BFT discards; and (3) provide the nonLongline quota categories a share of the
remainder of the underharvest
consistent with the allocation scheme
established in the Consolidated HMS
FMP.
Beginning with its 1998
recommendation, ICCAT has
historically recommended a deduction
of 79 mt from the TAC as an allowance
for dead discards, and the U.S. portion
of this allowance has been 68 mt. The
2006 ICCAT recommendation included
neither a recommended dead discard
allowance, nor specified dead discard
reporting methodology for compliance
purposes. Nevertheless, the United
States must report dead discard
estimates annually. Accordingly, NMFS
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must account for BFT dead discards in
setting the 2007 fishing year quota.
In the past, for compliance purposes,
the United States has reported dead
discards to ICCAT as an estimate based
on pelagic longline vessel logbook
tallies, adjusted as warranted by
observer data. For 2005, the most recent
year for which complete information is
available, the estimate is approximately
46 mt. However, based on revised
methodology, the SCRS now reports
dead discard estimates generated via
extrapolation of logbook tallies by
pooled observer data; for 2005, the
estimate is approximately 131 mt. These
specifications also use this revised
estimate. Estimates of dead discards
from other gear types and fishing sectors
that do not use the pelagic longline
vessel logbook are unavailable at this
time and thus are not included in this
calculation. Per the ICCAT
recommendation, which specifies a U.S.
quota that is inclusive of dead discards,
and consistent with how NMFS has
handled past incidents of dead discards
exceeding the allowance, NMFS would
deduct the 131 mt of estimated dead
discards from the amount of quota
available for the Longline category for
the 2007 fishing year. In addition,
NMFS proposes to modify the BFT
quota and annual adjustment
regulations at § 635.27(a) to indicate that
NMFS will account for dead discards
annually as part of the specifications
process, and to indicate its intent to
subtract that amount from the quota of
the category accounting for the dead
discards.
As described above, the United States
may choose, pursuant to the 2006
ICCAT recommendation, to transfer up
to 15 percent of the U.S. TAC to another
ICCAT Contracting Party with a TAC
allocation, consistent with U.S.
obligations and conservation
considerations. NMFS proposes to
divide the 595.1 mt of quota carryover
such that 178.5 mt (i.e., 15 percent of
1,190.12 mt) is placed in the Reserve for
potential ICCAT transfer purposes.
NMFS also proposes to assign a
sufficient amount of the quota carryover
(236.6 mt) to the Longline category, due
to the revised dead discard accounting
methodology, so that after accounting
for the 131 mt of dead discards,
sufficient quota is available to cover the
anticipated landings and dead discards
of the pelagic longline fishery during
the 2007 fishing year, i.e., potentially
200 mt. NMFS seeks to avoid a zero or
negative quota for the Longline category,
which could result in increased BFT
discards, given that NMFS must subtract
the best available dead discard estimate
from the TAC on an annual basis. The
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Longline category baseline quota
allocation (currently 8.1 percent of the
TAC) may need to be revisited in the
near future. Any change to the baseline
allocation would require an amendment
to the Consolidated HMS FMP. NMFS
proposes to distribute the remainder of
the quota carryover (180 mt) to the
Angling, General, Harpoon, Purse Seine,
and Trap categories consistent with
their FMP allocations.
Consistent with the 2006 ICCAT
recommendation, the proposed rule also
would increase the limit on the take of
school BFT (measuring 27 inches (68.6
cm) to less than 47 inches (119.4 cm))
over each 4–consecutive-year period
from 8 percent of the total U.S. TAC (per
the 2002 ICCAT recommendation) to 10
percent. Because the total U.S. quota is
reduced by 22 percent, there will be
only a minor effective increase in the
base school BFT quota, in weight.
2007 Proposed Initial Quota
Specifications
In accordance with the 2006 ICCAT
quota recommendation, the
Consolidated HMS FMP percentage
shares for each of the domestic
categories, and regulations regarding
annual adjustments at
§ 635.27(a)(10)(ii), NMFS proposes
initial quota specifications for the 2007
fishing year as follows: General category
— 643.6 mt; Harpoon category — 53.3
mt; Purse Seine category — 254.1 mt;
Angling category — 269.2 mt; Longline
category — 200 mt; and Trap category
— 1.4 mt. Additionally, 207.6 mt would
be allocated to the Reserve category for
inseason adjustments, scientific
research collection, potential
overharvest in any category except the
Purse Seine category, and potential
quota transfers.
Based on the above proposed initial
specifications and considerations
regarding the school BFT fishery, the
Angling category quota of 269.2 mt
would be further subdivided as follows:
School BFT — 119 mt, with 45.8 mt to
the northern area (north of 39°18′ N.
latitude), 51.2 mt to the southern area
(south of 39°18′ N. latitude), plus 22 mt
held in reserve; large school/small
medium BFT — 144 mt, with 68 mt to
the northern area and 76 mt to the
southern area; and large medium/giant
BFT — 6.2 mt, with 2.1 mt to the
northern area and 4.2 mt to the southern
area.
The 25–mt NED set-aside quota is in
addition to the overall incidental
longline quota to be subdivided in
accordance with the North/South
allocation percentages (i.e., no more
than 60 percent to the south of 31° N.
latitude). Thus, the proposed Longline
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category quota of 200 mt would be
subdivided as follows: 80 mt to pelagic
longline vessels landing BFT north of
31° N. latitude and 120 mt to pelagic
longline vessels landing BFT south of
31° N. latitude, with 25 mt set-aside for
bycatch of BFT related to directed
pelagic longline fisheries in the NED.
NMFS would account for landings
under this additional quota separately
from other landings under the Longline
north subcategory.
General Category Effort Controls
For the last several years, NMFS has
implemented General category timeperiod subquotas to increase the
likelihood that fishing would continue
throughout the entire General category
season. The subquotas are consistent
with the objectives of the Consolidated
HMS FMP and are designed to address
concerns regarding the allocation of
fishing opportunities, to assist with
distribution and achievement of
optimum yield, to allow for a late
season fishery, and to improve market
conditions and scientific monitoring.
The regulations implementing the
Consolidated HMS FMP divide the
annual General category quota into five
time-period subquotas as follows: 50
percent for June-August, 26.5 percent
for September, 13 percent for OctoberNovember, 5.2 percent for December,
and 5.3 percent for January. Because the
fishing year is changing back to a
calendar year effective January 1, 2008,
NMFS proposes, for the 2007 fishing
year only, to distribute the 5.3 percent
of the General category quota that would
be assigned to the January time period
to the four time periods that will occur
during the 2007 fishing year. Therefore,
of the available 643.6–mt coastwide
quota, 339.8 mt would be available in
the period beginning June 1 and ending
August 31, 2007; 180.1 mt would be
available in the period beginning
September 1 and ending September 30,
2007; 88.4 mt would be available in the
period beginning October 1 and ending
November 30, 2007; and 35.3 mt would
be available in the period beginning
December 1 and ending December 31,
2007. The January 2007 BFT fishery was
prosecuted using 2006 fishing year
quota. The January 2008 subquota will
be included in the 2008 specifications,
which NMFS plans to publish prior to
the start of the fishery on January 1,
2008. As discussed in the Consolidated
HMS FMP, NMFS plans to work with
the affected constituents through the
2008 specifications process to determine
the most appropriate disposition of any
under- or overharvest that has accrued
in the General category by the end of
December 2007.
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In addition to time-period subquotas,
NMFS also implements General
category RFDs to extend the General
category fishing season. The RFDs are
designed to address the same issues
addressed by time-period subquotas and
provide additional fine scale inseason
flexibility. For the 2007 fishing year,
NMFS proposes a series of solid blocks
of RFDs to extend the General category
for as long as possible through the end
of the 2007 fishing year.
Therefore, NMFS proposes that
persons aboard vessels permitted in the
General category would be prohibited
from fishing, including catch-andrelease and tag-and-release, for BFT of
all sizes on the following days: all
Saturdays and Sundays from November
17, 2007, through December 31, 2007,
plus November 22 and December 25,
2007, while the fishery is open. These
proposed RFDs would distribute fishing
opportunities during the late season
without increasing BFT mortality.
NMFS’ intention is to propose RFDs for
January 2008 as part of the 2008 quota
specifications and effort controls,
scheduled to be published before
January 1, 2008.
Finally, NMFS proposes to adjust the
General category retention limit to three
BFT (73 inches (185.4 cm) or greater per
vessel per day/trip). This action is
intended to allow increased
opportunities to harvest the General
category quota during the period when
catch rates have historically been slow,
and to avoid accumulation of unused
quota. This retention limit would be
effective from June 1, 2007, until August
31, 2007, unless adjusted with an
inseason action, if necessary. NMFS
may consider further retention limit
adjustments after August 31, 2007,
depending on several factors, including
but not limited to catch rates and
availablility of quota.
