Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area; Amendment 105, 33889-33891 [2014-13855]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 114 (Friday, June 13, 2014)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 33889-33891]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-13855]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 679

RIN 0648-BD23


Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Bering Sea 
and Aleutian Islands Management Area; Amendment 105

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.

ACTION: Notification of availability of fishery management plan 
amendment; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) 
submitted Amendment 105 to the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish 
of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area (BSAI FMP) to 
the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary) for review. If approved, 
Amendment 105 would establish a process for Western Alaska Community 
Development Quota (CDQ) groups and cooperatives established under the 
Amendment 80 Program (Amendment 80 cooperatives) to exchange harvest 
quota from one of three flatfish species (flathead sole, rock sole, and 
yellowfin sole) for an equal amount of another of these three flatfish 
species, while maintaining total catch below acceptable biological 
catch (ABC) limits for each species and below the sum of the total 
allowable catches (TACs) for all three species. This action would 
modify the annual harvest specification process to allow the Council to 
establish the maximum amount of flathead sole, rock sole, and yellowfin 
sole that may be exchanged based on social, economic, or biological 
considerations. This action is necessary to mitigate the operational 
variability, environmental conditions, and economic factors that may 
constrain the CDQ groups and Amendment 80 cooperatives from achieving, 
on a continuing basis, the optimum yield (OY) in the Bering Sea and 
Aleutian Islands Management Area (BSAI) groundfish fisheries. This 
action is intended to promote the goals and objectives of the Magnuson-
Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, BSAI FMP, and other 
applicable laws.

DATES: Comments on the amendment must be received on or before August 
12, 2014.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by NOAA-NMFS-2013-0074, 
by any of the following methods:
     Electronic Submissions: Submit all electronic public 
comments via the Federal eRulemaking Portal. Go to www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=NOAA-NMFS-2013-0074, click the ``Comment Now!'' icon, 
complete the required fields, and enter or attach your comments
     Mail: Submit written comments to Glenn Merrill, Assistant 
Regional Administrator, Sustainable Fisheries Division, Alaska Region 
NMFS, Attn: Ellen Sebastian. Mail comments to P.O. Box 21668, Juneau, 
AK 99802-1668.
    Instructions: Comments sent by any other method, to any other 
address or individual, or received after the end of the comment period, 
may not be considered by NMFS. All comments received are a part of the 
public record and will generally be posted for public viewing on 
www.regulations.gov without change. All Personal Identifying 
Information (for example, name, address) confidential business 
information, or otherwise sensitive information submitted voluntarily 
by the sender will be publicly accessible. 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, or Adobe PDF file formats only.
    Electronic copies of Amendment 105 to the BSAI FMP, the Regulatory 
Impact Review (RIR), Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis (IRFA), 
and the Categorical Exclusion prepared for this action (collectively 
the ``Analysis''), the supplemental information report prepared for the 
final 2014 and 2015 harvest specifications (Harvest Specifications 
Supplemental Information Report (SIR)), and the Alaska Groundfish 
Harvest Specifications Final Environmental Impact Statement (Harvest 
Specifications EIS) may be obtained from https://www.regulations.gov or 
from the NMFS Alaska Region Web site at https://alaskafisheries.noaa.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Seanbob Kelly, 907-586-7228.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation 
and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act) in section 304(a) requires 
that each regional fishery management council submit an amendment to a 
fishery management plan to NMFS for review and approval, disapproval, 
or partial approval by the Secretary. The Magnuson-Stevens Act in 
section 304(a) also requires that the Secretary, upon receiving an 
amendment to a fishery management plan, immediately publish a notice in 
the Federal Register announcing that the amendment is available for 
public review and comment. The Council has submitted Amendment 105 to 
the FMP to the Secretary for review. This document announces that 
proposed Amendment 105 to the BSAI FMP is available for public review 
and comment.
    The groundfish fisheries in the exclusive economic zone of the 
Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area (BSAI) are managed 
under the BSAI FMP. The BSAI FMP was prepared by the Council under the 
Magnuson-Stevens Act. The RIR prepared for this action contains a 
complete description of the alternatives and a comparative analysis of 
the potential impacts of the alternatives (see ADDRESSES).
    Amendment 105 is intended to provide additional harvest 
opportunities to CDQ groups and Amendment 80 cooperatives participating 
in the BSAI flatfish fisheries. As proposed, Amendment 105 would 
maximize catch, retention, and utilization of flathead sole, rock sole, 
and yellowfin sole while maintaining catch at, or below, the ABC. 
Amendment 105 is intended to result in higher retention and utilization 
of

