Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Yellowfin Sole Management in the Groundfish Fisheries of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands, 23250-23251 [2018-10597]
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Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 97 / Friday, May 18, 2018 / Proposed Rules
peach subgroup 12–12B at 2 ppm;
peanut at 0.01 ppm; peanut, hay at 30
ppm; plum prune, fresh at 4 ppm; plum
subgroup 12–12C at 2 ppm; pome fruit
crop group 11–10 at 1.5 ppm; poultry,
eggs at 0.01 ppm; poultry, fat at 0.01
ppm; poultry, liver at 0.01 ppm; poultry,
meat at 0.01 ppm; poultry, muscle at
0.01 ppm; poultry, skin at 0.01 ppm;
rapeseed subgroup 20A at 1 ppm; rice,
straw at 9 ppm; sheep, fat at 0.3 ppm;
sheep, kidney at 0.2 ppm; sheep, liver
at 0.5 ppm; sheep, meat at 0.09 ppm;
sheep, muscle at 0.04 ppm; small fruit
vine climbing, except fuzzy kiwifruit
subgroup 13–07F at 1.5 ppm; sorghum,
stover at 9 ppm; soybean, aspirated
grain fractions at 5 ppm; soybean, forage
at 4 ppm; soybean, hay at 15 ppm;
soybean, seed at 0.3 ppm; sugar beet at
0.6 ppm; sugar beet, top at 9 ppm;
swine, fat at 0.01 ppm; swine, liver at
0.01 ppm; swine, meat at 0.01 ppm;
swine, skin at 0.01 ppm; tree nut crop
group 14–12 at 0.06 ppm; tuberous and
corm vegetables subgroup 1C at 0.02
ppm; wheat, aspirated grain fractions at
20 ppm; wheat, grain at 0.4 ppm; wheat,
hay at 8 ppm; and wheat, straw at 30
ppm. The independently validated
method (L0295/01, based on the
QuEChERS method) was used for
analyzing residues of BAS 750 F with
appropriate sensitivity and selectivity in
all crops and processed commodities.
Two independently validated methods
(L0272/01 and L0309/01) have been
submitted for analyzing residues of BAS
750 F and its metabolite M750F022 (and
conjugates) in animal commodities with
appropriate sensitivity and selectivity,
to measure and evaluate the chemical
mefentrifluconazole. Contact: RD.
Authority: 21 U.S.C. 346a.
Dated: May 1, 2018.
Delores Barber,
Director, Information Technology and
Resources Management Division, Office of
Pesticide Programs.
[FR Doc. 2018–10692 Filed 5–17–18; 8:45 am]
sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with PROPOSALS
BILLING CODE 6560–50–P
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Jkt 244001
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration
50 CFR Part 679
RIN 0648–BH02
Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic
Zone Off Alaska; Yellowfin Sole
Management in the Groundfish
Fisheries of the Bering Sea and
Aleutian Islands
National Marine Fisheries
Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of availability of fishery
management plan amendment; request
for comments.
AGENCY:
The North Pacific Fishery
Management Council submitted
Amendment 116 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 116
would limit access to the Bering Sea and
Aleutian Islands (BSAI) Trawl Limited
Access Sector (TLAS) yellowfin sole
directed fishery by vessels delivering to
motherships. Amendment 116 would
establish eligibility criteria based on
historical participation in the fishery,
issue endorsements to groundfish
License Limitation Program (LLP)
licenses that meet eligibility criteria,
and authorize delivery of BSAI TLAS
yellowfin sole to motherships by only
those vessels with an assigned
groundfish LLP license with a BSAI
catcher vessel TLAS yellowfin sole
directed fishery endorsement.
This action is necessary to provide
benefits to historic participants, mitigate
the risk that a ‘‘race for fish’’ could
develop, and help to maintain the
consistently low rates of halibut bycatch
in the BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole
directed fishery. Amendment 116 is
intended to promote the goals and
objectives of the Magnuson-Stevens
Fishery Conservation and Management
Act, the BSAI FMP, and other
applicable law.
DATES: Comments must be received no
later than July 17, 2018.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments
on this document, identified by NOAA–
NMFS–2017–0083, by any of the
following methods:
• Electronic Submission: Submit all
electronic public comments via the
Federal e Rulemaking Portal. Go to
www.regulations.gov/
SUMMARY:
PO 00000
Frm 00011
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#!docketDetail;D=NOAA-NMFS-20170083, 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 (e.g., 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).