Angling Category Effort Controls
NMFS proposes to adjust the Angling
category retention limit to one school
BFT (27 inches (68.6 cm) to less than 47
inches (119.4 cm)), and two large
school/small medium BFT (i.e., two
BFT measuring 47 inches (119.4 cm) to
less than 73 inches (185.4 cm)) per
vessel per day/trip. This limit is
expected to maximize use of the
Angling category quota while avoiding
overharvest of each of the Angling
catgeory subquotas. The alternative also
would provide the same retention limit
for both private and charter/headboat
vessels.
Permit Category Changes
Because of the scheduled change to a
calendar year fishery beginning January
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16321
1, 2008, and because NMFS plans to
administer the permit program such that
Atlantic Tunas, HMS Charter/Headboat,
and HMS Angling category permits
issued for the 2007 fishing year will be
effective through December 31, 2008,
NMFS also proposes to extend the
window of opportunity to change
permit categories for the 2008 fishing
year, i.e., once during the period of
January 1, 2008, through May 31, 2008.
Classification
This proposed rule is published under
the authority of the Magnuson-Stevens
Act and the ATCA. The AA has
preliminarily determined that the
regulations contained in this proposed
rule are necessary to implement the
recommendations of ICCAT and to
manage the domestic Atlantic HMS
fisheries.
This proposed rule has been
determined to be not significant for
purposes of Executive Order 12866.
An IRFA was prepared, as required by
section 603 of the Regulatory Flexibility
Act. The IRFA describes the economic
impact this 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 proposed rule. A summary of the
analysis follows. A copy of this analysis
is available from NMFS (see
ADDRESSES).
NMFS has prepared this IRFA to
analyze the impacts on small entities of
the alternatives for establishing 2007
fishing year BFT quotas for all domestic
fishing categories and General and
Angling category effort controls. The
analysis for the IRFA assesses the
impacts of the various alternatives on
the vessels that participate in the BFT
fisheries, all of which are considered
small entities. In order to do this, NMFS
has estimated the average impact that
the alternatives to establish the 2007
BFT quota for all domestic fishing
categories would have on individual
categories and the vessels within those
categories. As mentioned above, the
2006 ICCAT recommendation reduced
the U.S. BFT TAC to 1,190.12 mt. This
quota allocation includes a set-aside
quota of 25 mt to account for incidental
catch of BFT related to directed longline
swordfish and non-BFT tuna fisheries in
the NED. This action would distribute
the adjusted (baseline) TAC of 1,165.1
mt to the domestic fishing categories
based on the allocation percentages
established in the Consolidated HMS
FMP.
In 2006, the annual gross revenues
from the commercial BFT fishery were
approximately $3.4 million.
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Approximately 8,751 vessels are
permitted to land and sell BFT under
four commercial BFT quota categories
(including charter/headboat vessels).
The commercial categories and their
2006 gross revenues are General ($2.5
million), Harpoon ($265,951), Purse
Seine ($33,819), and Longline
($558,022). The IRFA assumes that
vessels within a category will have
similar catch and gross revenues in
order to consider the relative impact of
the various preferred alternatives on
vessels. Data on net revenues of
individual fishermen are lacking, so the
economic impact of the alternatives is
averaged across each category. NMFS
considers this a reasonable approach for
BFT fisheries. More specifically,
available landings data (weight and exvessel value of the fish in price/pound)
allow NMFS to calculate the gross
revenue earned by a fishery participant
on a successful trip. The available data
do not, however, allow NMFS to
calculate the effort and cost associated
with each successful trip (e.g., the cost
of gas, bait, ice, etc.) so net revenue for
each participant cannot be calculated.
NMFS cannot determine whether net
revenue varies among individual fishery
participants within each category, and
therefore whether the economic impact
of a regulation would have a varying
impact among individual participants.
As a result, NMFS analyzes the average
impact of the proposed alternatives
among all participants in each category.
For the allocation of BFT quota among
domestic fishing categories, NMFS
considered three alternatives: A no
action alternative (A1); Alternative A2
(the preferred alternative), which would
implement the 2006 ICCAT
recommendation; and Alternative A3,
which would allocate the 2006 ICCAT
recommendation in a manner other than
that designated in the Consolidated
HMS FMP and which could address
issues regarding the changing nature of
the BFT fisheries (e.g., allocate
additional quota to certain categories
and/or certain geographic regions).
Alternative A3 would result in a de
facto quota reallocation among
categories, and an FMP amendment
would be necessary for its
implementation. Per the Consolidated
HMS FMP, NMFS prepares quota
specifications annually for the
upcoming fishing year. Preparation of
an FMP amendment would not be
possible in the brief period of time
between receipt of the ICCAT
recommendation, which occurred in
late November 2006, and the start of the
2007 fishing year on June 1, 2007.
Therefore, analysis of the impacts of
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Alternative A3 is not available. But, if
an FMP amendment was feasible,
positive economic impacts would be
expected to result on average for vessels
in permit categories that would receive
a greater share than established in the
FMP, and negative economic impacts
would be expected to result on average
for vessels in permit categories that
would receive a lesser share than
established in the FMP. Impacts per
vessel would depend on the temporal
and spatial availability of BFT to
participants.
As noted above, the preferred
alternative (Alternative A2) would
implement the 2006 ICCAT
recommendation in accordance with the
Consolidated HMS FMP and consistent
with the ATCA, under which the United
States is obligated to implement ICCATapproved quota recommendations.
Alternative A2 would have slightly
positive impacts for fishermen. The no
action alternative would keep the quota
at pre–2006 ICCAT recommendation
levels (approximately 300 mt more) and
would not be consistent with the
purpose and need for this action and the
Consolidated HMS FMP. It would
maintain economic impacts to the
United States and to local economies at
a distribution and scale similar to 2006
or recent prior years, and would provide
fishermen additional fishing
opportunities, subject to the availability
of BFT to the fishery, in the short term.
The preferred alternative also would
implement the provision of the 2006
ICCAT recommendation that limits
tolerance for school BFT landings to 10
percent of the U.S. TAC, calculated on
a four-year average. This is expected to
have neutral impacts on fishermen who
fish for school BFT, particularly those
who rely exclusively on the school size
class for BFT harvest, since the available
quota is the same as the level when the
limit was 8–percent of the U.S. TAC
under the 2002 ICCAT recommendation.
Two alternatives were considered for
effort control using RFDs in the General
category. The no action alternative
would not implement any RFDs with
publication of the initial specifications
but rather would use inseason
management authority established in
the Consolidated HMS FMP to
implement RFDs during the season,
should catch rates warrant taking this
approach. This alternative could be
most beneficial during a season of low
catch rates and could have positive
economic consequences if slow catch
rates were to persist during the late
season fishery. During a slow season,
the season could regulate itself and
fishermen could choose when to fish or
not based on their own preferences.
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However, it is impossible to predict in
advance whether the season will have
low or high catch rates.
The preferred alternative would
designate RFDs according to a schedule
published in the initial BFT
specifications. In the past, when catch
rates have been high, the use of RFDs
(preferred alternative) has had positive
economic consequences by avoiding
oversupplying the market and extending
the season as late as possible. In
addition, establishing RFDs at the
season onset provides better planning
opportunities than implementing RFDs
during the season, since charter/
headboat businesses could book trips
and recreational and commercial
fishermen could make plans ahead of
time rather than waiting until the last
minute to see if an RFD is going to be
implemented. However, implementing
RFDs to extend the late season may have
some negative economic impacts to
northern area fishermen who choose to
travel to the southern area during the
late season fishery. Travel and lodging
costs may be greater if the season were
extended over a greater period of time
as proposed under the preferred
alternative. Those additional costs could
be mitigated if the ex-vessel price of
BFT stays high, as is intended under
this alternative. Without RFDs, travel
costs may be less because of a shorter
season; however, the market could be
oversupplied and ex-vessel prices could
fall. Overall, extending the season as
late as possible and establishing
formalized RFDs at the season onset
would enhance the likelihood of
increasing participation by southern
area fishermen, increase access to the
fishery over a greater range of the fish
migration, provide a reliable mechanism
for slowing a fishery that has an ability
to generate extremely high catch rates,
and is expected to provide better than
average ex-vessel prices with an overall
increase in gross revenues.
A retention limit of three BFT
(measuring 73 inches (185.4 cm) or
greater per vessel per day/trip) is the
preferred alternative for the opening
retention limit for the General category,
which would be in effect through
August 31, 2007. This alternative is
expected to result in the most positive
socio-economic impacts by providing
the best opportunity to harvest the quota
while avoiding oversupplying the
market, thus maximizing gross
revenues. Other considered alternatives
were the no action alternative (one BFT
measuring 73 inches or greater per
vessel per day/trip) and a retention limit
of two BFT (73 inches or greater per
vessel per day/trip). Both of these
alternatives are expected to be too
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restrictive given the large amount of
quota available for the General category
during the 2007 fishing year and could
result in the negative economic impact
of lower gross revenues. Although early
season landings seldom occur at a rate
that could oversupply the market,
NMFS will monitor landings closely to
ensure that the increased retention limit
does not contribute to an oversupply.
