Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Northeast Multispecies Fishery; Adjustment to Fishing Year 2010 Georges Bank Yellowtail Flounder Total Allowable Catch, 55286-55288 [2010-22634]
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Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 175 / Friday, September 10, 2010 / Rules and Regulations
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[FR Doc. 2010–22586 Filed 9–9–10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 9110–12–P
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration
50 CFR Part 648
[Docket No. 0910051338–0403–04]
RIN 0648–AY29
Fisheries of the Northeastern United
States; Northeast Multispecies
Fishery; Adjustment to Fishing Year
2010 Georges Bank Yellowtail
Flounder Total Allowable Catch
National Marine Fisheries
Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
Commerce.
ACTION: Temporary final rule;
adjustment to specifications.
WReier-Aviles on DSKJ8SOYB1PROD with RULES
AGENCY:
Final catch data for the 2009
fishing year (FY) (May 1, 2009–April 30,
2010) indicate that the total catch of
Georges Bank (GB) yellowtail flounder
was 1,770 mt, exceeding the 1,617 mt
FY 2009 Total Allowable Catch (TAC)
by 153 mt. The regulations require that
SUMMARY:
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14:26 Sep 09, 2010
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any overage of the GB yellowtail
flounder TAC specified for the common
pool, individual sectors, or the scallop
fishery in one FY be subtracted from the
respective TACs in the following FY.
Therefore, NMFS hereby announces
deductions to the FY 2010 GB yellowtail
flounder TAC, including how the
deduction will be divided between the
annual catch limit (ACL) for common
pool vessels (common pool sub-ACL),
and the ACL for sector vessels (sector
sub-ACL).
DATES: Effective September 7, 2010
through April 30, 2011.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Douglas Potts, Fishery Policy Analyst,
(978) 281–9341.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The TACs
for Eastern GB cod, Eastern GB haddock,
and GB yellowtail flounder in the U.S./
Canada Management Area were
published in the Federal Register on
April 9, 2010 (75 FR 18356) as part of
the Framework Adjustment 44 (FW 44)
final rule. That action established the
FY 2010 U.S. TACs of GB cod, haddock,
and yellowtail flounder at 338 mt,
11,988 mt, and 1,200 mt, respectively,
and specified that, should an analysis of
the catch by U.S. vessels indicate that
an overage occurred during FY 2009, the
pertinent TAC would be adjusted
downward in order to be consistent
with the FMP and the U.S./Canada
Resource Sharing Understanding
(Understanding). The regulations at
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Fmt 4700
Sfmt 4700
§ 648.85(a)(2)(ii) require that ‘‘any
overages of the GB cod and GB haddock
TACs specified for either the common
pool or individual sectors, or any
overages of the GB yellowtail flounder
TAC specified for the common pool,
individual sectors, or the scallop fishery
* * * that occur in a given fishing year
will be subtracted from the respective
TAC in the following fishing year.’’ The
final annual catch analysis cannot be
completed until about 1 month into the
following FY because of the need to
include any late reports from vessels
and dealers. Therefore, any required
TAC adjustment must be made during
the FY following the FY in which the
overage occurred.
Based upon vessel reports, dealer
reports, and other information available
as of June 8, 2010, the total estimated
catch of GB yellowtail flounder in the
U.S./Canada Management Area during
FY 2009 was 1,770 mt. This exceeds the
overall FY 2009 GB yellowtail flounder
TAC of 1,617 mt by 153 mt. Therefore,
an overage of 153 mt of GB yellowtail
flounder must be subtracted from the
overall FY 2010 U.S./Canada GB
yellowtail flounder TAC through this
action. This results in an adjusted
overall TAC of 1,047 mt for FY 2010 for
GB yellowtail flounder. The Eastern GB
cod and haddock TACs were not
exceeded in FY 2009. Therefore, these
two TACs are not adjusted.
