Fisheries of the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and South Atlantic; Amendment 21 to the Snapper-Grouper Fishery Management Plan of the South Atlantic, 100-101 [2010-33102]
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100
Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 1 / Monday, January 3, 2011 / Notices
specifies that measures to end
overfishing and rebuild the stock must
be implemented within two years of
notification.
A reauthorization of the MagnusonStevens Act in 2007 introduced new
tools that, when implemented, would
end and prevent overfishing in order to
achieve the OY from a fishery. The
requirements are referred to as ACLs
and AMs. An ACL is the level of annual
catch of a stock that, if met or exceeded,
triggers some corrective action. AMs are
management controls to prevent ACLs
from being exceeded and to correct
overages of ACLs if they occur. Two
examples of AMs include an in-season
closure if catch approaches the ACL and
reducing the ACL by an overage that
occurred the previous fishing year. The
EIS will include alternatives that would
establish ACLs and AMs for red grouper
in the South Atlantic region.
The Council and NMFS are also
considering a division of the red
grouper ACL into sector-ACLs based
upon allocation decisions. A ‘‘sector’’
means a distinct user group to which
separate management strategies and
separate catch quotas apply. Examples
of sectors include commercial and
recreational; the recreational sector may
also be divided into for-hire and private
recreational groups. The Council and
NMFS have determined that sectorACLs and sector-AMs are important
components of red grouper management
as each sector differs in scientific and
management uncertainty. A range of
options will be evaluated in the EIS,
including those that base allocation
decisions on historical landings.
NMFS, in collaboration with the
Council, will develop an EIS to describe
and analyze alternatives to address the
management needs described above.
Those alternatives will include a ‘‘no
action’’ alternative for each action.
In accordance with NOAA’s
Administrative Order 216–6, Section
5.02(c), Scoping Process, NMFS, in
collaboration with the Council, has
identified preliminary environmental
issues as a means to initiate discussion
for scoping purposes only. These
preliminary issues may not represent
the full range of issues that eventually
will be evaluated in the EIS.
Copies of an information packet will
be available from NMFS (see
ADDRESSES).
After the draft EIS (DEIS) associated
with Amendment 24 is completed, it
will be filed with the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA will
publish a notice of availability of the
DEIS for public comment in the Federal
Register. The draft EIS will have a 45day comment period. This procedure is
VerDate Mar<15>2010
15:48 Dec 30, 2010
Jkt 223001
pursuant to regulations issued by the
Council on Environmental Quality
(CEQ) for implementing the procedural
provisions of the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA; 40
CFR parts 1500–1508) and to NOAA’s
Administrative Order 216–6 regarding
NOAA’s compliance with NEPA and the
CEQ regulations.
Following publication of this NOI, the
Council will conduct public scoping
meetings to determine the range of
issues to be addressed in the DEIS and
the associated Amendment 24. A
Federal Register notice will announce
the availability of the DEIS associated
with this amendment, as well as a 45day public comment period. The
Council will consider public comments
received on the DEIS in developing the
final environmental impact statement
(FEIS), and before voting to submit the
final amendment to NMFS for
Secretarial review, approval, and
implementation. NMFS will announce
in the Federal Register the availability
of the final amendment and FEIS for
public review during the Secretarial
review period, and will consider all
public comments prior to final agency
action to approve, disapprove, or
partially approve the final amendment.
Scoping Meetings, Times, and Locations
All meetings will begin at 3 p.m. In
addition to Amendment 24, the Council
intends to scope additional amendments
at this series of meetings. Separate NOIs
will be prepared for each amendment.
The meetings will be physically
accessible to people with disabilities.
Requests for information packets or for
sign language interpretation or other
auxiliary aids should be directed to the
Council (see FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT).
Monday, January 24, 2011—Hilton
New Bern/Riverfront, 100 Middle Street,
New Bern, NC 28560; phone 252–638–
3585.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011—
Crowne Plaza Charleston Airport, 4831
Tanger Outlet Boulevard, North
Charleston, SC 29418; phone 843–744–
4422.
Thursday, January 27, 2011—Mighty
Eighth Air Force Museum, 175 Bourne
Avenue, Pooler, GA 31322; phone 912–
748–8888.
Monday, January 31, 2011—
Jacksonville Marriott, 4670 Salisbury
Road, Jacksonville, FL 32256; phone
904–296–2222.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011—
International Palms Resort, 1300 N.
Atlantic Avenue, Cocoa Beach, FL
32931; phone 321–783–2271.
Thursday, February 3, 2011—Key
Largo Grande Resort, 97000 Overseas
PO 00000
Frm 00020
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
Resort, Key Largo, FL 33037; phone
305–852–5553.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: December 28, 2010.