Six alternatives were considered for
Angling category retention limits for the
2007 fishing year. The preferred
alternative (D1b) is a three BFT
retention limit (two fish measuring 47
inches (119.4 cm) to less than 73 inches
(185.4 cm) and one fish measuring 27
inches (68.6 cm) to less than 73 inches)
per vessel per day/trip for all sectors of
the Angling category for the entire 2007
fishing year. The other two alternatives
providing the same daily retention
limits (per vessel) for both private
recreational and charter/headboats were
the no action alternative (D1a, i.e., one
fish measuring 27 inches to less than 73
inches) and Alternative D1c (two fish
measuring 47 inches to less than 73
inches and two fish measuring 27
inches to less than 73 inches).
Alternative D1a was not preferred
because it could unnecessarily restrict
the amount of Angling category landings
which could result in an underharvest
of the quota and a negative economic
impact. Alternative D1c was not
preferred because it could result in an
overharvest of the quota, with negative
economic consequences.
Three other alternatives were
considered that would provide different
retention limits for the Angling category
sectors. The first (D2a) would allow a
private vessel daily retention limit of
three fish (two measuring 47 inches to
less than 73 inches and one measuring
27 inches to less than 47 inches) and a
charter/headboat daily retention limit
(per vessel) of five fish (three fish
measuring 47 inches to less than 73
inches and two fish measuring 27
inches to less than 47 inches). The
second alternative (D2b) would allow
three fish (two measuring 47 inches to
less than 73 inches and one measuring
27 inches to less than 47 inches) for
each vessel per day/trip for the season,
with an increase to five fish (three
measuring 47 inches to less than 73
inches and two measuring 27 inches to
less than 47 inches) per vessel for
charter/headboats during June 15, 2007
through July 31, 2007, and the month of
September 2007. The third alternative
(D2c) would allow two fish (measuring
27 inches to less than 73 inches) less
than 47 inches) for each vessel per day/
trip for the season, with an increase to
three fish (measuring 27 inches to less
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than 73 inches) per vessel for charter/
headboats during June 15, 2007 through
July 31, 2007, and the month of
September 2007. Alternatives D2a and
D2b were considered to be potentially
too liberal with a greater potential for
exceeding the Angling category quota
for 2007. Alternative D2c was
considered to be unnecessarily
restrictive with a greater potential for
negative economic impacts associated
with not harvesting the entire quota. In
addition, the D2 subalternatives were
not preferred since they could result in
perceived inequities between the two
sectors of the Angling category fishery.
The preferred alternative (D1b) was
selected to balance the intent of landing
the Angling category quota without
overharvesting, providing sufficient
retention limits to offset costs, reducing
any perceived inequities between the
charter/headboat and private
recreational vessel sectors of the
Angling category fishery, and providing
economic benefits to all regional sectors
of the fishery.
There are no new reporting or
recordkeeping requirements contained
in any of the alternatives considered for
this action. This proposed rule has also
been determined not to duplicate,
overlap, or conflict with any other
Federal rules.
List of Subjects in 50 CFR Part 635
Fisheries, Fishing, Fishing vessels,
Foreign relations, Management,
Treaties.
Dated: March 30, 2007.
Samuel D. Rauch III
Deputy Assistant Administrator for
Regulatory Programs, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
For the reasons set out in the
preamble, 50 CFR part 635 is proposed
to be amended as follows:
PART 635—ATLANTIC HIGHLY
MIGRATORY SPECIES
1. The authority citation for part 635
continues to read as follows:
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 971 et seq.; 16 U.S.C.
1801 et seq.
2. In § 635.4, paragraph (j)(3) is
revised to read as follows:
§ 635.4
Permits and fees.
*
*
*
*
*
(j) * * *
(3) A vessel owner issued an Atlantic
tunas permit in the General, Harpoon, or
Trap category or an Atlantic HMS
permit in the Angling or Charter/
Headboat category under paragraph (b),
(c), or (d) of this section may change the
category of the vessel permit once
within 10 calendar days of the date of
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16323
issuance of the permit. After 10 calendar
days from the date of issuance of the
permit, the vessel owner may not
change the permit category until the
following fishing season, except during
the period of January 1, 2008, through
May 31, 2008, when one additional
change is authorized.
*
*
*
*
*
3. In § 635.27, paragraphs (a)
introductory text, (a)(1)(i), (a)(2), (a)(3),
(a)(4)(i), (a)(5), (a)(6), (a)(7)(i), (a)(7)(ii),
(a)(10)(iii), and (a)(10)(iv) are revised to
read as follows:
§ 635.27
Quotas.
(a) BFT. Consistent with ICCAT
recommendations, and with paragraph
(a)(10)(iv) of this section, NMFS may
subtract the most recent, complete, and
available estimate of dead discards from
the annual U.S. BFT quota, and make
the remainder available to be retained,
possessed, or landed by persons and
vessels subject to U.S. jurisdiction. The
remaining baseline annual U.S. BFT
quota will be allocated among the
General, Angling, Harpoon, Purse Seine,
Longline, Trap, and Reserve categories.
BFT may be taken by persons aboard
vessels issued Atlantic Tunas permits,
HMS Angling permits, or HMS Charter/
Headboat permits. The baseline annual
U.S. BFT quota is 1,165.1 mt, not
including an additional annual 25 mt
allocation provided in paragraph (a)(3)
of this section. Allocations of the
baseline annual U.S. BFT quota are:
General - 47.1 percent (548.8 mt);
Angling - 19.7 percent (229.5 mt), which
includes the school BFT held in reserve
as described under paragraph (a)(7)(ii)
of this section; Harpoon - 3.9 percent
(45.4 mt); Purse Seine - 18.6 percent
(216.7 mt); Longline - 8.1 percent (94.4
mt), which does not include the
additional annual 25 mt allocation
provided in paragraph (a)(3) of this
section; and Trap - 0.1 percent (1.2 mt).
The remaining 2.5 percent (29.1 mt) of
the baseline annual U.S. BFT quota will
be held in reserve for inseason or annual
adjustments based on the criteria in
paragraph (a)(8) of this section. NMFS
may apportion a quota allocated to any
category to specified fishing periods or
to geographic areas and will make
annual adjustments to quotas, as
specified in paragraph (a)(10) of this
section. BFT quotas are specified in
whole weight.
(1) General category quota. * * *
(i) Catches from vessels for which
General category Atlantic Tunas permits
have been issued and certain catches
from vessels for which an HMS Charter/
Headboat permit has been issued are
counted against the General category
quota in accordance with § 635.23(c)(3).
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The amount of large medium and giant
BFT that may be caught, retained,
possessed, landed, or sold under the
General category quota is 47.1 percent
(548.8 mt) of the baseline annual U.S.
BFT quota, and is apportioned as
follows:
(A) January 1 through January 31 - 5.3
percent (29.1 mt);
(B) June 1 through August 31 - 50
percent (274.4 mt);
(C) September 1 through September
30 - 26.5 percent (145.4 mt);
(D) October 1 through November 30 13 percent (71.3 mt); and
(E) December 1 through December 31
- 5.2 percent (28.5 mt).
*
*
*
*
*
(2) Angling category quota. In
accordance with the framework
procedures of the HMS FMP, prior to
each fishing year or as early as feasible,
NMFS will establish the Angling
category daily retention limits. The total
amount of BFT that may be caught,
retained, possessed, and landed by
anglers aboard vessels for which an
HMS Angling permit or an HMS
Charter/Headboat permit has been
issued is 19.7 percent (229.5 mt) of the
baseline annual U.S. BFT quota. No
more than 2.3 percent (5.3 mt) of the
annual Angling category quota may be
large medium or giant BFT. In addition,
over each 4 consecutive-year period
(starting in 2007, inclusive), no more
than 10 percent of the annual U.S. BFT
quota, inclusive of the allocation
specified in paragraph (a)(3) of this
section, may be school BFT. The
Angling category quota includes the
amount of school BFT held in reserve
under paragraph (a)(7)(ii) of this section.
The size class subquotas for BFT are
further subdivided as follows:
(i) After adjustment for the school
BFT quota held in reserve (under
paragraph (a)(7)(ii) of this section), 52.8
percent (51.2 mt) of the school BFT
Angling category quota may be caught,
retained, possessed, or landed south of
39°18′ N. lat. The remaining school BFT
Angling category quota (45.8 mt) may be
caught, retained, possessed or landed
north of 39°18′ N. lat.