E:\FR\FM\10SER1.SGM
10SER1
WReier-Aviles on DSKJ8SOYB1PROD with RULES
Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 175 / Friday, September 10, 2010 / Rules and Regulations
The current regulatory provision
requires that the reduction in the GB
yellowtail flounder TAC be applied to
the common pool, individual sectors,
and scallop TACs, based on any
overages in the previous year’s TACs for
each of these three components of the
fishery. In FY 2009, however, with the
exception of a bycatch TAC allocation to
the scallop fishery, there was only an
overall TAC allocated to the groundfish
fishery, with no specific allocation to
the common pool or individual sectors.
Therefore, although there is a
requirement to reduce this year’s GB
yellowtail flounder TAC by last year’s
overall overage, there is no specific
regulatory provision describing how to
allocate the reduction among these three
components in this FY. (This is relevant
to this FY only.) This action implements
the required reduction and, pursuant to
the agency’s general regulatory authority
under section 305(d) of the MagnusonStevens Fishery Conservation and
Management Act (16 U.S.C. 1855),
creates an ad hoc method to prorate this
reduction between the common pool
and individual sectors based on the
percentages of TAC allocated to the
common pool and individual sectors for
FY 2010. The FW 44 final rule set the
FY 2010 GB yellowtail flounder ACL
subcomponent for the scallop fishery to
account for 100 percent of the
anticipated GB yellowtail flounder
bycatch in that fishery. Therefore, there
is no rational basis to reduce scallop
bycatch allocation this year.
Implementing this method for allocating
the reduction in TAC between the
common pool and individual sectors is
necessary to ensure consistency with
the intent of Amendment 16 and FW 44.
To understand how the reduction is to
be prorated it is necessary to describe
how the allocation of TACs among the
various components of the fishery is
done. For transboundary managed
stocks, the Acceptable Biological Catch
(ABC) is equivalent to the U.S. portion
of the TAC negotiated under the
Understanding. The total ACL (or TAC)
is set lower than the ABC to account for
management uncertainty. For yellowtail
flounder, the total ACL (or TAC) is
subdivided into sub-ACLs (or TACs) for
the groundfish fishery (sectors and
common pool) and other ACL
subcomponents, including an allocation
to account for bycatch in the scallop
fishery, and bycatch in other fisheries.
The sector sub-ACL is further divided
into Annual Catch Entitlement (ACE)
values (or TACs) for each of the 17 NE
multispecies sectors. The 17 sector
ACEs that constitute the sector sub-ACL
for FY 2010 were initially published on
VerDate Mar<15>2010
14:26 Sep 09, 2010
Jkt 220001
April 9, 2010 (75 FR 18113), in the
sector final rule. These common pool
and sector allocations were
subsequently modified by a rule
published on May 26, 2010 (75 FR
29459), to adjust for final sector
membership rosters. The percentage
allocations of TACs to these sub-ACLs
and ACEs form the basis for prorating
the reduction dictated by the 2009 FY’s
overage.
Table 1 contains the new values for
the ABC, ACL, sub-ACLs, and ACL
subcomponents for GB yellowtail
flounder implemented by this action.
Table 2 contains details of the
adjustments to each of the 17 sector’s
ACEs for GB yellowtail flounder as a
result of this action.
TABLE 1—GB YELLOWTAIL FLOUNDER
ABC, ACL, SUB-ACL, AND ACL
SUBCOMPONENTS FOR FY 2010
(MT)
Previous
value
ABC ..........................
Total ACL ..................
Scallop Fishery ACL
Subcomponent ......
Other ACL Subcomponents ...........
Groundfish Total ACL
Sector Sub-ACL* ......
Common Pool SubACL .......................
New
value
1,200
1,170
1,047
1,021
146
146
60
964
941
52
823
803
23
20
*All sub-ACL values for sectors assume that
each sector MRI has a valid permit for FY
2010.
TABLE 2—GB YELLOWTAIL FLOUNDER
ACE FOR EACH SECTOR FOR FY
2010 (MT)*
Sector name
FGS ..........................
