Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; 2015 Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Specifications and 2015 Commercial Summer Flounder Quota Adjustments, 78311-78313 [2014-30500]
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Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 249 / Tuesday, December 30, 2014 / Rules and Regulations
system. The fitting may be either ‘‘T’’ or
inline, with a female 1⁄4 threaded
National Pipe Thread (NPT) port, to
enable connection to the pressure
transducer (a component of the EM
system).
Before the scheduled date of
installation, the NMFS-approved
contractor may contact vessel operators
in person or by phone to ask questions
to help them determine power supply,
vessel configuration, and other
considerations necessary to facilitate
installation of the EM system and to
ensure the system’s compatibility with
the vessel. The vessel owner and/or
operator should be present on the day
of installation to facilitate equipment
installation and provide access to the
vessel and information to Saltwater,
Inc., about the power supply and other
vessel infrastructure and other
information as needed. The dates and
locations of the EM installations are
listed below in Table 1. These dates and
locations were chosen based on several
factors to reduce the potential for the
installation schedule to interfere with
fishing trips and to minimize the
distances vessel may have to travel. In
order to provide as much flexibility as
possible for the locations of a limited
number of installations, NMFS will
announce any additional locations or
changes in locations, if warranted, in a
future notice (‘‘To Be Determined’’).
TABLE 1—DATES AND LOCATIONS OF
ELECTRONIC MONITORING INSTALLATIONS
Name of port
January 16 through
25.
February 14 through
23.
March 16 through 25
Cape Canaveral, FL.
Panama City, FL.
Cape Canaveral, FL.
Dulac, LA.
Wanchese, NC.
Beaufort, NC.
Wanchese, NC.
Dulac, LA.
To Be Determined.
Barnegat Light, NJ.
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with RULES
May 11 through 17,
and 19 through 25.
Other Installations
If a vessel owner and/or operator of an
eligible vessel is not able to coordinate
installation with Saltwater, Inc., on one
of the dates and locations listed in Table
1, the vessel operator should contact
Saltwater, Inc., at 800–770–3241 to
determine whether another mutuallyagreed upon location and date before
June 1, 2015, is feasible for installation
and training. NMFS cannot guarantee
that an alternate location or date will be
provided given the limited funding and
time available to complete installation
of the EM equipment and training.
VerDate Sep<11>2014
17:00 Dec 29, 2014
Jkt 235001
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 971 et seq. and 1801
et seq.
Dated: December 23, 2014.
Alan D. Risenhoover,
Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries,
National Marine Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2014–30521 Filed 12–24–14; 11:15 am]
BILLING CODE 3510–22–P
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration
50 CFR Part 648
[Docket No. 140117052–4402–02]
RIN 0648–XD651
Fisheries of the Northeastern United
States; 2015 Summer Flounder, Scup,
and Black Sea Specifications and 2015
Commercial Summer Flounder Quota
Adjustments
National Marine Fisheries
Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
Commerce.
ACTION: 2015 Summer Flounder, Scup,
and Black Sea Specifications and 2015
commercial summer flounder state
quotas.
AGENCY:
NMFS is announcing revised
commercial quotas and recreational
harvest limits for the 2015 summer
flounder, scup, and black sea bass
fisheries, as well as the commercial
summer flounder state quotas for fishing
year 2015. This is necessary to
incorporate adjustments to the quotas
due to the suspension of the Research
Set-Aside program, implement an
accountability measure for the
commercial black sea bass fishery, and,
for summer flounder state quotas,
account for any previously unaccounted
for overages from fishing year 2013 and
any known overages to date from fishing
year 2014. The intent of this action is to
modify the established harvest levels to
ensure that these species are not
overfished or subject to overfishing in
2015.
SUMMARY:
Date range (2015)
April 14 through 23 ...
Therefore, vessel owners and/or
operators should make a concerted
effort to make plans to adhere to the EM
installation schedule in Table 1.
Effective January 1, 2015,
through December 31, 2015.