(ii) An amount equal to 52.8 percent
(55.6 mt) of the large school/small
medium BFT Angling category quota
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may be caught, retained, possessed, or
landed south of 39°18′ N. lat. The
remaining large school/small medium
BFT Angling category quota (49.6 mt)
may be caught, retained, possessed or
landed north of 39°18′ N. lat.
(iii) An amount equal to 66.7 percent
(3.5 mt) of the large medium and giant
BFT Angling category quota may be
caught, retained, possessed, or landed
south of 39°18′ N. lat. The remaining
large medium and giant BFT Angling
category quota (1.8 mt) may be caught,
retained, possessed or landed north of
39°18′ N. lat.
(3) Longline category quota. The total
amount of large medium and giant BFT
that may be caught incidentally and
retained, possessed, or landed by
vessels that possess Longline category
Atlantic Tunas permits is 8.1 percent
(94.4 mt) of the baseline annual U.S.
BFT quota. No more than 60.0 percent
of the Longline category quota may be
allocated for landing in the area south
of 31°00′ N. lat. In addition, 25 mt shall
be allocated for incidental catch by
pelagic longline vessels fishing in the
Northeast Distant gear restricted area as
specified at § 635.23(f)(3).
(4) * * *
(i) The total amount of large medium
and giant BFT that may be caught,
retained, possessed, or landed by
vessels that possess Purse Seine
category Atlantic Tunas permits is 18.6
percent (216.7 mt) of the baseline
annual U.S. BFT quota. The directed
purse seine fishery for BFT commences
on July 15 of each year unless NMFS
takes action to delay the season start
date. Based on cumulative and projected
landings in other commercial fishing
categories, and the potential for gear
conflicts on the fishing grounds or
market impacts due to oversupply,
NMFS may delay the BFT purse seine
season start date from July 15 to no later
than August 15 by filing an adjustment
with the Office of the Federal Register
prior to July 1.
*
*
*
*
*
(5) Harpoon category quota. The total
amount of large medium and giant BFT
that may be caught, retained, possessed,
landed, or sold by vessels that possess
Harpoon category Atlantic Tunas
permits is 3.9 percent (45.4 mt) of the
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baseline annual U.S. BFT quota. The
Harpoon category fishery closes on
November 15 each year.
(6) Trap category quota. The total
amount of large medium and giant BFT
that may be caught, retained, possessed,
or landed by vessels that possess Trap
category Atlantic Tunas permits is 0.1
percent (1.2 mt) of the baseline annual
U.S. BFT quota.
(7) * * *
(i) The total amount of BFT that is
held in reserve for inseason or annual
adjustments and fishery-independent
research using quotas or subquotas is
2.5 percent (29.1 mt) of the baseline
annual U.S. BFT quota. Consistent with
paragraph (a)(8) of this section, NMFS
may allocate any portion of this reserve
for inseason or annual adjustments to
any category quota in the fishery.
(ii) The total amount of school BFT
that is held in reserve for inseason or
annual adjustments and fisheryindependent research is 18.5 percent (22
mt) of the total school BFT Angling
category quota as described under
paragraph (a)(2) of this section. This is
in addition to the amounts specified in
paragraph (a)(7)(i) of this section.
Consistent with paragraph (a)(8) of this
section, NMFS may allocate any portion
of the school BFT Angling category
quota held in reserve for inseason or
annual adjustments to the Angling
category.
*
*
*
*
*
(10) * * *
(iii) Regardless of the estimated
landings in any year, NMFS may adjust
the annual school BFT quota to ensure
that the average take of school BFT over
each 4 consecutive-year period
beginning in the 2007 fishing year does
not exceed 10 percent by weight of the
total annual U.S. BFT quota, inclusive
of the allocation specified in paragraph
(a)(3) of this section, for that period.
(iv) NMFS may subtract the best
available estimate of dead discards from
the amount of BFT that can be landed
in the subsequent fishing year by those
categories accounting for the dead
discards.
*
*
*
*
*
[FR Doc. E7–6259 Filed 4–3–07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510–22–S
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Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 64 (Wednesday, April 4, 2007)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 16318-16324]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-6259]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
50 CFR Part 635
[Docket No. 070330073-7073-01; I.D. 030507A]
RIN 0648-AU87
Atlantic Highly Migratory Species; Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Quota
Specifications and Effort Controls
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Proposed rule; request for comments; notice of public hearings.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: NMFS proposes initial 2007 fishing year specifications for the
Atlantic bluefin tuna (BFT) fishery to set BFT quotas for each of the
established domestic fishing categories and to set effort controls for
the General category and Angling category. This action is necessary to
implement recommendations of the International Commission for the
Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), as required by the Atlantic
Tunas Convention Act (ATCA), and to achieve domestic management
objectives under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and
Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act). A minor administrative change to
the permit regulations is also proposed. NMFS solicits written comments
and will hold public hearings in April 2007 to receive oral comments on
these proposed actions.
DATES: Written comments must be received on or before May 4, 2007.
The public hearings dates are:
1. April 24, 2007, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., Morehead City, NC.
2. April 26, 2007, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., West Islip, NY.
3. April 27, 2007, 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., Gloucester, MA.
ADDRESSES: Comments may be submitted through any of the following
methods:
E-mail: 07BFTSPECS@noaa.gov. Include in the subject line
the following identifier: ``Comments on 2007 Atlantic bluefin tuna
specifications.''
Federal e-Rulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov.
Mail: Sarah McLaughlin, Highly Migratory Species
Management Division, Office of Sustainable Fisheries (F/SF1), NMFS, One
Blackburn Dr., Gloucester, MA 01930.
Fax: (978) 281-9340.
The hearing locations are:
1. Morehead City -- Carteret Community College (Joselyn Hall, H.J.
McGee, Jr. Building), 3505 Arendell Street, Morehead City, NC 28557.
2. West Islip -- West Islip Public Library, 3 Higbie Lane, West
Islip, NY 11795.
3. Gloucester -- NMFS, One Blackburn Drive, Gloucester, MA 01930.
Supporting documents including the Environmental Assessment,
Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis, and Regulatory Impact Review
are available by sending your request to Sarah McLaughlin at the
mailing address specified above.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sarah McLaughlin, 978-281-9260.
[[Page 16319]]
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Atlantic tunas are managed under the dual authority of the
Magnuson-Stevens Act and the ATCA. The ATCA authorizes the Secretary of
Commerce (Secretary) to promulgate regulations, as may be necessary and
appropriate, to implement ICCAT recommendations. The authority to issue
regulations under the Magnuson-Stevens Act and the ATCA has been
delegated from the Secretary to the Assistant Administrator for
Fisheries, NOAA (AA).
Background
On May 28, 1998, NMFS published in the Federal Register (64 FR
29090) final regulations, effective July 1, 1999, implementing the
Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Tunas, Swordfish, and Sharks (1999
FMP). On October 2, 2006, NMFS published in the Federal Register (71 FR
58058) final regulations, effective November 1, 2006, implementing the
Consolidated Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Fishery Management Plan
(Consolidated HMS FMP), which consolidates the management of all
Atlantic HMS (i.e., sharks, swordfish, tunas, and billfish) into one
comprehensive FMP.
The initial specifications within this proposed rule are published
in accordance with the Consolidated HMS FMP and are necessary to
implement the 2006 ICCAT quota recommendation, as required by the ATCA,
and to achieve domestic management objectives under the Magnuson-
Stevens Act. This proposed rule would: (1) Establish initial quota
specifications consistent with the BFT rebuilding program by allocating
the 2006 ICCAT-recommended quota for the 2007 fishing year (June 1,
2007 - December 31, 2007, pursuant to the change in fishing year to a
calendar year as of January 2008 per the Consolidated HMS FMP); (2)
establish General category effort controls, including time-period
subquotas, restricted fishing days (RFDs), and the initial retention
limit; and (3) establish Angling category retention limits for the 2007
fishing season. A minor administrative change to the permit regulations
is also proposed to allow additional flexibility during conversion back
from a fishing year to a calendar year.
Overall U.S. landings figures for the 2006 fishing year are still
preliminary and may be updated before these 2007 fishing year
specifications are finalized. The specifications and effort controls
may subsequently be adjusted during the course of the fishing year,
consistent with the provisions of the Consolidated HMS FMP, and, as
appropriate, would be published in the Federal Register.
NMFS has prepared a draft Environmental Assessment (EA), Regulatory
Impact Review (RIR), and an Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis
(IRFA) which present and analyze anticipated environmental, social, and
economic impacts of several alternatives for each of the major issues
contained in this proposed rule. The complete list of alternatives and
their analysis is provided in the draft EA/RIR/IRFA, and is not
repeated here in its entirety. A copy of the draft EA/RIR/IRFA prepared
for this proposed rule is available from NMFS (see ADDRESSES).