[[Page 33890]]

groundfish without increasing overall bycatch of groundfish or non-
groundfish species beyond existing limitations. Amendment 105 would 
amend the BSAI FMP to incorporate changes in the annual harvest 
specifications process used by the Council and NMFS to set annual catch 
limits described in greater detail in the following paragraphs.
    Annually at the December Council meeting, the Council adopts the 
overfishing levels (OFLs) and ABC limits for BSAI flatfish as part of 
the harvest specifications process. The Council also recommends TACs at 
this meeting. The TAC is the annual catch target for a species or 
species group, derived from the ABC by considering social and economic 
factors and management uncertainty. The BSAI FMP requires that the TAC 
must be set lower than or equal to the ABC. The BSAI FMP requires the 
sum of the TACs in all BSAI groundfish fisheries to be set within a 
range from 1.4 to 2 million metric tons (mt). Pursuant to the BSAI FMP, 
the Council may recommend TACs that are lower than the ABCs if setting 
TACs equal to ABCs would cause TACs to exceed 2 million mt. In 
addition, a statutory provision requires that ``[t]he optimum yield for 
groundfish in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area shall 
not exceed 2 million metric tons'' (See section 803(c) of Pub. L. No. 
108-199). NMFS complies with this law by limiting the sum of the TACs 
for all BSAI groundfish to 2 million mt.
    Flathead sole, rock sole, and yellowfin sole are valuable flatfish 
species that are not fully harvested due to a variety of statutory and 
regulatory constraints on the setting of TAC limits and operational, 
economic, and environmental limitations described in more detail in the 
Analysis prepared for this action (See ADDRESSES). Typically, flatfish 
TACs are set below the ABC to ensure that the sum of the TACs do not 
exceed the statutory 2 million mt OY for the BSAI groundfish fisheries 
and to provide harvest opportunity for other valuable groundfish 
fisheries.
    NMFS assigns CDQ groups and Amendment 80 cooperatives exclusive 
harvest privileges for flathead sole, rock sole, and yellowfin sole on 
an annual basis. The CDQ groups are assigned CDQ allocations, and the 
Amendment 80 cooperatives are assigned cooperative quota (CQ). CDQ 
groups are assigned CDQ allocations for flathead sole, rock sole, and 
yellowfin sole based on provisions in section 305(i) of the Magnuson-
Stevens Act. Amendment 80 cooperatives are assigned CQ for flathead 
sole, rock sole, and yellowfin sole in proportion to the total amount 
of Amendment 80 QS assigned to that Amendment 80 cooperative for that 
species. Regulations prohibit CDQ groups and Amendment 80 cooperatives 
from exceeding a CDQ or CQ allocation.
    In this mixed species fishery, operators target certain species of 
flatfish but also take a variety of species incidentally. The 
composition of groundfish species taken in the BSAI flatfish fisheries 
varies by season and by fishing year. Both Amendment 80 cooperatives 
and vessels fishing CDQ allocations are affected by the same uncertain 
operational conditions (e.g., difficult to predict harvest rates of 
flatfish in target and non-target fisheries), unpredictable 
environmental conditions, and uncertain market conditions that can 
limit harvest.
    Although a broad range of non-regulatory arrangements and 
regulatory measures have been implemented to aid in the more complete 
harvesting of flathead sole, rock sole, and yellowfin sole CDQ and CQ, 
these measures have limited utility to address the range of conditions 
that can constrain harvest. The fact that harvests of flathead sole, 
rock sole, and yellowfin sole are substantially below the available CDQ 
or CQ allocations indicates that existing management measures may not 
provide the flexibility needed to allow more complete harvest.
    The objective of proposed Amendment 105 is to provide CDQ groups 
and Amendment 80 cooperatives with additional opportunities to fully 
harvest flathead sole, rock sole, or yellowfin sole allocations, while 
ensuring that biological limits are not exceeded. As proposed, 
Amendment 105 would allow CDQ groups and Amendment 80 cooperatives to 
apply to NMFS to exchange a portion of their unused annual allocations 
of one or two flatfish species for an equal amount of another flatfish 
species (i.e. a Flatfish Exchange).
    As proposed, Amendment 105 would amend the BSAI FMP to define an 