DATES:
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Moira Kelly, Fishery Policy Analyst,
(978) 281–9218.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
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78311
Background
The Mid-Atlantic Fishery
Management Council and the Atlantic
States Marine Fisheries Commission
cooperatively manage the summer
flounder, scup, and black sea bass
fisheries. Specifications for these
fisheries include the acceptable
biological catch (ABC) limit, various
catch and landing subdivisions (such as
the commercial and recreational sector
annual catch limits (ACLs)), annual
catch targets (ACTs), sector-specific
landing limits (i.e., the commercial
fishery quotas and recreational harvest
limits), and research set-aside quotas
established for one or more fishing
years. Typically, these specifications are
set on an annual or multi-year basis and
announced in the Federal Register in
December. The specifications
rulemaking for 2014 was delayed
because of a summer flounder stock
assessment. This delay allowed the
Council to establish the 2015
specifications in May 2014, in
conjunction with the revised 2014
specifications (May 22, 2014; 79 FR
29371). The 2015 specifications were
based on recommendations that the
Council made in October 2013, and
included commercial quotas and
recreational harvest limits as adjusted
for a 3-percent reduction in landings to
accommodate the Research Set-Aside
program.
Research Set-Aside Quota Restoration
The Research Set-Aside program has
recently been the subject of significant
debate regarding its effectiveness in
providing useful research and for
enforcement concerns. At its August
2014 meeting, the Council voted to
suspend the Research Set-Aside
program for fishing year 2015 and to
conduct a comprehensive review of the
program. As a result, the previously
deducted Research Set-Aside amounts
will be redistributed to the respective
commercial quota and recreational
harvest limits, as follows:
TABLE 1—PREVIOUSLY DEDUCTED
RESEARCH SET-ASIDE QUOTA
lb
Commercial Summer
Flounder ................
Recreational Summer
Flounder ................
Commercial Scup .....
Recreational Scup ....
Commercial Black
Sea Bass ...............
Recreational Black
Sea Bass ...............
E:\FR\FM\30DER1.SGM
30DER1
mt
332,898
151
220,462
637,136
205,030
100
289
93
70,548
32
66,139
30
78312
Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 249 / Tuesday, December 30, 2014 / Rules and Regulations
Commercial Black Sea Bass
Accountability Measure
For each fishery, the ABC is equal to
the sum of the commercial and
recreational ACLs. Based on
recommendations from the Council’s
Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea
Bass Monitoring Committees, the ACT
was set equal to the ACL for the
commercial and recreational sectors for
all three species for the 2015 fishing
year. However, there was an overage of
the 2013 black sea bass commercial ACL
because discards were higher than
projected. The non-landings
deducted from the ACT for each fishery
in order to establish the commercial
quota or recreational harvest limit,
respectively.
accountability measure, specified at 50
CFR 648.143(b), requires the exact
amount, in pounds, by which the
commercial ACL was exceeded to be
deducted, as soon as possible, from the
applicable subsequent single fishing
year commercial ACL. As such, the
commercial black sea bass ACL of 2.60
million lb (1,180 mt) is reduced by the
overage amount (22,564 lb (10 mt)),
resulting in a commercial ACT of 2.58
million lb (1,170 mt). Projected
discards, calculating using recent
discard information, consistent with the
requirements of the FMP, are then
Revised 2015 Specifications
Table 2 shows the revised
specifications for the 2015 fishing year,
including the sector-specific projected
discards used to calculate the landings
limits. These specifications include the
restoration of the Research Set-Aside
program quotas, as well as the
commercial black sea bass
accountability measure described above.
TABLE 2—2015 SUMMER FLOUNDER, SCUP, AND BLACK SEA BASS SPECIFICATIONS
Summer Flounder
million lb
ABC ..........................................................
Commercial ACL ......................................
Commercial ACT ......................................
Commercial Discards ...............................
Commercial Quota ...................................
Recreational ACL/ACT .............................
Recreational Discards ..............................
Recreational Harvest Limit .......................
mt
22.57
13.34
13.34
2.67
11.07
9.44
2.06
7.38
Summer Flounder State Quotas and
Overages
An important component of the
annual specifications rulemaking is the
notification of the commercial summer
Scup
Black Sea Bass
million lb
10,239
6,049
6,049
1,028
5,021
4,280
933
3,347
mt
33.77
26.35
26.35
5.11
21.23
7.43
0.63
6.80
flounder state quotas and overages.