2006 ICCAT Recommendation, BFT Underharvests, and Transfers to Other
ICCAT Contracting Parties
At its 2006 meeting, ICCAT recommended a western Atlantic BFT Total
Allowable Catch (TAC) of 2,100 mt, to allow for continued rebuilding of
BFT through 2018. The TAC is inclusive of dead discards and will be
effective annually for 2007 through 2008, and thereafter until changed.
The following deductions are made from the TAC prior to applying the
U.S. share percentage: 4 mt for the United Kingdom (in respect of
Bermuda), 4 mt for France (in respect of St. Pierre and Miquelon), 25
mt for Mexico (to allow incidental catch in the longline fishery in the
Gulf of Mexico), and 15 mt for Canada and 25 mt for the United States
(for bycatch related to directed longline fisheries in the ``in the
vicinity of the management boundary area,'' i.e., the Northeast Distant
gear restricted area (NED), which was defined in the 2003 BFT annual
specification rulemaking process as the Northeast Distant statistical
area (68 FR 56783, October 2, 2003). The U.S. share of the adjusted TAC
is 57.48 percent, or 1,165.12 mt. Accounting for the 25 mt NED set-
aside, the total U.S. allocation is 1,190.12 mt. The previous (2002)
ICCAT recommendation for a western Atlantic BFT TAC of 2,700 mt
included a U.S. quota of 1,464.6 mt, which was effective from 2003
through the end of the 2006 fishing year, i.e., May 31, 2007, and also
included a 25-mt NED set-aside, for a total of 1,489.6 mt.
The 2006 ICCAT recommendation also includes provisions to: (1)
limit carryover of underharvest to no more than 50 percent of a
contracting party's initial TAC; (2) limit mortality of school BFT to
an average of 10 percent of the initial TAC, calculated on a four-year
basis; and (3) allow a contracting party with a TAC allocation to make
a one-time transfer within a fishing year of up to 15 percent of its
TAC allocation to other contracting parties with TAC allocations,
consistent with domestic obligations and conservation considerations.
Regarding the third provision, the ICCAT recommendation stipulates that
the quota transfer may not be used to cover overharvests, and that a
contracting party that receives a one-time quota transfer may not
retransfer that quota. For the United States, the 15-percent limit on
quota transfer equates to 178.5 mt. In considering whether the United
States could enter into an arrangement with another ICCAT contracting
party, several factors would need to be taken into account, including,
but not limited to, the amount of quota to be transferred, the
projected ability of U.S. vessels to harvest the U.S. TAC before the
end of the fishing year, the potential benefits of the transfer to U.S.
fishing participants (such as access to the EEZ of the receiving
contracting party for the harvest of a designated amount of BFT),
potential ecological impacts, and the contracting party's ICCAT
compliance status. NMFS intends to undertake any transfer of U.S. quota
to another ICCAT contracting party via a separate action proposed in
the Federal Register, if the situation arises.
Initial landings estimates (as of January 15, 2007) per category
are as follows: General category -- 159.8 mt; Harpoon category -- 22.2
mt; Longline category -- 31.4 mt; Angling category -- 186.8 mt; Trap
category -- 0 mt; and Purse Seine category -- 3.6 mt. These preliminary
landings estimates, totaling 403.8 mt, indicate that the total 2006
underharvest is 2,435.4 mt. Underharvests per category are
preliminarily determined to be as follows: General category -- 1,003.5
mt; Harpoon category -- 101.8 mt; Longline category -- 236.6 mt;
Angling category -- 195.2 mt; Trap category -- 5.3 mt; and Purse Seine
category -- 620.5 mt. Based on the estimated amount of Reserve that
NMFS maintains for the landing of BFT taken during ongoing scientific
research projects and/or potential overharvests in certain categories,
NMFS estimates that 282.3 mt of Reserve remains from the 2006 fishing
year.
In anticipation of a cap on carryover for the 2007 fishing year,
i.e., 595.1 mt, or one half of the initial U.S. TAC of 1,190.12 mt, and
in anticipation of a substantial underharvest of the 2006 fishing year
domestic quota, the United States agreed at the 2006 ICCAT meeting to
transfer a total of 275 mt of current U.S. underharvest (i.e.,
underharvest of the 2006 fishing year quota) as follows: 75 mt and 100
mt for 2007 and 2008, respectively, to Mexico, and 50 mt for each of
the years 2007 and 2008 to Canada. Based on these transfers, the
remaining amount of underharvest (as of
[[Page 16320]]
January 15, 2007) is 2,160.4 mt. However, the ICCAT-recommended cap
limits the amount the United States may carry over for 2007 to 595.1
mt.
Domestic Quota Allocation
The 1999 FMP and its implementing regulations established baseline
percentage quota shares for the domestic fishing categories. These
percentage shares were based on allocation procedures that NMFS
developed over several years. The baseline percentage quota shares
established in the 1999 FMP and contained in the Consolidated HMS FMP
for fishing years beginning June 1, 1999, and continuing to the present
are as follows: General category -- 47.1 percent; Harpoon category --
3.9 percent; Purse Seine category -- 18.6 percent; Angling category --
19.7 percent; Longline category -- 8.1 percent; Trap category -- 0.1
percent; and Reserve category -- 2.5 percent.
These proposed initial 2007 fishing year specifications, consistent
with the BFT rebuilding program, would allocate the 2006 ICCAT-
recommended quota for the 2007 fishing year among the several
established domestic fishing categories based on the current BFT quota
allocation percentages per the Consolidated HMS FMP, and would allocate
25 mt to the longline north NED subquota.
As described further below, these specifications also would apply
595.1 mt of the underharvest of BFT quota from the 2006 fishing year,
consistent with the ICCAT-recommended 50-percent cap on quota carryover
to the 2007 fishing year quota, and distribute that underharvest in
such a manner to: (1) Allow for potential transfer of a portion (up to
15 percent) of the 2007 U.S. quota to other ICCAT Contracting Parties,
if warranted; (2) ensure that the Longline category has sufficient
quota to operate during the 2007 fishing year while also considering
accounting for BFT discards; and (3) provide the non-Longline quota
categories a share of the remainder of the underharvest consistent with
the allocation scheme established in the Consolidated HMS FMP.
Beginning with its 1998 recommendation, ICCAT has historically
recommended a deduction of 79 mt from the TAC as an allowance for dead
discards, and the U.S. portion of this allowance has been 68 mt. The
2006 ICCAT recommendation included neither a recommended dead discard
allowance, nor specified dead discard reporting methodology for
compliance purposes. Nevertheless, the United States must report dead
discard estimates annually. Accordingly, NMFS must account for BFT dead
discards in setting the 2007 fishing year quota.
In the past, for compliance purposes, the United States has
reported dead discards to ICCAT as an estimate based on pelagic
longline vessel logbook tallies, adjusted as warranted by observer
data. For 2005, the most recent year for which complete information is
available, the estimate is approximately 46 mt. However, based on
revised methodology, the SCRS now reports dead discard estimates
generated via extrapolation of logbook tallies by pooled observer data;
for 2005, the estimate is approximately 131 mt. These specifications
also use this revised estimate. Estimates of dead discards from other
gear types and fishing sectors that do not use the pelagic longline
vessel logbook are unavailable at this time and thus are not included
in this calculation. Per the ICCAT recommendation, which specifies a
U.S. quota that is inclusive of dead discards, and consistent with how
NMFS has handled past incidents of dead discards exceeding the
allowance, NMFS would deduct the 131 mt of estimated dead discards from
the amount of quota available for the Longline category for the 2007
fishing year. In addition, NMFS proposes to modify the BFT quota and
annual adjustment regulations at Sec. 635.27(a) to indicate that NMFS
will account for dead discards annually as part of the specifications
process, and to indicate its intent to subtract that amount from the
quota of the category accounting for the dead discards.
As described above, the United States may choose, pursuant to the
2006 ICCAT recommendation, to transfer up to 15 percent of the U.S. TAC
to another ICCAT Contracting Party with a TAC allocation, consistent
with U.S. obligations and conservation considerations. NMFS proposes to
divide the 595.1 mt of quota carryover such that 178.5 mt (i.e., 15
percent of 1,190.12 mt) is placed in the Reserve for potential ICCAT
transfer purposes.
NMFS also proposes to assign a sufficient amount of the quota
carryover (236.6 mt) to the Longline category, due to the revised dead
discard accounting methodology, so that after accounting for the 131 mt
of dead discards, sufficient quota is available to cover the
anticipated landings and dead discards of the pelagic longline fishery
during the 2007 fishing year, i.e., potentially 200 mt. NMFS seeks to
avoid a zero or negative quota for the Longline category, which could
result in increased BFT discards, given that NMFS must subtract the
best available dead discard estimate from the TAC on an annual basis.
The Longline category baseline quota allocation (currently 8.1 percent
of the TAC) may need to be revisited in the near future. Any change to
the baseline allocation would require an amendment to the Consolidated
HMS FMP. NMFS proposes to distribute the remainder of the quota
carryover (180 mt) to the Angling, General, Harpoon, Purse Seine, and
Trap categories consistent with their FMP allocations.