Electronic copies of Amendment 116
and the Draft Environmental
Assessment/Regulatory Impact Review
prepared for this action (collectively the
‘‘Analysis’’) may be obtained from
www.regulations.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Bridget Mansfield, (907) 586–7228.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The
Magnuson-Stevens Fishery
Conservation and Management Act
(Magnuson-Stevens Act) requires that
each regional fishery management
council submit any fishery management
plan amendment it prepares to NMFS
for review and approval, disapproval, or
partial approval by the Secretary of
Commerce. The Magnuson-Stevens Act
also requires that NMFS, upon receiving
a fishery management plan amendment,
immediately publish a notice in the
Federal Register announcing that the
amendment is available for public
review and comment. This notice
announces that proposed Amendment
116 to the FMP is available for public
review and comment.
NMFS manages the groundfish
fisheries in the exclusive economic zone
under the FMPs. The North Pacific
Fishery Management Council (Council)
prepared the FMPs under the authority
of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, 16 U.S.C.
1801 et seq. Regulations governing U.S.
fisheries and implementing the FMP
appear at 50 CFR parts 600 and 679.
Amendment 116 to the FMP would
amend the species and gear
endorsements on groundfish LLP
licenses. The LLP was implemented
under Amendments 39 and 41 to the
E:\FR\FM\18MYP1.SGM
18MYP1
sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with PROPOSALS
Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 97 / Friday, May 18, 2018 / Proposed Rules
FMP, and NMFS published the final
rule to implement these amendments on
October 1, 1998 (63 FR 52642). The LLP
limits access to the groundfish, crab,
and scallop fisheries in the BSAI and
the Gulf of Alaska (GOA), by requiring
that persons hold and assign a license
to each vessel that is used to fish in
federally managed fisheries, with some
limited exemptions. The LLP is
intended to prevent unlimited entry into
Federally managed fisheries and to limit
the ability of a person to assign an LLP
license derived from the historic
landing activity of a vessel in one area,
using a specific fishing gear or
operational type, to be used in other
areas, with other gears, or for other
operational types in a manner that could
expand fishing capacity. Licenses issued
under the LLP authorize, through
individual endorsements, fishing
activities in specific fishing areas, gear
types, and vessel operations as catcher
vessels (CVs) or catcher/processors
(CPs). Once issued, the components of
the LLP license cannot be transferred
independently.
Amendment 116 would implement a
new groundfish LLP license
endorsement to authorize a CV with
trawl gear to deliver its catch to a
mothership (a vessel that receives and
processes catch from another vessel) in
the BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole directed
fishery. Vessels without this
endorsement would not be authorized to
deliver catch to motherships when
participating in the BSAI TLAS
yellowfin sole directed fishery. The
Council determined, and NMFS agrees,
that this action is an appropriate
response to a sharp increase in CV
participation delivering to motherships
in the BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole
directed fishery beginning in 2015. This
increased effort has increased harvest
pressure in this fully utilized fishery,
such that the fishing season has been
severely foreshortened over the past two
years and has caused concern over the
potential for increased halibut bycatch.
In June 2017, the Council adopted
Amendment 116, which would limit
access to the offshore BSAI TLAS
yellowfin sole fishery by CVs and CPs
acting as CVs that deliver BSAI TLAS
yellowfin sole to motherships. If
approved, Amendment 116 would
amend the FMP to require a vessel be
designated on a groundfish LLP license
with a BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole
directed fishery endorsement in order to
deliver its catch of yellowfin sole in the
BSAI TLAS fishery to a mothership. A
groundfish LLP license would receive
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the endorsement if it is credited with a
qualifying landing. A groundfish LLP
license would be eligible to be credited
with a qualifying landing if a vessel
designated on it was used to make at
least one legal trip target landing of
BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole to a
mothership in any one year from 2008
through 2015. Under Amendment 116,
‘‘trip target’’ would mean an amount of
retained aggregate groundfish species
that is greater than the retained amount
of any other groundfish species for that
trip. The Council recognized this
eligibility criteria may qualify more
groundfish LLP licenses than vessels
with a qualifying landing, because some
vessels with a qualifying landing may
have been designated on more than one
groundfish LLP license during the
qualifying period. Therefore, if a vessel
designated on more than one groundfish
LLP license made a qualifying landing
during the qualifying period, only those
groundfish LLP licenses on which the
vessel was designated when it made a
legal trip target landing in a BSAI TLAS
fishery would be eligible to be credited
with a qualifying landing. In such cases,
Amendment 116 would require the
vessel owner to specify only one
groundfish LLP license that would be
credited with the qualifying landing(s).