NCCS ........................
NEFS 2 .....................
NEFS 3 .....................
NEFS 4 .....................
NEFS 5 .....................
NEFS 6 .....................
NEFS 7 .....................
NEFS 8 .....................
NEFS 9 .....................
NEFS 10 ...................
NEFS 11 ...................
NEFS 12 ...................
NEFS 13 ...................
PCCGS .....................
SHS ..........................
TSS ...........................
Previous
ACE
(mt)
New ACE
(mt)
0
8
16
0
21
92
13
156
154
183
0
0
0
149
0
79
70
0
7
14
0
18
79
11
133
131
156
0
0
0
127
0
68
60
* All ACE values for sectors outlined in
Table 1 assume that each sector MRI has a
valid permit for FY 2010.
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Fmt 4700
Sfmt 4700
55287
George Bank Cod Fixed Gear Sector (FGS),
Northeast
Coastal
Communities
Sector
(NCCS), Northeast Fishery Sectors (NEFS),
Port Clyde Community Groundfish Sector
(PCCGS), Sustainable Harvest Sector (SHS),
and Tri-State Sector (TSS).
FW 44 specified an incidental catch
TAC for the Regular B Days-at Sea
(DAS) Program, equivalent to 2 percent
of the GB yellowtail flounder common
pool sub-ACL. As a result of the
adjustment to the common pool subACL, this incidental catch TAC is
reduced from 0.47 mt to 0.40 mt.
Classification
This action is required by 50 CFR part
648 and is exempt from review under
Executive Order 12866.
Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B) and
(d)(3), the Assistant Administrator finds
good cause to waive prior notice and
opportunity for public comment, as well
as the delayed effectiveness for this
action, because notice, comment, and a
delayed effectiveness would be
unnecessary, impractical, and contrary
to the public interest. Any delay in this
action to allow for prior public
comment could result in overharvest of
the new GB yellowtail flounder
allocation by a sector or the common
pool. Such an overage would result in
closure of the Eastern U.S./Canada Area,
and zero possession of GB yellowtail
flounder for the affected group and,
therefore, loss of opportunities to fish
for other stocks. Further, the regulations
at § 648.85(a)(2)(ii), which were subject
to prior public comment, require that
any overage of the TAC for GB
yellowtail flounder be deducted from
the TAC in the following FY.
Accordingly, the action being taken by
this temporary rule is non-discretionary.
Since this is a non-discretionary action,
based on numerous records solely in the
possession of NMFS, public comment
would not serve to inform the agency
calculation of the overage and its
deduction from the appropriate TAC.
The rate of harvest of GB yellowtail
flounder by groundfish vessels and
scallop vessels fishing in the Scallop
Access Areas in the U.S./Canada
Management Area, as reported from
Vessel Monitoring Systems, is updated
weekly on the Internet at https://
www.nero.noaa.gov. Accordingly, the
public is able to obtain information that
would provide at least some advance
notice of a potential action as a result of
a GB yellowtail flounder TAC being
exceeded during FY 2009. Further, the
potential that one or more of the FY
2009 TACs for the U.S./Canada stocks
could be exceeded, and therefore reduce
the FY 2010 TAC, was considered and
E:\FR\FM\10SER1.SGM
10SER1
55288
Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 175 / Friday, September 10, 2010 / Rules and Regulations
open to public comment during the
proposed rule stage of FW44.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: September 3, 2010.
Eric C. Schwaab,
Assistant Administrator for Fisheries,
National Marine Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2010–22634 Filed 9–7–10; 4:15 pm]
BILLING CODE 3510–22–P
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration
50 CFR Part 679
[Docket No. 0910131362–0087–02]
RIN 0648–XY88
Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic
Zone Off Alaska; Pollock in Statistical
Area 620 in the Gulf of Alaska
National Marine Fisheries
Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
Commerce.
ACTION: Temporary rule; closure.