Consistent with the 2006 ICCAT recommendation, the proposed rule
also would increase the limit on the take of school BFT (measuring 27
inches (68.6 cm) to less than 47 inches (119.4 cm)) over each 4-
consecutive-year period from 8 percent of the total U.S. TAC (per the
2002 ICCAT recommendation) to 10 percent. Because the total U.S. quota
is reduced by 22 percent, there will be only a minor effective increase
in the base school BFT quota, in weight.
2007 Proposed Initial Quota Specifications
In accordance with the 2006 ICCAT quota recommendation, the
Consolidated HMS FMP percentage shares for each of the domestic
categories, and regulations regarding annual adjustments at Sec.
635.27(a)(10)(ii), NMFS proposes initial quota specifications for the
2007 fishing year as follows: General category -- 643.6 mt; Harpoon
category -- 53.3 mt; Purse Seine category -- 254.1 mt; Angling category
-- 269.2 mt; Longline category -- 200 mt; and Trap category -- 1.4 mt.
Additionally, 207.6 mt would be allocated to the Reserve category for
inseason adjustments, scientific research collection, potential
overharvest in any category except the Purse Seine category, and
potential quota transfers.
Based on the above proposed initial specifications and
considerations regarding the school BFT fishery, the Angling category
quota of 269.2 mt would be further subdivided as follows: School BFT --
119 mt, with 45.8 mt to the northern area (north of 39[deg]18' N.
latitude), 51.2 mt to the southern area (south of 39[deg]18' N.
latitude), plus 22 mt held in reserve; large school/small medium BFT --
144 mt, with 68 mt to the northern area and 76 mt to the southern area;
and large medium/giant BFT -- 6.2 mt, with 2.1 mt to the northern area
and 4.2 mt to the southern area.
The 25-mt NED set-aside quota is in addition to the overall
incidental longline quota to be subdivided in accordance with the
North/South allocation percentages (i.e., no more than 60 percent to
the south of 31[deg] N. latitude). Thus, the proposed Longline
[[Page 16321]]
category quota of 200 mt would be subdivided as follows: 80 mt to
pelagic longline vessels landing BFT north of 31[deg] N. latitude and
120 mt to pelagic longline vessels landing BFT south of 31[deg] N.
latitude, with 25 mt set-aside for bycatch of BFT related to directed
pelagic longline fisheries in the NED. NMFS would account for landings
under this additional quota separately from other landings under the
Longline north subcategory.
General Category Effort Controls
For the last several years, NMFS has implemented General category
time-period subquotas to increase the likelihood that fishing would
continue throughout the entire General category season. The subquotas
are consistent with the objectives of the Consolidated HMS FMP and are
designed to address concerns regarding the allocation of fishing
opportunities, to assist with distribution and achievement of optimum
yield, to allow for a late season fishery, and to improve market
conditions and scientific monitoring.
The regulations implementing the Consolidated HMS FMP divide the
annual General category quota into five time-period subquotas as
follows: 50 percent for June-August, 26.5 percent for September, 13
percent for October-November, 5.2 percent for December, and 5.3 percent
for January. Because the fishing year is changing back to a calendar
year effective January 1, 2008, NMFS proposes, for the 2007 fishing
year only, to distribute the 5.3 percent of the General category quota
that would be assigned to the January time period to the four time
periods that will occur during the 2007 fishing year. Therefore, of the
available 643.6-mt coastwide quota, 339.8 mt would be available in the
period beginning June 1 and ending August 31, 2007; 180.1 mt would be
available in the period beginning September 1 and ending September 30,
2007; 88.4 mt would be available in the period beginning October 1 and
ending November 30, 2007; and 35.3 mt would be available in the period
beginning December 1 and ending December 31, 2007. The January 2007 BFT
fishery was prosecuted using 2006 fishing year quota. The January 2008
subquota will be included in the 2008 specifications, which NMFS plans
to publish prior to the start of the fishery on January 1, 2008. As
discussed in the Consolidated HMS FMP, NMFS plans to work with the
affected constituents through the 2008 specifications process to
determine the most appropriate disposition of any under- or overharvest
that has accrued in the General category by the end of December 2007.
In addition to time-period subquotas, NMFS also implements General
category RFDs to extend the General category fishing season. The RFDs
are designed to address the same issues addressed by time-period
subquotas and provide additional fine scale inseason flexibility. For
the 2007 fishing year, NMFS proposes a series of solid blocks of RFDs
to extend the General category for as long as possible through the end
of the 2007 fishing year.
Therefore, NMFS proposes that persons aboard vessels permitted in
the General category would be prohibited from fishing, including catch-
and-release and tag-and-release, for BFT of all sizes on the following
days: all Saturdays and Sundays from November 17, 2007, through
December 31, 2007, plus November 22 and December 25, 2007, while the
fishery is open. These proposed RFDs would distribute fishing
opportunities during the late season without increasing BFT mortality.
NMFS' intention is to propose RFDs for January 2008 as part of the 2008
quota specifications and effort controls, scheduled to be published
before January 1, 2008.
Finally, NMFS proposes to adjust the General category retention
limit to three BFT (73 inches (185.4 cm) or greater per vessel per day/
trip). This action is intended to allow increased opportunities to
harvest the General category quota during the period when catch rates
have historically been slow, and to avoid accumulation of unused quota.
This retention limit would be effective from June 1, 2007, until August
31, 2007, unless adjusted with an inseason action, if necessary. NMFS
may consider further retention limit adjustments after August 31, 2007,
depending on several factors, including but not limited to catch rates
and availablility of quota.
Angling Category Effort Controls
NMFS proposes to adjust the Angling category retention limit to one
school BFT (27 inches (68.6 cm) to less than 47 inches (119.4 cm)), and
two large school/small medium BFT (i.e., two BFT measuring 47 inches
(119.4 cm) to less than 73 inches (185.4 cm)) per vessel per day/trip.
This limit is expected to maximize use of the Angling category quota
while avoiding overharvest of each of the Angling catgeory subquotas.
The alternative also would provide the same retention limit for both
private and charter/headboat vessels.
Permit Category Changes
Because of the scheduled change to a calendar year fishery
beginning January 1, 2008, and because NMFS plans to administer the
permit program such that Atlantic Tunas, HMS Charter/Headboat, and HMS
Angling category permits issued for the 2007 fishing year will be
effective through December 31, 2008, NMFS also proposes to extend the
window of opportunity to change permit categories for the 2008 fishing
year, i.e., once during the period of January 1, 2008, through May 31,
2008.
Classification
This proposed rule is published under the authority of the
Magnuson-Stevens Act and the ATCA. The AA has preliminarily determined
that the regulations contained in this proposed rule are necessary to
implement the recommendations of ICCAT and to manage the domestic
Atlantic HMS fisheries.
This proposed rule has been determined to be not significant for
purposes of Executive Order 12866.
An IRFA was prepared, as required by section 603 of the Regulatory
Flexibility Act. The IRFA describes the economic impact this 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 proposed rule. A summary of the
analysis follows. A copy of this analysis is available from NMFS (see
ADDRESSES).
NMFS has prepared this IRFA to analyze the impacts on small
entities of the alternatives for establishing 2007 fishing year BFT
quotas for all domestic fishing categories and General and Angling
category effort controls. The analysis for the IRFA assesses the
impacts of the various alternatives on the vessels that participate in
the BFT fisheries, all of which are considered small entities. In order
to do this, NMFS has estimated the average impact that the alternatives
to establish the 2007 BFT quota for all domestic fishing categories
would have on individual categories and the vessels within those
categories. As mentioned above, the 2006 ICCAT recommendation reduced
the U.S. BFT TAC to 1,190.12 mt. This quota allocation includes a set-
aside quota of 25 mt to account for incidental catch of BFT related to
directed longline swordfish and non-BFT tuna fisheries in the NED. This
action would distribute the adjusted (baseline) TAC of 1,165.1 mt to
the domestic fishing categories based on the allocation percentages
established in the Consolidated HMS FMP.
In 2006, the annual gross revenues from the commercial BFT fishery
were approximately $3.4 million.
[[Page 16322]]
Approximately 8,751 vessels are permitted to land and sell BFT under
four commercial BFT quota categories (including charter/headboat
vessels). The commercial categories and their 2006 gross revenues are
General ($2.5 million), Harpoon ($265,951), Purse Seine ($33,819), and
Longline ($558,022). The IRFA assumes that vessels within a category
will have similar catch and gross revenues in order to consider the
relative impact of the various preferred alternatives on vessels. Data
on net revenues of individual fishermen are lacking, so the economic
impact of the alternatives is averaged across each category. NMFS
considers this a reasonable approach for BFT fisheries. More
specifically, available landings data (weight and ex-vessel value of
the fish in price/pound) allow NMFS to calculate the gross revenue
earned by a fishery participant on a successful trip. The available
data do not, however, allow NMFS to calculate the effort and cost
associated with each successful trip (e.g., the cost of gas, bait, ice,
etc.) so net revenue for each participant cannot be calculated. NMFS
cannot determine whether net revenue varies among individual fishery
participants within each category, and therefore whether the economic
impact of a regulation would have a varying impact among individual
participants. As a result, NMFS analyzes the average impact of the
proposed alternatives among all participants in each category.