Amendment 116 would amend four
sections of the FMP. First, in Table ES–
2 in the Executive Summary, row
‘‘License and Permits’’ would have a
sentence added to read, ‘‘Trawl gear
vessels engaged in directed fishing for
BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole and
delivering to a mothership must qualify
for a BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole directed
fishery endorsement.’’
Second, under section 3.3.1 ‘‘License
Limitation Program,’’ Amendment 116
would add a new subsection entitled
‘‘3.3.1.3 Species and Gear Endorsements
for Vessels Using Trawl Gear.’’ This new
subsection would state that a vessel
engaged in directed fishing for yellowfin
sole in the trawl limited access sector in
the BSAI management area using trawl
gear and operating as a catcher vessel
delivering catch to a mothership must
hold an area endorsement and general
license with a trawl limited access
sector yellowfin sole directed fishery
endorsement.
Finally, a section would be added to
Appendix A, summarizing the main
provisions of Amendment 116, and the
Table of Contents would be revised.
The proposed rule to implement
proposed Amendments 116 provides the
details of the eligibility criteria for a
BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole directed
PO 00000
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23251
fishery endorsement to a groundfish
LLP license, the process to establish
eligibility of individual groundfish LLP
licenses based on historical
participation in the fishery, and
issuance of the endorsements. The
specific groundfish LLP licenses eligible
for such an endorsement would be
named in the proposed rule and in the
regulations implementing the rule.
The Council considered a range of
dates and levels of participation, as well
as conditions to increase participation
when yellowfin TAC is high, before
adopting its preferred alternative for
Amendment 116. The Council
determined and NMFS agrees that the
eligibility requirements for a BSAI
TLAS yellowfin sole directed fishery
endorsement within Amendment 116
would balance the need to limit entry to
the BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole directed
fishery to control the pace of fishing and
halibut bycatch with the needs of more
recent participants by continuing to
provide harvest opportunities in this
fishery for AFA CPs and CVs, and nonAFA CVs.
NMFS is soliciting public comments
on proposed Amendment 116 through
the end of the comment period (see
DATES). NMFS intends to publish in the
Federal Register and seek public
comment on a proposed rule that would
implement Amendments 116, following
NMFS’ evaluation of the proposed rule
under the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
Respondents do not need to submit
the same comments on Amendment 116
and the proposed rule. All relevant
written comments received by the end
of the applicable comment period,
whether specifically directed to the
FMP amendments or the proposed rule
will be considered by NMFS in the
approval/disapproval decision for
Amendment 116 and addressed in the
response to comments in the final
decision. Comments received after end
of the applicable comment period will
not be considered in the approval/
disapproval decision on Amendment
116. To be considered, comments must
be received, not just postmarked or
otherwise transmitted, by the last day of
the comment period (see DATES).
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: May 14, 2018.
Kathleen E. Barrett,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable
Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2018–10597 Filed 5–17–18; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510–22–P
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18MYP1
]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 97 (Friday, May 18, 2018)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 23250-23251]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-10597]
=======================================================================
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
50 CFR Part 679
RIN 0648-BH02
Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Yellowfin
Sole Management in the Groundfish Fisheries of the Bering Sea and
Aleutian Islands
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of availability of fishery management plan amendment;
request for comments.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The North Pacific Fishery Management Council submitted
Amendment 116 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
116 would limit access to the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI)
Trawl Limited Access Sector (TLAS) yellowfin sole directed fishery by
vessels delivering to motherships. Amendment 116 would establish
eligibility criteria based on historical participation in the fishery,
issue endorsements to groundfish License Limitation Program (LLP)
licenses that meet eligibility criteria, and authorize delivery of BSAI
TLAS yellowfin sole to motherships by only those vessels with an
assigned groundfish LLP license with a BSAI catcher vessel TLAS
yellowfin sole directed fishery endorsement.
This action is necessary to provide benefits to historic
participants, mitigate the risk that a ``race for fish'' could develop,
and help to maintain the consistently low rates of halibut bycatch in
the BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole directed fishery. Amendment 116 is
intended to promote the goals and objectives of the Magnuson-Stevens
Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the BSAI FMP, and other
applicable law.
DATES: Comments must be received no later than July 17, 2018.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments on this document, identified by
NOAA-NMFS-2017-0083, by any of the following methods:
Electronic Submission: Submit all electronic public
comments via the Federal e Rulemaking Portal. Go to
www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=NOAA-NMFS-2017-0083, 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 (e.g., 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).