AGENCY:
NMFS is prohibiting directed
fishing for pollock in Statistical Area
620 in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). This
action is necessary to prevent exceeding
the C season allowance of the 2010 total
allowable catch (TAC) of pollock for
Statistical Area 620 in the GOA.
DATES: Effective 1200 hrs, Alaska local
time (A.l.t.), September 7, 2010, through
1200 hrs, A.l.t., October 1, 2010.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Obren Davis, 907–586–7228.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NMFS
manages the groundfish fishery in the
GOA exclusive economic zone
according to the Fishery Management
Plan for Groundfish of the Gulf of
Alaska (FMP) prepared by the North
Pacific Fishery Management Council
under authority of the MagnusonStevens Fishery Conservation and
Management Act. Regulations governing
fishing by U.S. vessels in accordance
with the FMP appear at subpart H of 50
CFR part 600 and 50 CFR part 679.
The C season allowance of the 2010
TAC of pollock in Statistical Area 620
of the GOA is 4,878 metric tons (mt) as
established by the final 2010 and 2011
harvest specifications for groundfish of
the GOA (75 FR 11749, March 12, 2010).
In accordance with § 679.20(a)(5)(iv)(B)
the Administrator, Alaska Region,
NMFS (Regional Administrator), hereby
decreases the C season pollock
allowance by NNN mt to reflect the total
amount of pollock TAC that has been
WReier-Aviles on DSKJ8SOYB1PROD with RULES
SUMMARY:
VerDate Mar<15>2010
14:26 Sep 09, 2010
Jkt 220001
caught prior to the C season in
Statistical Area 620. Therefore, the
revised C season allowance of the
pollock TAC in Statistical Area 620 is
NNN mt (4,878 mt minus NNN mt).
In accordance with § 679.20(d)(1)(i),
the Regional Administrator has
determined that the C season allowance
of the 2010 TAC of pollock in Statistical
Area 620 of the GOA will soon be
reached. Therefore, the Regional
Administrator is establishing a directed
fishing allowance of NNN mt, and is
setting aside the remaining 10 mt as
bycatch to support other anticipated
groundfish fisheries. In accordance with
§ 679.20(d)(1)(iii), the Regional
Administrator finds that this directed
fishing allowance has been reached.
Consequently, NMFS is prohibiting
directed fishing for pollock in Statistical
Area 620 of the GOA.
After the effective date of this closure
the maximum retainable amounts at
§ 679.20(e) and (f) apply at any time
during a trip.
Classification
This action responds to the best
available information recently obtained
from the fishery. The Assistant
Administrator for Fisheries, NOAA
(AA), finds good cause to waive the
requirement to provide prior notice and
opportunity for public comment
pursuant to the authority set forth at 5
U.S.C. 553(b)(B) as such requirement is
impracticable and contrary to the public
interest. This requirement is
impracticable and contrary to the public
interest as it would prevent NMFS from
responding to the most recent fisheries
data in a timely fashion and would
delay the closure of pollock in
Statistical Area 620 of the GOA. NMFS
was unable to publish a notice
providing time for public comment
because the most recent, relevant data
only became available as of September
6, 2010.
The AA also finds good cause to
waive the 30–day delay in the effective
date of this action under 5 U.S.C.
553(d)(3). This finding is based upon
the reasons provided above for waiver of
prior notice and opportunity for public
comment.
This action is required by § 679.20
and is exempt from review under
Executive Order 12866.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: September 7, 2010.
Emily H. Menashes,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable
Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2010–22637 Filed 9–7–10; 4:15 pm]
BILLING CODE 3510–22–S
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration
50 CFR Part 679
[Docket No. 0910131363–0087–02]
RIN 0648–XY87
Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic
Zone Off Alaska; Northern Rockfish in
the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands
Management Area
National Marine Fisheries
Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
Commerce.
ACTION: Temporary rule; modification
of closure.