For the allocation of BFT quota among domestic fishing categories,
NMFS considered three alternatives: A no action alternative (A1);
Alternative A2 (the preferred alternative), which would implement the
2006 ICCAT recommendation; and Alternative A3, which would allocate the
2006 ICCAT recommendation in a manner other than that designated in the
Consolidated HMS FMP and which could address issues regarding the
changing nature of the BFT fisheries (e.g., allocate additional quota
to certain categories and/or certain geographic regions). Alternative
A3 would result in a de facto quota reallocation among categories, and
an FMP amendment would be necessary for its implementation. Per the
Consolidated HMS FMP, NMFS prepares quota specifications annually for
the upcoming fishing year. Preparation of an FMP amendment would not be
possible in the brief period of time between receipt of the ICCAT
recommendation, which occurred in late November 2006, and the start of
the 2007 fishing year on June 1, 2007. Therefore, analysis of the
impacts of Alternative A3 is not available. But, if an FMP amendment
was feasible, positive economic impacts would be expected to result on
average for vessels in permit categories that would receive a greater
share than established in the FMP, and negative economic impacts would
be expected to result on average for vessels in permit categories that
would receive a lesser share than established in the FMP. Impacts per
vessel would depend on the temporal and spatial availability of BFT to
participants.
As noted above, the preferred alternative (Alternative A2) would
implement the 2006 ICCAT recommendation in accordance with the
Consolidated HMS FMP and consistent with the ATCA, under which the
United States is obligated to implement ICCAT-approved quota
recommendations. Alternative A2 would have slightly positive impacts
for fishermen. The no action alternative would keep the quota at pre-
2006 ICCAT recommendation levels (approximately 300 mt more) and would
not be consistent with the purpose and need for this action and the
Consolidated HMS FMP. It would maintain economic impacts to the United
States and to local economies at a distribution and scale similar to
2006 or recent prior years, and would provide fishermen additional
fishing opportunities, subject to the availability of BFT to the
fishery, in the short term.
The preferred alternative also would implement the provision of the
2006 ICCAT recommendation that limits tolerance for school BFT landings
to 10 percent of the U.S. TAC, calculated on a four-year average. This
is expected to have neutral impacts on fishermen who fish for school
BFT, particularly those who rely exclusively on the school size class
for BFT harvest, since the available quota is the same as the level
when the limit was 8-percent of the U.S. TAC under the 2002 ICCAT
recommendation.
Two alternatives were considered for effort control using RFDs in
the General category. The no action alternative would not implement any
RFDs with publication of the initial specifications but rather would
use inseason management authority established in the Consolidated HMS
FMP to implement RFDs during the season, should catch rates warrant
taking this approach. This alternative could be most beneficial during
a season of low catch rates and could have positive economic
consequences if slow catch rates were to persist during the late season
fishery. During a slow season, the season could regulate itself and
fishermen could choose when to fish or not based on their own
preferences. However, it is impossible to predict in advance whether
the season will have low or high catch rates.
The preferred alternative would designate RFDs according to a
schedule published in the initial BFT specifications. In the past, when
catch rates have been high, the use of RFDs (preferred alternative) has
had positive economic consequences by avoiding oversupplying the market
and extending the season as late as possible. In addition, establishing
RFDs at the season onset provides better planning opportunities than
implementing RFDs during the season, since charter/headboat businesses
could book trips and recreational and commercial fishermen could make
plans ahead of time rather than waiting until the last minute to see if
an RFD is going to be implemented. However, implementing RFDs to extend
the late season may have some negative economic impacts to northern
area fishermen who choose to travel to the southern area during the
late season fishery. Travel and lodging costs may be greater if the
season were extended over a greater period of time as proposed under
the preferred alternative. Those additional costs could be mitigated if
the ex-vessel price of BFT stays high, as is intended under this
alternative. Without RFDs, travel costs may be less because of a
shorter season; however, the market could be oversupplied and ex-vessel
prices could fall. Overall, extending the season as late as possible
and establishing formalized RFDs at the season onset would enhance the
likelihood of increasing participation by southern area fishermen,
increase access to the fishery over a greater range of the fish
migration, provide a reliable mechanism for slowing a fishery that has
an ability to generate extremely high catch rates, and is expected to
provide better than average ex-vessel prices with an overall increase
in gross revenues.
A retention limit of three BFT (measuring 73 inches (185.4 cm) or
greater per vessel per day/trip) is the preferred alternative for the
opening retention limit for the General category, which would be in
effect through August 31, 2007. This alternative is expected to result
in the most positive socio-economic impacts by providing the best
opportunity to harvest the quota while avoiding oversupplying the
market, thus maximizing gross revenues. Other considered alternatives
were the no action alternative (one BFT measuring 73 inches or greater
per vessel per day/trip) and a retention limit of two BFT (73 inches or
greater per vessel per day/trip). Both of these alternatives are
expected to be too
[[Page 16323]]
restrictive given the large amount of quota available for the General
category during the 2007 fishing year and could result in the negative
economic impact of lower gross revenues. Although early season landings
seldom occur at a rate that could oversupply the market, NMFS will
monitor landings closely to ensure that the increased retention limit
does not contribute to an oversupply.
Six alternatives were considered for Angling category retention
limits for the 2007 fishing year. The preferred alternative (D1b) is a
three BFT retention limit (two fish measuring 47 inches (119.4 cm) to
less than 73 inches (185.4 cm) and one fish measuring 27 inches (68.6
cm) to less than 73 inches) per vessel per day/trip for all sectors of
the Angling category for the entire 2007 fishing year. The other two
alternatives providing the same daily retention limits (per vessel) for
both private recreational and charter/headboats were the no action
alternative (D1a, i.e., one fish measuring 27 inches to less than 73
inches) and Alternative D1c (two fish measuring 47 inches to less than
73 inches and two fish measuring 27 inches to less than 73 inches).
Alternative D1a was not preferred because it could unnecessarily
restrict the amount of Angling category landings which could result in
an underharvest of the quota and a negative economic impact.
Alternative D1c was not preferred because it could result in an
overharvest of the quota, with negative economic consequences.
Three other alternatives were considered that would provide
different retention limits for the Angling category sectors. The first
(D2a) would allow a private vessel daily retention limit of three fish
(two measuring 47 inches to less than 73 inches and one measuring 27
inches to less than 47 inches) and a charter/headboat daily retention
limit (per vessel) of five fish (three fish measuring 47 inches to less
than 73 inches and two fish measuring 27 inches to less than 47
inches). The second alternative (D2b) would allow three fish (two
measuring 47 inches to less than 73 inches and one measuring 27 inches
to less than 47 inches) for each vessel per day/trip for the season,
with an increase to five fish (three measuring 47 inches to less than
73 inches and two measuring 27 inches to less than 47 inches) per
vessel for charter/headboats during June 15, 2007 through July 31,
2007, and the month of September 2007. The third alternative (D2c)
would allow two fish (measuring 27 inches to less than 73 inches) less
than 47 inches) for each vessel per day/trip for the season, with an
increase to three fish (measuring 27 inches to less than 73 inches) per
vessel for charter/headboats during June 15, 2007 through July 31,
2007, and the month of September 2007. Alternatives D2a and D2b were
considered to be potentially too liberal with a greater potential for
exceeding the Angling category quota for 2007. Alternative D2c was
considered to be unnecessarily restrictive with a greater potential for
negative economic impacts associated with not harvesting the entire
quota. In addition, the D2 subalternatives were not preferred since
they could result in perceived inequities between the two sectors of
the Angling category fishery.
The preferred alternative (D1b) was selected to balance the intent
of landing the Angling category quota without overharvesting, providing
sufficient retention limits to offset costs, reducing any perceived
inequities between the charter/headboat and private recreational vessel
sectors of the Angling category fishery, and providing economic
benefits to all regional sectors of the fishery.
There are no new reporting or recordkeeping requirements contained
in any of the alternatives considered for this action. This proposed
rule has also been determined not to duplicate, overlap, or conflict
with any other Federal rules.
List of Subjects in 50 CFR Part 635
Fisheries, Fishing, Fishing vessels, Foreign relations, Management,
Treaties.
Dated: March 30, 2007.