Emily H. Menashes,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable
Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2010–33101 Filed 12–30–10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3210–22–P
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration
RIN 0648–BA59
Fisheries of the Caribbean, Gulf of
Mexico, and South Atlantic;
Amendment 21 to the SnapperGrouper Fishery Management Plan of
the South Atlantic
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries
Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare
an environmental impact statement
(EIS); request for comments.
SUMMARY: NMFS, Southeast Region, in
collaboration with the South Atlantic
Fishery Management Council (Council),
intends to prepare an EIS to describe
and analyze a range of alternatives for
management actions to be included in
Amendment 21 to the Snapper-Grouper
Fishery Management Plan for the South
Atlantic Region (Amendment 21). These
alternatives will consider several
management approaches for limiting
effort in the snapper-grouper fishery,
including: trip limits, endorsements,
cooperatives, catch shares, regional
quotas, and State-by-State quotas. The
purpose of this amendment is to
rationalize effort in the commercial
snapper-grouper fishery in order to
achieve and maintain optimum yield
(OY), prevent overfishing, and rebuild
overfished stocks. Rationalizing effort is
expected to mitigate some of the
problems resulting from derby fishing
conditions or at least prevent the
condition from becoming more severe.
The purpose of this NOI is to solicit
public comments on the scope of issues
to be addressed in the EIS.
DATES: Written comments on the scope
of issues to be addressed in the EIS will
be accepted from January 12 to February
14, 5 p.m., Eastern time.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments,
identified by RIN 0648–BA59, by any
one of the following methods:
• Electronic Submissions: Submit all
electronic public comments via the
E:\FR\FM\03JAN1.SGM
03JAN1
jlentini on DSKJ8SOYB1PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 1 / Monday, January 3, 2011 / Notices
Federal e-Rulemaking Portal https://
www.regulations.gov.
• Mail: Karla Gore, Southeast
Regional Office, NMFS, 263 13th
Avenue South, St. Petersburg, FL 33701.
Instructions: No comments will be
posted for public viewing until after the
comment period is over. 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.
To submit comments through the
Federal e-Rulemaking Portal: https://
www.regulations.gov, enter ‘‘NOAA–
NMFS–2010–0278’’ in the keyword
search, then select ‘‘Send a Comment or
Submission’’. NMFS will accept
anonymous comments (enter N/A in the
required fields if you wish to remain
anonymous). You may submit
attachments to electronic comments in
Microsoft Word, Excel, WordPerfect, or
Adobe PDF file formats only.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Karla Gore; phone: (727) 824–5305.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Currently,
nine snapper-grouper stocks are
undergoing overfishing and five stocks
are overfished. The Council and NMFS
have implemented numerous regulatory
changes in recent years in an effort to
end and prevent overfishing and rebuild
depleted snapper-grouper stocks. These
regulatory measures have resulted in
decreases to commercial quotas for
several species, which has lead to derby
fishing conditions. As a result, the
length of time it takes for the quota for
some species (e.g., golden tilefish,
vermilion snapper, and black sea bass)
to be reached, has decreased
significantly, resulting in lengthy
commercial sector closures.
It is anticipated that, under status quo
management, incentives for derby
behavior will persist in the snappergrouper fishery, resulting in continued
overcapitalization and derby fishery
conditions. The fishery is expected to
continue to be characterized by higher
than necessary levels of capital
investment, increased operating costs,
increased likelihood of shortened
seasons, reduced at-sea safety, wide
fluctuations in domestic snappergrouper supply and depressed ex-vessel
prices, which may lead to deteriorating
working conditions and lower
profitability for participants.
For these reasons, the Council is
considering several management
VerDate Mar<15>2010
15:48 Dec 30, 2010
Jkt 223001
approaches for limiting effort in the
snapper grouper fishery, including: trip
limits, endorsements, cooperatives,
catch shares, regional quotas, and Stateby-State quotas.
An NOI was previously published on
January 22, 2008 (73 FR 3701) to
develop an EIS for Amendment 18 to
the Snapper-Grouper FMP to consider
alternatives to establish a limited access
privilege program for the snappergrouper fishery. However, the Council
postponed consideration of this action
to a future amendment.
NMFS, in collaboration with the
Council will develop an EIS to describe
and analyze management alternatives to
address the management needs
described above. Those alternatives will
include a ‘‘no action’’ alternative
regarding each action.
In accordance with NOAA’s
Administrative Order 216–6, Section
5.02(c), Scoping Process, NMFS, in
collaboration with the Council, has
identified preliminary environmental
issues as a means to initiate discussion
for scoping purposes only. These
preliminary issues may not represent
the full range of issues that eventually
will be evaluated in the EIS.