AGENCY:
NMFS is opening directed
fishing for northern rockfish in the
Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands
Management Area (BSAI). This action is
necessary to fully use the 2010 total
allowable catch (TAC) of northern
rockfish in the BSAI.
DATES: Effective 1200 hrs, Alaska local
time (A.l.t.), September 7, 2010, through
1200 hrs, A.l.t., December 31, 2010.
Comments must be received at the
following address no later than 4:30
p.m., A.l.t., September 27, 2010.
ADDRESSES: Send comments to Sue
Salveson, Assistant Regional
Administrator, Sustainable Fisheries
Division, Alaska Region, NMFS, Attn:
Ellen Sebastian. You may submit
comments, identified by 0648–XY87, by
any one of the following methods:
• Electronic Submissions: Submit all
electronic public comments via the
Federal eRulemaking Portal website at
https://www.regulations.gov.
• Mail: P.O. Box 21668, Juneau, AK
99802.
• Fax: (907) 586–7557.
• Hand delivery to the Federal
Building: 709 West 9th Street, Room
420A, Juneau, AK.
All comments received are a part of
the public record and will generally be
posted to https://www.regulations.gov
without change. All Personal Identifying
Information (for example, name,
address, etc.) voluntarily submitted by
the commenter may be publicly
accessible. Do not submit Confidential
Business Information or otherwise
sensitive or protected information.
NMFS will accept anonymous
comments. Enter ‘‘N/A’’ in the required
fields, if you wish to remain
anonymous. Attachments to electronic
comments will be accepted in Microsoft
Word, Excel, WordPerfect, or Adobe
portable document file (pdf) file formats
only.
SUMMARY:
E:\FR\FM\10SER1.SGM
10SER1
]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 175 (Friday, September 10, 2010)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 55286-55288]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-22634]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
50 CFR Part 648
[Docket No. 0910051338-0403-04]
RIN 0648-AY29
Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Northeast
Multispecies Fishery; Adjustment to Fishing Year 2010 Georges Bank
Yellowtail Flounder Total Allowable Catch
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Temporary final rule; adjustment to specifications.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: Final catch data for the 2009 fishing year (FY) (May 1, 2009-
April 30, 2010) indicate that the total catch of Georges Bank (GB)
yellowtail flounder was 1,770 mt, exceeding the 1,617 mt FY 2009 Total
Allowable Catch (TAC) by 153 mt. The regulations require that any
overage of the GB yellowtail flounder TAC specified for the common
pool, individual sectors, or the scallop fishery in one FY be
subtracted from the respective TACs in the following FY. Therefore,
NMFS hereby announces deductions to the FY 2010 GB yellowtail flounder
TAC, including how the deduction will be divided between the annual
catch limit (ACL) for common pool vessels (common pool sub-ACL), and
the ACL for sector vessels (sector sub-ACL).
DATES: Effective September 7, 2010 through April 30, 2011.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Douglas Potts, Fishery Policy Analyst,
(978) 281-9341.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The TACs for Eastern GB cod, Eastern GB
haddock, and GB yellowtail flounder in the U.S./Canada Management Area
were published in the Federal Register on April 9, 2010 (75 FR 18356)
as part of the Framework Adjustment 44 (FW 44) final rule. That action
established the FY 2010 U.S. TACs of GB cod, haddock, and yellowtail
flounder at 338 mt, 11,988 mt, and 1,200 mt, respectively, and
specified that, should an analysis of the catch by U.S. vessels
indicate that an overage occurred during FY 2009, the pertinent TAC
would be adjusted downward in order to be consistent with the FMP and
the U.S./Canada Resource Sharing Understanding (Understanding). The
regulations at Sec. 648.85(a)(2)(ii) require that ``any overages of
the GB cod and GB haddock TACs specified for either the common pool or
individual sectors, or any overages of the GB yellowtail flounder TAC
specified for the common pool, individual sectors, or the scallop
fishery * * * that occur in a given fishing year will be subtracted
from the respective TAC in the following fishing year.'' The final
annual catch analysis cannot be completed until about 1 month into the
following FY because of the need to include any late reports from
vessels and dealers. Therefore, any required TAC adjustment must be
made during the FY following the FY in which the overage occurred.