Overages are calculated using final
landings data from the previous fishing
year and landings from the current
fishing year through October 31. In this
case, previously unaccounted for
million lb
15,320
11,950
11,950
2,318
9,632
3,370
286
3,084
mt
5.50
2.60
2.58
0.37
2.21
2.90
0.57
2.33
2,494
1,180
1,170
166
1,004
1,314
258
1,056
overages from fishing year 2013 are
combined with known overages through
October 31, 2014. The 2015 summer
flounder state quotas, adjusted for these
overages, are as follows:
TABLE 3—2015 COMMERCIAL SUMMER FLOUNDER STATE QUOTAS
2015 Initial quota
State
...........
ME .........
NH .........
MA .........
RI ...........
CT ..........
NY .........
NJ ..........
DE 3 .......
MD .........
VA ..........
NC .........
Total
FMP percent
share
0.04756
0.00046
6.82046
15.68298
2.25708
7.64699
16.72499
0.01779
2.03910
21.31676
27.44584
100.00
Quota overages
(through 10/31/14) 1
lb
kg 2
lb
5,265
51
754,985
1,736,013
249,845
846,477
1,851,358
1,969
225,716
2,359,640
3,038,093
2,390
20
342,460
787,440
113,330
383,960
839,760
890
102,380
1,070,310
1,378,060
0
0
¥5,050
0
0
0
0
¥51,430
0
0
0
11,069,410
5,021,000
¥56,450
Adjusted 2015 quota,
less overages
kg 2
lb
kg 2
0
0
¥2,291
0
0
0
0
¥23,328
0
0
0
5,265
51
749,935
1,736,013
249,845
846,477
1,851,358
¥49,461
225,716
2,359,640
3,038,093
2,388
23
340,165
787,442
113,328
383,955
839,762
¥22,435
102,383
1,070,315
1,378,056
¥25,619
4 11,062,392
4 5,017,817
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with RULES
1 2014 quota overage is determined by comparing landings for January through October 2014, plus any landings in 2013 in excess of the 2013
quota (that were not previously addressed in the 2014 specifications) for each state.
2 Kilograms are as converted from pounds and may not necessarily add due to rounding.
3 For Delaware, this includes continued repayment of overharvest from previous years.
4 Total quota is the sum for all states with an allocation. A state with a negative number has a 2015 allocation of zero (0).
Delaware Summer Flounder Closure
Table 3 shows that, for Delaware, the
amount of overharvest from previous
years is greater than the amount of
commercial quota allocated to Delaware
VerDate Sep<11>2014
17:00 Dec 29, 2014
Jkt 235001
for 2015. As a result, there is no quota
available for 2015 in Delaware. The
regulations at § 648.4(b) state that
Federal permit holders, as a condition of
their permit, must not land summer
PO 00000
Frm 00026
Fmt 4700
Sfmt 4700
flounder in any state that the
Administrator, Greater Atlantic Region,
NMFS, has determined no longer has
commercial quota available for harvest.
Therefore, effective January 1, 2015,
E:\FR\FM\30DER1.SGM
30DER1
Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 249 / Tuesday, December 30, 2014 / Rules and Regulations
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with RULES
landings of summer flounder in
Delaware by vessels holding commercial
Federal summer flounder permits are
prohibited for the 2015 calendar year,
unless additional quota becomes
available through a quota transfer and is
announced in the Federal Register.
VerDate Sep<11>2014
17:00 Dec 29, 2014
Jkt 235001
Federally permitted dealers are advised
that they may not purchase summer
flounder from federally permitted
vessels that land in Delaware for the
2015 calendar year, unless additional
quota becomes available through a
transfer, as mentioned above.
PO 00000
Frm 00027
Fmt 4700
Sfmt 9990
78313
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: December 23, 2014.