Copies of an information packet will
be available from NMFS (see
ADDRESSES).
Following publication of this NOI, the
Council will conduct public scoping
meetings to determine the range of
issues to be addressed in the DEIS and
the associated Amendment 21.
After the draft EIS (DEIS) associated
with Amendment 21 is completed, it
will be filed with the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA will
publish a notice of availability of the
DEIS for public comment in the Federal
Register. The DEIS will have a 45-day
comment period. This procedure is
pursuant to regulations issued by the
Council on Environmental Quality
(CEQ) for implementing the procedural
provisions of the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA; 40
CFR parts 1500–1508) and to NOAA’s
Administrative Order 216–6 regarding
NOAA’s compliance with NEPA and the
CEQ regulations.
The Council will consider public
comments received on the DEIS in
developing the final environmental
impact statement (FEIS), and before
voting to submit the final amendment to
NMFS for Secretarial review, approval,
and implementation. NMFS will
announce in the Federal Register the
availability of the final amendment and
FEIS for public review during the
Secretarial review period, and will
consider all public comments prior to
final agency action to approve,
PO 00000
Frm 00021
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
101
disapprove, or partially approve the
final amendment.
Scoping Meetings, Times, and Locations
All meetings will begin at 3 p.m. In
addition to Amendment 21, the Council
intends to scope additional amendments
at this series of meetings. Separate NOIs
will be prepared for each amendment.
The meetings will be physically
accessible to people with disabilities.
Requests for information packets or for
sign language interpretation or other
auxiliary aids should be directed to the
Council (see FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT).
Monday, January 24, 2011—Hilton
New Bern/Riverfront, 100 Middle Street,
New Bern, NC 28560; phone 252–638–
3585.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011—
Crowne Plaza Charleston Airport, 4831
Tanger Outlet Boulevard, North
Charleston, SC 29418; phone 843–744–
4422.
Thursday, January 27, 2011—Mighty
Eighth Air Force Museum, 175 Bourne
Avenue, Pooler, GA 31322; phone 912–
748–8888.
Monday, January 31, 2011—
Jacksonville Marriott, 4670 Salisbury
Road, Jacksonville, FL 32256; phone
904–296–2222.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011—
International Palms Resort, 1300 N.
Atlantic Avenue, Cocoa Beach, FL
32931; phone 321–783–2271.
Thursday, February 3, 2011—Key
Largo Grande Resort, 97000 Overseas
Resort, Key Largo, FL 33037; phone
305–852–5553.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: December 28, 2010.
Emily H. Menashes,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable
Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2010–33102 Filed 12–30–10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3210–22–P
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration
RIN 0648–BA53
Fisheries of the Caribbean, Gulf of
Mexico, and South Atlantic;
Amendment 22 to the Fishery
Management Plan for Snapper-Grouper
Resources of the South Atlantic
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries
Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare
an environmental impact statement
E:\FR\FM\03JAN1.SGM
03JAN1
]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 1 (Monday, January 3, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 100-101]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-33102]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
RIN 0648-BA59
Fisheries of the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and South Atlantic;
Amendment 21 to the Snapper-Grouper Fishery Management Plan of the
South Atlantic
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare an environmental impact
statement (EIS); request for comments.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: NMFS, Southeast Region, in collaboration with the South
Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council), intends to prepare an
EIS to describe and analyze a range of alternatives for management
actions to be included in Amendment 21 to the Snapper-Grouper Fishery
Management Plan for the South Atlantic Region (Amendment 21). These
alternatives will consider several management approaches for limiting
effort in the snapper-grouper fishery, including: trip limits,
endorsements, cooperatives, catch shares, regional quotas, and State-
by-State quotas. The purpose of this amendment is to rationalize effort
in the commercial snapper-grouper fishery in order to achieve and
maintain optimum yield (OY), prevent overfishing, and rebuild
overfished stocks. Rationalizing effort is expected to mitigate some of
the problems resulting from derby fishing conditions or at least
prevent the condition from becoming more severe. The purpose of this
NOI is to solicit public comments on the scope of issues to be
addressed in the EIS.
DATES: Written comments on the scope of issues to be addressed in the
EIS will be accepted from January 12 to February 14, 5 p.m., Eastern
time.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by RIN 0648-BA59, by any
one of the following methods:
Electronic Submissions: Submit all electronic public
comments via the
[[Page 101]]
Federal e-Rulemaking Portal https://www.regulations.gov.
Mail: Karla Gore, Southeast Regional Office, NMFS, 263
13th Avenue South, St. Petersburg, FL 33701.
Instructions: No comments will be posted for public viewing until
after the comment period is over. 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.