ABC surplus for flathead sole, rock sole, and yellowfin sole as the 
difference between each species' annual ABC and TAC. The ABC surplus 
would represent the maximum additional amount of flathead sole, rock 
sole or yellowfin sole that could be harvested above the TAC. Amendment 
105 would also amend the BSAI FMP to define an ABC reserve for flathead 
sole, rock sole, and yellowfin sole as the ABC surplus that may be 
reduced for social, economic, or ecological considerations during the 
determination of the annual harvest specifications. Amendment 105 would 
amend the BSAI FMP to clarify that the Council would specify the ABC 
surplus, and determine the ABC reserve for flathead sole, rock sole, 
and yellowfin sole each year in the annual specifications process. 
Amendment 105 would amend the BSAI FMP to specify that the ABC reserve 
would be apportioned to CDQ groups and Amendment 80 cooperatives. 
Amendment 105 would amend the BSAI FMP to specify that the CDQ groups 
would receive 10.7 percent of the ABC reserve for each species of 
flathead sole, rock sole, and yellowfin sole, and that each species 
would be allocated among the six CDQ groups based on current allocation 
schedules established in sections 305(i)(1)(B) and (C) of the Magnuson-
Stevens Act. Amendment 105 would amend the BSAI FMP to specify that 
each Amendment 80 cooperative would be allocated an amount of the ABC 
reserve for flathead sole, rock sole, and yellowfin sole remaining 
after allocation to the CDQ groups, and that each species would be 
allocated in proportion to each Amendment 80 cooperative's share of 
flathead sole, rock sole, and yellowfin sole Amendment 80 QS.
    Amendment 105 would amend the BSAI FMP to require a CDQ group or an 
Amendment 80 cooperative to submit an application for NMFS' approval in 
order to exchange unused CDQ or CQ for a portion of its CDQ ABC reserve 
or Amendment 80 ABC reserve. Amendment 105 would amend the BSAI FMP to 
limit each CDQ groups or Amendment 80 cooperative to no more than three 
exchanges of CDQ or CQ for a portion of its CDQ ABC reserve or 
Amendment 80 ABC reserve.
    Amendment 105 is not intended to completely resolve the complex 
issues that have constrained the CDQ groups and Amendment 80 
cooperatives from fully harvesting their flatfish allocations. As 
proposed, Amendment 105 is intended to provide the flexible management 
necessary to mitigate a diverse range of conditions that may limit 
harvest of flathead sole, rock sole, and yellowfin sole. Amendment 105 
would provide participants with additional tools to address the 
regulatory, economic, and environmental challenges to fully harvest the 
exclusive harvest allocations in these multi-species fisheries.
    The proposed modifications to the BSAI FMP under Amendment 105 are 
appropriate given the fact that CDQ groups and Amendment 80 
cooperatives are participating in catch share fisheries that are 
capable of limiting their overall harvests within specific catch 
limits. CDQ groups and Amendment 80 cooperatives are subject to strict 
management controls that would

[[Page 33891]]

maintain total catch below ABC limits for flathead sole, rock sole, and 
yellowfin sole and below the sum of the TACs for all three species.
    Public comments are being solicited on proposed Amendment 105 to 
the BSAI FMP through the end of the comment period (see DATES). NMFS 
intends to publish this action in the Federal Register and seek public 
comment on a proposed rule that would implement Amendment 105, 
following NMFS' evaluation of the proposed rule under the Magnuson-
Stevens Act. Public comments on the proposed rule must be received by 
the end of the comment period for Amendment 105 to be considered in the 
approval/disapproval decision on Amendment 105. All comments received 
by the end of the comment period on Amendment 105, whether specifically 
directed to the BSAI FMP amendment or the proposed rule will be 
considered in the FMP approval/disapproval decision. Comments received 
after that date will not be considered in the approval/disapproval 
decision on the amendment. To be considered, comments must be received, 
not just postmarked or otherwise transmitted, by the close of business 
on the last day of the comment period.

    Authority:  16 U.S.C. 773 et seq., 1801 et seq., 3631 et seq.; 
and Pub. L. 108-447.

    Dated: June 10, 2014.
Emily H. Menashes,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2014-13855 Filed 6-12-14; 8:45 am]
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