Alan D. Risenhoover,
Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries,
National Marine Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2014–30500 Filed 12–29–14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510–22–P
E:\FR\FM\30DER1.SGM
30DER1
]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 249 (Tuesday, December 30, 2014)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 78311-78313]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-30500]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
50 CFR Part 648
[Docket No. 140117052-4402-02]
RIN 0648-XD651
Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; 2015 Summer
Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Specifications and 2015 Commercial Summer
Flounder Quota Adjustments
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: 2015 Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Specifications and
2015 commercial summer flounder state quotas.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: NMFS is announcing revised commercial quotas and recreational
harvest limits for the 2015 summer flounder, scup, and black sea bass
fisheries, as well as the commercial summer flounder state quotas for
fishing year 2015. This is necessary to incorporate adjustments to the
quotas due to the suspension of the Research Set-Aside program,
implement an accountability measure for the commercial black sea bass
fishery, and, for summer flounder state quotas, account for any
previously unaccounted for overages from fishing year 2013 and any
known overages to date from fishing year 2014. The intent of this
action is to modify the established harvest levels to ensure that these
species are not overfished or subject to overfishing in 2015.
DATES: Effective January 1, 2015, through December 31, 2015.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Moira Kelly, Fishery Policy Analyst,
(978) 281-9218.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the Atlantic States
Marine Fisheries Commission cooperatively manage the summer flounder,
scup, and black sea bass fisheries. Specifications for these fisheries
include the acceptable biological catch (ABC) limit, various catch and
landing subdivisions (such as the commercial and recreational sector
annual catch limits (ACLs)), annual catch targets (ACTs), sector-
specific landing limits (i.e., the commercial fishery quotas and
recreational harvest limits), and research set-aside quotas established
for one or more fishing years. Typically, these specifications are set
on an annual or multi-year basis and announced in the Federal Register
in December. The specifications rulemaking for 2014 was delayed because
of a summer flounder stock assessment. This delay allowed the Council
to establish the 2015 specifications in May 2014, in conjunction with
the revised 2014 specifications (May 22, 2014; 79 FR 29371). The 2015
specifications were based on recommendations that the Council made in
October 2013, and included commercial quotas and recreational harvest
limits as adjusted for a 3-percent reduction in landings to accommodate
the Research Set-Aside program.
Research Set-Aside Quota Restoration
The Research Set-Aside program has recently been the subject of
significant debate regarding its effectiveness in providing useful
research and for enforcement concerns. At its August 2014 meeting, the
Council voted to suspend the Research Set-Aside program for fishing
year 2015 and to conduct a comprehensive review of the program. As a
result, the previously deducted Research Set-Aside amounts will be
redistributed to the respective commercial quota and recreational
harvest limits, as follows:
Table 1--Previously Deducted Research Set-Aside Quota
------------------------------------------------------------------------
lb mt
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commercial Summer Flounder........................ 332,898 151
Recreational Summer Flounder...................... 220,462 100
Commercial Scup................................... 637,136 289
Recreational Scup................................. 205,030 93
Commercial Black Sea Bass......................... 70,548 32
Recreational Black Sea Bass....................... 66,139 30
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[[Page 78312]]
Commercial Black Sea Bass Accountability Measure
For each fishery, the ABC is equal to the sum of the commercial and
recreational ACLs. Based on recommendations from the Council's Summer
Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Monitoring Committees, the ACT was
set equal to the ACL for the commercial and recreational sectors for
all three species for the 2015 fishing year. However, there was an
overage of the 2013 black sea bass commercial ACL because discards were
higher than projected. The non-landings accountability measure,
specified at 50 CFR 648.143(b), requires the exact amount, in pounds,
by which the commercial ACL was exceeded to be deducted, as soon as
possible, from the applicable subsequent single fishing year commercial
ACL. As such, the commercial black sea bass ACL of 2.60 million lb
(1,180 mt) is reduced by the overage amount (22,564 lb (10 mt)),
resulting in a commercial ACT of 2.58 million lb (1,170 mt). Projected
discards, calculating using recent discard information, consistent with
the requirements of the FMP, are then deducted from the ACT for each
fishery in order to establish the commercial quota or recreational
harvest limit, respectively.
Revised 2015 Specifications
Table 2 shows the revised specifications for the 2015 fishing year,
including the sector-specific projected discards used to calculate the
landings limits. These specifications include the restoration of the
Research Set-Aside program quotas, as well as the commercial black sea
bass accountability measure described above.