Based upon vessel reports, dealer reports, and other information
available as of June 8, 2010, the total estimated catch of GB
yellowtail flounder in the U.S./Canada Management Area during FY 2009
was 1,770 mt. This exceeds the overall FY 2009 GB yellowtail flounder
TAC of 1,617 mt by 153 mt. Therefore, an overage of 153 mt of GB
yellowtail flounder must be subtracted from the overall FY 2010 U.S./
Canada GB yellowtail flounder TAC through this action. This results in
an adjusted overall TAC of 1,047 mt for FY 2010 for GB yellowtail
flounder. The Eastern GB cod and haddock TACs were not exceeded in FY
2009. Therefore, these two TACs are not adjusted.
[[Page 55287]]
The current regulatory provision requires that the reduction in the
GB yellowtail flounder TAC be applied to the common pool, individual
sectors, and scallop TACs, based on any overages in the previous year's
TACs for each of these three components of the fishery. In FY 2009,
however, with the exception of a bycatch TAC allocation to the scallop
fishery, there was only an overall TAC allocated to the groundfish
fishery, with no specific allocation to the common pool or individual
sectors. Therefore, although there is a requirement to reduce this
year's GB yellowtail flounder TAC by last year's overall overage, there
is no specific regulatory provision describing how to allocate the
reduction among these three components in this FY. (This is relevant to
this FY only.) This action implements the required reduction and,
pursuant to the agency's general regulatory authority under section
305(d) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act
(16 U.S.C. 1855), creates an ad hoc method to prorate this reduction
between the common pool and individual sectors based on the percentages
of TAC allocated to the common pool and individual sectors for FY 2010.
The FW 44 final rule set the FY 2010 GB yellowtail flounder ACL
subcomponent for the scallop fishery to account for 100 percent of the
anticipated GB yellowtail flounder bycatch in that fishery. Therefore,
there is no rational basis to reduce scallop bycatch allocation this
year. Implementing this method for allocating the reduction in TAC
between the common pool and individual sectors is necessary to ensure
consistency with the intent of Amendment 16 and FW 44.
To understand how the reduction is to be prorated it is necessary
to describe how the allocation of TACs among the various components of
the fishery is done. For transboundary managed stocks, the Acceptable
Biological Catch (ABC) is equivalent to the U.S. portion of the TAC
negotiated under the Understanding. The total ACL (or TAC) is set lower
than the ABC to account for management uncertainty. For yellowtail
flounder, the total ACL (or TAC) is subdivided into sub-ACLs (or TACs)
for the groundfish fishery (sectors and common pool) and other ACL
subcomponents, including an allocation to account for bycatch in the
scallop fishery, and bycatch in other fisheries. The sector sub-ACL is
further divided into Annual Catch Entitlement (ACE) values (or TACs)
for each of the 17 NE multispecies sectors. The 17 sector ACEs that
constitute the sector sub-ACL for FY 2010 were initially published on
April 9, 2010 (75 FR 18113), in the sector final rule. These common
pool and sector allocations were subsequently modified by a rule
published on May 26, 2010 (75 FR 29459), to adjust for final sector
membership rosters. The percentage allocations of TACs to these sub-
ACLs and ACEs form the basis for prorating the reduction dictated by
the 2009 FY's overage.
Table 1 contains the new values for the ABC, ACL, sub-ACLs, and ACL
subcomponents for GB yellowtail flounder implemented by this action.
Table 2 contains details of the adjustments to each of the 17 sector's
ACEs for GB yellowtail flounder as a result of this action.
