New England Fishery Management Council; Public Meeting, 25648 [2016-10074]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 83 (Friday, April 29, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Page 25648]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-10074]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

RIN 0648-XE593


New England Fishery Management Council; Public Meeting

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

ACTION: Notice; public meeting.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The New England Fishery Management Council (Council), Atlantic 
Herring Committee, Atlantic Herring Advisory Panel and Atlantic Herring 
Plan Development Team is scheduling a public workshop on the Atlantic 
Herring Acceptable Biological Catch Control Rule Management Strategy 
Evaluation to consider actions affecting New England fisheries in the 
exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Recommendations from this group will be 
brought to the full Council for formal consideration and action, if 
appropriate.

DATES: This workshop will be held on Monday, May 16, 2016 at 10 a.m. 
and Tuesday, May 17, 2016 at 9 a.m.

ADDRESSES: The workshop will be held at the Holiday Inn by the Bay, 88 
Spring Street, Portland, ME 04101; phone: (207) 775-2311; fax: (207) 
772-4017.
    Council address: New England Fishery Management Council, 50 Water 
Street, Mill 2, Newburyport, MA 01950.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Thomas A. Nies, Executive Director, 
New England Fishery Management Council; telephone: (978) 465-0492.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Agenda

    The Council is currently developing Amendment 8 to the Atlantic 
Herring Fishery Management Plan. Through Amendment 8, the Council 
expects to establish a long-term control rule for specifying acceptable 
biological catch (ABC) for the Atlantic herring fishery. A control rule 
is a formulaic approach for establishing an annual limit or target 
fishing level that is based on the best available scientific 
information.
    An objective of Amendment 8 is to develop and implement an ABC 
control rule that manages Atlantic herring within an ecosystem context 
and addresses the goals of Amendment 8, which are to: Account for the 
role of Atlantic herring within the ecosystem, including its role as 
forage; to stabilize the fishery at a level designed to achieve optimum 
yield; to address localized depletion in inshore waters.
    In January 2016, the Council approved conducting a Management 
Strategy Evaluation (MSE) to support the development of alternatives 
regarding the ABC control rule. MSE is a collaborative decision-making 
process, involving upfront public input and technical analysis than the 
normal amendment development process. MSE can take many forms, but 
here, the MSE will be used to help determine how a range of control 
rules may perform relative to potential objectives. An early step of 
the MSE is this public workshop to develop recommendations for Council 
consideration for a range of potential objectives of the Atlantic 
herring ABC control rule, how these objectives may be tested (i.e., 
associated performance metrics), and the range of control rules that 
would undergo testing.

Workshop Goals

    The Council is hosting this MSE workshop to develop a common 
understanding of Management Strategy Evaluation; develop 
recommendations to the Council for: A range of potential objectives of 
the Atlantic herring ABC control rule, quantitative metrics to evaluate 
the performance of control rules relative to the objectives, and a 
range of control rules to be evaluated and/or the general 
characteristics of a control rule; develop a common understanding of 
the potentials and limitations of models that may affect simulation 
testing, and given those, identify which uncertainties are most 
important to resolve; provide an opportunity for stakeholders of the 
Atlantic herring fishery to provide greater input than typically 
possible at Council meetings, in an environment that supports 
constructive and open dialogue between users of the resource, 
scientific experts, fishery managers, and other interested members of 
the public.
    Although non-emergency issues not contained in this agenda may come 
before this group for discussion, those issues may not be the subject 
of formal action during these meetings. Action will be restricted to 
those issues specifically listed in this notice and any issues arising 
after publication of this notice that require emergency action under 
section 305(c) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, provided the public has 
been notified of the Council's intent to take final action to address 
the emergency.

Special Accommodations

    These meetings are physically accessible to people with 
disabilities. Requests for sign language interpretation or other 
auxiliary aids should be directed to Thomas A. Nies, Executive 
Director, at (978) 465-0492, at least 5 days prior to the meeting date.

    Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.

    Dated: April 26, 2016.
Jeffrey N. Lonergan,
Acting Deputy Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National 
Marine Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2016-10074 Filed 4-28-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-22-P