Table 2--2015 Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Specifications
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summer Flounder Scup Black Sea Bass
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
million lb mt million lb mt million lb mt
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ABC..................................................... 22.57 10,239 33.77 15,320 5.50 2,494
Commercial ACL.......................................... 13.34 6,049 26.35 11,950 2.60 1,180
Commercial ACT.......................................... 13.34 6,049 26.35 11,950 2.58 1,170
Commercial Discards..................................... 2.67 1,028 5.11 2,318 0.37 166
Commercial Quota........................................ 11.07 5,021 21.23 9,632 2.21 1,004
Recreational ACL/ACT.................................... 9.44 4,280 7.43 3,370 2.90 1,314
Recreational Discards................................... 2.06 933 0.63 286 0.57 258
Recreational Harvest Limit.............................. 7.38 3,347 6.80 3,084 2.33 1,056
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summer Flounder State Quotas and Overages
An important component of the annual specifications rulemaking is
the notification of the commercial summer flounder state quotas and
overages. Overages are calculated using final landings data from the
previous fishing year and landings from the current fishing year
through October 31. In this case, previously unaccounted for overages
from fishing year 2013 are combined with known overages through October
31, 2014. The 2015 summer flounder state quotas, adjusted for these
overages, are as follows:
Table 3--2015 Commercial Summer Flounder State Quotas
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2015 Initial quota Quota overages (through 10/31/ Adjusted 2015 quota, less
FMP percent -------------------------------- 14) \1\ overages
State share ---------------------------------------------------------------
lb kg \2\ lb kg \2\ lb kg \2\
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
.............. .............. .............. .............. ..............
ME...................................... 0.04756 5,265 2,390 0 0 5,265 2,388
NH...................................... 0.00046 51 20 0 0 51 23
MA...................................... 6.82046 754,985 342,460 -5,050 -2,291 749,935 340,165
RI...................................... 15.68298 1,736,013 787,440 0 0 1,736,013 787,442
CT...................................... 2.25708 249,845 113,330 0 0 249,845 113,328
NY...................................... 7.64699 846,477 383,960 0 0 846,477 383,955
NJ...................................... 16.72499 1,851,358 839,760 0 0 1,851,358 839,762
DE \3\.................................. 0.01779 1,969 890 -51,430 -23,328 -49,461 -22,435
MD...................................... 2.03910 225,716 102,380 0 0 225,716 102,383
VA...................................... 21.31676 2,359,640 1,070,310 0 0 2,359,640 1,070,315
NC...................................... 27.44584 3,038,093 1,378,060 0 0 3,038,093 1,378,056
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total............................... 100.00 11,069,410 5,021,000 -56,450 -25,619 \4\ 11,062,392 \4\ 5,017,817
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ 2014 quota overage is determined by comparing landings for January through October 2014, plus any landings in 2013 in excess of the 2013 quota (that
were not previously addressed in the 2014 specifications) for each state.
\2\ Kilograms are as converted from pounds and may not necessarily add due to rounding.
\3\ For Delaware, this includes continued repayment of overharvest from previous years.
\4\ Total quota is the sum for all states with an allocation. A state with a negative number has a 2015 allocation of zero (0).
Delaware Summer Flounder Closure
Table 3 shows that, for Delaware, the amount of overharvest from
previous years is greater than the amount of commercial quota allocated
to Delaware for 2015. As a result, there is no quota available for 2015
in Delaware. The regulations at Sec. 648.4(b) state that Federal
permit holders, as a condition of their permit, must not land summer
flounder in any state that the Administrator, Greater Atlantic Region,
NMFS, has determined no longer has commercial quota available for
harvest. Therefore, effective January 1, 2015,
[[Page 78313]]
landings of summer flounder in Delaware by vessels holding commercial
Federal summer flounder permits are prohibited for the 2015 calendar
year, unless additional quota becomes available through a quota
transfer and is announced in the Federal Register. Federally permitted
dealers are advised that they may not purchase summer flounder from
federally permitted vessels that land in Delaware for the 2015 calendar
year, unless additional quota becomes available through a transfer, as
mentioned above.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: December 23, 2014.
Alan D. Risenhoover,
Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries
Service.
[FR Doc. 2014-30500 Filed 12-29-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P