To submit comments through the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov, enter ``NOAA-NMFS-2010-0278'' in the keyword
search, then select ``Send a Comment or Submission''. NMFS will accept
anonymous comments (enter N/A in the required fields if you wish to
remain anonymous). You may submit attachments to electronic comments in
Microsoft Word, Excel, WordPerfect, or Adobe PDF file formats only.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Karla Gore; phone: (727) 824-5305.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Currently, nine snapper-grouper stocks are
undergoing overfishing and five stocks are overfished. The Council and
NMFS have implemented numerous regulatory changes in recent years in an
effort to end and prevent overfishing and rebuild depleted snapper-
grouper stocks. These regulatory measures have resulted in decreases to
commercial quotas for several species, which has lead to derby fishing
conditions. As a result, the length of time it takes for the quota for
some species (e.g., golden tilefish, vermilion snapper, and black sea
bass) to be reached, has decreased significantly, resulting in lengthy
commercial sector closures.
It is anticipated that, under status quo management, incentives for
derby behavior will persist in the snapper-grouper fishery, resulting
in continued overcapitalization and derby fishery conditions. The
fishery is expected to continue to be characterized by higher than
necessary levels of capital investment, increased operating costs,
increased likelihood of shortened seasons, reduced at-sea safety, wide
fluctuations in domestic snapper-grouper supply and depressed ex-vessel
prices, which may lead to deteriorating working conditions and lower
profitability for participants.
For these reasons, the Council is considering several management
approaches for limiting effort in the snapper grouper fishery,
including: trip limits, endorsements, cooperatives, catch shares,
regional quotas, and State-by-State quotas.
An NOI was previously published on January 22, 2008 (73 FR 3701) to
develop an EIS for Amendment 18 to the Snapper-Grouper FMP to consider
alternatives to establish a limited access privilege program for the
snapper-grouper fishery. However, the Council postponed consideration
of this action to a future amendment.
NMFS, in collaboration with the Council will develop an EIS to
describe and analyze management alternatives to address the management
needs described above. Those alternatives will include a ``no action''
alternative regarding each action.
In accordance with NOAA's Administrative Order 216-6, Section
5.02(c), Scoping Process, NMFS, in collaboration with the Council, has
identified preliminary environmental issues as a means to initiate
discussion for scoping purposes only. These preliminary issues may not
represent the full range of issues that eventually will be evaluated in
the EIS.
Copies of an information packet will be available from NMFS (see
ADDRESSES).
Following publication of this NOI, the Council will conduct public
scoping meetings to determine the range of issues to be addressed in
the DEIS and the associated Amendment 21.
After the draft EIS (DEIS) associated with Amendment 21 is
completed, it will be filed with the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA). The EPA will publish a notice of availability of the DEIS for
public comment in the Federal Register. The DEIS will have a 45-day
comment period. This procedure is pursuant to regulations issued by the
Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) for implementing the procedural
provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA; 40 CFR parts
1500-1508) and to NOAA's Administrative Order 216-6 regarding NOAA's
compliance with NEPA and the CEQ regulations.
The Council will consider public comments received on the DEIS in
developing the final environmental impact statement (FEIS), and before
voting to submit the final amendment to NMFS for Secretarial review,
approval, and implementation. NMFS will announce in the Federal
Register the availability of the final amendment and FEIS for public
review during the Secretarial review period, and will consider all
public comments prior to final agency action to approve, disapprove, or
partially approve the final amendment.
Scoping Meetings, Times, and Locations
All meetings will begin at 3 p.m. In addition to Amendment 21, the
Council intends to scope additional amendments at this series of
meetings. Separate NOIs will be prepared for each amendment. The
meetings will be physically accessible to people with disabilities.
Requests for information packets or for sign language interpretation or
other auxiliary aids should be directed to the Council (see FOR FURTHER
INFORMATION CONTACT).
Monday, January 24, 2011--Hilton New Bern/Riverfront, 100 Middle
Street, New Bern, NC 28560; phone 252-638-3585.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011--Crowne Plaza Charleston Airport, 4831
Tanger Outlet Boulevard, North Charleston, SC 29418; phone 843-744-
4422.
Thursday, January 27, 2011--Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum, 175
Bourne Avenue, Pooler, GA 31322; phone 912-748-8888.
Monday, January 31, 2011--Jacksonville Marriott, 4670 Salisbury
Road, Jacksonville, FL 32256; phone 904-296-2222.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011--International Palms Resort, 1300 N.
Atlantic Avenue, Cocoa Beach, FL 32931; phone 321-783-2271.
Thursday, February 3, 2011--Key Largo Grande Resort, 97000 Overseas
Resort, Key Largo, FL 33037; phone 305-852-5553.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: December 28, 2010.
Emily H. Menashes,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2010-33102 Filed 12-30-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3210-22-P