Table 1--GB Yellowtail Flounder ABC, ACL, sub-ACL, and ACL Subcomponents
for FY 2010 (mt)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Previous
value New value
------------------------------------------------------------------------
ABC............................................... 1,200 1,047
Total ACL......................................... 1,170 1,021
Scallop Fishery ACL Subcomponent.................. 146 146
Other ACL Subcomponents........................... 60 52
Groundfish Total ACL.............................. 964 823
Sector Sub-ACL*................................... 941 803
Common Pool Sub-ACL............................... 23 20
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*All sub-ACL values for sectors assume that each sector MRI has a valid
permit for FY 2010.
Table 2--GB Yellowtail Flounder ACE for Each Sector for FY 2010 (mt)*
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Previous New ACE
Sector name ACE (mt) (mt)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
FGS............................................... 0 0
NCCS.............................................. 8 7
NEFS 2............................................ 16 14
NEFS 3............................................ 0 0
NEFS 4............................................ 21 18
NEFS 5............................................ 92 79
NEFS 6............................................ 13 11
NEFS 7............................................ 156 133
NEFS 8............................................ 154 131
NEFS 9............................................ 183 156
NEFS 10........................................... 0 0
NEFS 11........................................... 0 0
NEFS 12........................................... 0 0
NEFS 13........................................... 149 127
PCCGS............................................. 0 0
SHS............................................... 79 68
TSS............................................... 70 60
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* All ACE values for sectors outlined in Table 1 assume that each sector
MRI has a valid permit for FY 2010.
George Bank Cod Fixed Gear Sector (FGS), Northeast Coastal Communities
Sector (NCCS), Northeast Fishery Sectors (NEFS), Port Clyde Community
Groundfish Sector (PCCGS), Sustainable Harvest Sector (SHS), and Tri-
State Sector (TSS).
FW 44 specified an incidental catch TAC for the Regular B Days-at
Sea (DAS) Program, equivalent to 2 percent of the GB yellowtail
flounder common pool sub-ACL. As a result of the adjustment to the
common pool sub-ACL, this incidental catch TAC is reduced from 0.47 mt
to 0.40 mt.
Classification
This action is required by 50 CFR part 648 and is exempt from
review under Executive Order 12866.
Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B) and (d)(3), the Assistant
Administrator finds good cause to waive prior notice and opportunity
for public comment, as well as the delayed effectiveness for this
action, because notice, comment, and a delayed effectiveness would be
unnecessary, impractical, and contrary to the public interest. Any
delay in this action to allow for prior public comment could result in
overharvest of the new GB yellowtail flounder allocation by a sector or
the common pool. Such an overage would result in closure of the Eastern
U.S./Canada Area, and zero possession of GB yellowtail flounder for the
affected group and, therefore, loss of opportunities to fish for other
stocks. Further, the regulations at Sec. 648.85(a)(2)(ii), which were
subject to prior public comment, require that any overage of the TAC
for GB yellowtail flounder be deducted from the TAC in the following
FY. Accordingly, the action being taken by this temporary rule is non-
discretionary. Since this is a non-discretionary action, based on
numerous records solely in the possession of NMFS, public comment would
not serve to inform the agency calculation of the overage and its
deduction from the appropriate TAC.
The rate of harvest of GB yellowtail flounder by groundfish vessels
and scallop vessels fishing in the Scallop Access Areas in the U.S./
Canada Management Area, as reported from Vessel Monitoring Systems, is
updated weekly on the Internet at https://www.nero.noaa.gov.
Accordingly, the public is able to obtain information that would
provide at least some advance notice of a potential action as a result
of a GB yellowtail flounder TAC being exceeded during FY 2009. Further,
the potential that one or more of the FY 2009 TACs for the U.S./Canada
stocks could be exceeded, and therefore reduce the FY 2010 TAC, was
considered and
[[Page 55288]]
open to public comment during the proposed rule stage of FW44.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: September 3, 2010.
Eric C. Schwaab,
Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries
Service.
[FR Doc. 2010-22634 Filed 9-7-10; 4:15 pm]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P