Samuel D. Rauch III
Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Programs, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
For the reasons set out in the preamble, 50 CFR part 635 is
proposed to be amended as follows:
PART 635--ATLANTIC HIGHLY MIGRATORY SPECIES
1. The authority citation for part 635 continues to read as
follows:
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 971 et seq.; 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
2. In Sec. 635.4, paragraph (j)(3) is revised to read as follows:
Sec. 635.4 Permits and fees.
* * * * *
(j) * * *
(3) A vessel owner issued an Atlantic tunas permit in the General,
Harpoon, or Trap category or an Atlantic HMS permit in the Angling or
Charter/Headboat category under paragraph (b), (c), or (d) of this
section may change the category of the vessel permit once within 10
calendar days of the date of issuance of the permit. After 10 calendar
days from the date of issuance of the permit, the vessel owner may not
change the permit category until the following fishing season, except
during the period of January 1, 2008, through May 31, 2008, when one
additional change is authorized.
* * * * *
3. In Sec. 635.27, paragraphs (a) introductory text, (a)(1)(i),
(a)(2), (a)(3), (a)(4)(i), (a)(5), (a)(6), (a)(7)(i), (a)(7)(ii),
(a)(10)(iii), and (a)(10)(iv) are revised to read as follows:
Sec. 635.27 Quotas.
(a) BFT. Consistent with ICCAT recommendations, and with paragraph
(a)(10)(iv) of this section, NMFS may subtract the most recent,
complete, and available estimate of dead discards from the annual U.S.
BFT quota, and make the remainder available to be retained, possessed,
or landed by persons and vessels subject to U.S. jurisdiction. The
remaining baseline annual U.S. BFT quota will be allocated among the
General, Angling, Harpoon, Purse Seine, Longline, Trap, and Reserve
categories. BFT may be taken by persons aboard vessels issued Atlantic
Tunas permits, HMS Angling permits, or HMS Charter/Headboat permits.
The baseline annual U.S. BFT quota is 1,165.1 mt, not including an
additional annual 25 mt allocation provided in paragraph (a)(3) of this
section. Allocations of the baseline annual U.S. BFT quota are: General
- 47.1 percent (548.8 mt); Angling - 19.7 percent (229.5 mt), which
includes the school BFT held in reserve as described under paragraph
(a)(7)(ii) of this section; Harpoon - 3.9 percent (45.4 mt); Purse
Seine - 18.6 percent (216.7 mt); Longline - 8.1 percent (94.4 mt),
which does not include the additional annual 25 mt allocation provided
in paragraph (a)(3) of this section; and Trap - 0.1 percent (1.2 mt).
The remaining 2.5 percent (29.1 mt) of the baseline annual U.S. BFT
quota will be held in reserve for inseason or annual adjustments based
on the criteria in paragraph (a)(8) of this section. NMFS may apportion
a quota allocated to any category to specified fishing periods or to
geographic areas and will make annual adjustments to quotas, as
specified in paragraph (a)(10) of this section. BFT quotas are
specified in whole weight.
(1) General category quota. * * *
(i) Catches from vessels for which General category Atlantic Tunas
permits have been issued and certain catches from vessels for which an
HMS Charter/Headboat permit has been issued are counted against the
General category quota in accordance with Sec. 635.23(c)(3).
[[Page 16324]]
The amount of large medium and giant BFT that may be caught, retained,
possessed, landed, or sold under the General category quota is 47.1
percent (548.8 mt) of the baseline annual U.S. BFT quota, and is
apportioned as follows:
(A) January 1 through January 31 - 5.3 percent (29.1 mt);
(B) June 1 through August 31 - 50 percent (274.4 mt);
(C) September 1 through September 30 - 26.5 percent (145.4 mt);
(D) October 1 through November 30 - 13 percent (71.3 mt); and
(E) December 1 through December 31 - 5.2 percent (28.5 mt).
* * * * *
(2) Angling category quota. In accordance with the framework
procedures of the HMS FMP, prior to each fishing year or as early as
feasible, NMFS will establish the Angling category daily retention
limits. The total amount of BFT that may be caught, retained,
possessed, and landed by anglers aboard vessels for which an HMS
Angling permit or an HMS Charter/Headboat permit has been issued is
19.7 percent (229.5 mt) of the baseline annual U.S. BFT quota. No more
than 2.3 percent (5.3 mt) of the annual Angling category quota may be
large medium or giant BFT. In addition, over each 4 consecutive-year
period (starting in 2007, inclusive), no more than 10 percent of the
annual U.S. BFT quota, inclusive of the allocation specified in
paragraph (a)(3) of this section, may be school BFT. The Angling
category quota includes the amount of school BFT held in reserve under
paragraph (a)(7)(ii) of this section. The size class subquotas for BFT
are further subdivided as follows:
(i) After adjustment for the school BFT quota held in reserve
(under paragraph (a)(7)(ii) of this section), 52.8 percent (51.2 mt) of
the school BFT Angling category quota may be caught, retained,
possessed, or landed south of 39[deg]18' N. lat. The remaining school
BFT Angling category quota (45.8 mt) may be caught, retained, possessed
or landed north of 39[deg]18' N. lat.
(ii) An amount equal to 52.8 percent (55.6 mt) of the large school/
small medium BFT Angling category quota may be caught, retained,
possessed, or landed south of 39[deg]18' N. lat. The remaining large
school/small medium BFT Angling category quota (49.6 mt) may be caught,
retained, possessed or landed north of 39[deg]18' N. lat.
(iii) An amount equal to 66.7 percent (3.5 mt) of the large medium
and giant BFT Angling category quota may be caught, retained,
possessed, or landed south of 39[deg]18' N. lat. The remaining large
medium and giant BFT Angling category quota (1.8 mt) may be caught,
retained, possessed or landed north of 39[deg]18' N. lat.
(3) Longline category quota. The total amount of large medium and
giant BFT that may be caught incidentally and retained, possessed, or
landed by vessels that possess Longline category Atlantic Tunas permits
is 8.1 percent (94.4 mt) of the baseline annual U.S. BFT quota. No more
than 60.0 percent of the Longline category quota may be allocated for
landing in the area south of 31[deg]00' N. lat. In addition, 25 mt
shall be allocated for incidental catch by pelagic longline vessels
fishing in the Northeast Distant gear restricted area as specified at
Sec. 635.23(f)(3).
(4) * * *
(i) The total amount of large medium and giant BFT that may be
caught, retained, possessed, or landed by vessels that possess Purse
Seine category Atlantic Tunas permits is 18.6 percent (216.7 mt) of the
baseline annual U.S. BFT quota. The directed purse seine fishery for
BFT commences on July 15 of each year unless NMFS takes action to delay
the season start date. Based on cumulative and projected landings in
other commercial fishing categories, and the potential for gear
conflicts on the fishing grounds or market impacts due to oversupply,
NMFS may delay the BFT purse seine season start date from July 15 to no
later than August 15 by filing an adjustment with the Office of the
Federal Register prior to July 1.
* * * * *
(5) Harpoon category quota. The total amount of large medium and
giant BFT that may be caught, retained, possessed, landed, or sold by
vessels that possess Harpoon category Atlantic Tunas permits is 3.9
percent (45.4 mt) of the baseline annual U.S. BFT quota. The Harpoon
category fishery closes on November 15 each year.
(6) Trap category quota. The total amount of large medium and giant
BFT that may be caught, retained, possessed, or landed by vessels that
possess Trap category Atlantic Tunas permits is 0.1 percent (1.2 mt) of
the baseline annual U.S. BFT quota.
(7) * * *
(i) The total amount of BFT that is held in reserve for inseason or
annual adjustments and fishery-independent research using quotas or
subquotas is 2.5 percent (29.1 mt) of the baseline annual U.S. BFT
quota. Consistent with paragraph (a)(8) of this section, NMFS may
allocate any portion of this reserve for inseason or annual adjustments
to any category quota in the fishery.
(ii) The total amount of school BFT that is held in reserve for
inseason or annual adjustments and fishery-independent research is 18.5
percent (22 mt) of the total school BFT Angling category quota as
described under paragraph (a)(2) of this section. This is in addition
to the amounts specified in paragraph (a)(7)(i) of this section.
Consistent with paragraph (a)(8) of this section, NMFS may allocate any
portion of the school BFT Angling category quota held in reserve for
inseason or annual adjustments to the Angling category.
* * * * *
(10) * * *
(iii) Regardless of the estimated landings in any year, NMFS may
adjust the annual school BFT quota to ensure that the average take of
school BFT over each 4 consecutive-year period beginning in the 2007
fishing year does not exceed 10 percent by weight of the total annual
U.S. BFT quota, inclusive of the allocation specified in paragraph
(a)(3) of this section, for that period.
(iv) NMFS may subtract the best available estimate of dead discards
from the amount of BFT that can be landed in the subsequent fishing
year by those categories accounting for the dead discards.
* * * * *
[FR Doc. E7-6259 Filed 4-3-07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-S