Electronic copies of Amendment 116 and the Draft Environmental
Assessment/Regulatory Impact Review prepared for this action
(collectively the ``Analysis'') may be obtained from
www.regulations.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Bridget Mansfield, (907) 586-7228.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation
and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act) requires that each regional
fishery management council submit any fishery management plan amendment
it prepares to NMFS for review and approval, disapproval, or partial
approval by the Secretary of Commerce. The Magnuson-Stevens Act also
requires that NMFS, upon receiving a fishery management plan amendment,
immediately publish a notice in the Federal Register announcing that
the amendment is available for public review and comment. This notice
announces that proposed Amendment 116 to the FMP is available for
public review and comment.
NMFS manages the groundfish fisheries in the exclusive economic
zone under the FMPs. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council
(Council) prepared the FMPs under the authority of the Magnuson-Stevens
Act, 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq. Regulations governing U.S. fisheries and
implementing the FMP appear at 50 CFR parts 600 and 679.
Amendment 116 to the FMP would amend the species and gear
endorsements on groundfish LLP licenses. The LLP was implemented under
Amendments 39 and 41 to the
[[Page 23251]]
FMP, and NMFS published the final rule to implement these amendments on
October 1, 1998 (63 FR 52642). The LLP limits access to the groundfish,
crab, and scallop fisheries in the BSAI and the Gulf of Alaska (GOA),
by requiring that persons hold and assign a license to each vessel that
is used to fish in federally managed fisheries, with some limited
exemptions. The LLP is intended to prevent unlimited entry into
Federally managed fisheries and to limit the ability of a person to
assign an LLP license derived from the historic landing activity of a
vessel in one area, using a specific fishing gear or operational type,
to be used in other areas, with other gears, or for other operational
types in a manner that could expand fishing capacity. Licenses issued
under the LLP authorize, through individual endorsements, fishing
activities in specific fishing areas, gear types, and vessel operations
as catcher vessels (CVs) or catcher/processors (CPs). Once issued, the
components of the LLP license cannot be transferred independently.
Amendment 116 would implement a new groundfish LLP license
endorsement to authorize a CV with trawl gear to deliver its catch to a
mothership (a vessel that receives and processes catch from another
vessel) in the BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole directed fishery. Vessels
without this endorsement would not be authorized to deliver catch to
motherships when participating in the BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole directed
fishery. The Council determined, and NMFS agrees, that this action is
an appropriate response to a sharp increase in CV participation
delivering to motherships in the BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole directed
fishery beginning in 2015. This increased effort has increased harvest
pressure in this fully utilized fishery, such that the fishing season
has been severely foreshortened over the past two years and has caused
concern over the potential for increased halibut bycatch.
In June 2017, the Council adopted Amendment 116, which would limit
access to the offshore BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole fishery by CVs and CPs
acting as CVs that deliver BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole to motherships. If
approved, Amendment 116 would amend the FMP to require a vessel be
designated on a groundfish LLP license with a BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole
directed fishery endorsement in order to deliver its catch of yellowfin
sole in the BSAI TLAS fishery to a mothership. A groundfish LLP license
would receive the endorsement if it is credited with a qualifying
landing. A groundfish LLP license would be eligible to be credited with
a qualifying landing if a vessel designated on it was used to make at
least one legal trip target landing of BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole to a
mothership in any one year from 2008 through 2015. Under Amendment 116,
``trip target'' would mean an amount of retained aggregate groundfish
species that is greater than the retained amount of any other
groundfish species for that trip. The Council recognized this
eligibility criteria may qualify more groundfish LLP licenses than
vessels with a qualifying landing, because some vessels with a
qualifying landing may have been designated on more than one groundfish
LLP license during the qualifying period. Therefore, if a vessel
designated on more than one groundfish LLP license made a qualifying
landing during the qualifying period, only those groundfish LLP
licenses on which the vessel was designated when it made a legal trip
target landing in a BSAI TLAS fishery would be eligible to be credited
with a qualifying landing. In such cases, Amendment 116 would require
the vessel owner to specify only one groundfish LLP license that would
be credited with the qualifying landing(s).
Amendment 116 would amend four sections of the FMP. First, in Table
ES-2 in the Executive Summary, row ``License and Permits'' would have a
sentence added to read, ``Trawl gear vessels engaged in directed
fishing for BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole and delivering to a mothership
must qualify for a BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole directed fishery
endorsement.''
Second, under section 3.3.1 ``License Limitation Program,''
Amendment 116 would add a new subsection entitled ``3.3.1.3 Species and
Gear Endorsements for Vessels Using Trawl Gear.'' This new subsection
would state that a vessel engaged in directed fishing for yellowfin
sole in the trawl limited access sector in the BSAI management area
using trawl gear and operating as a catcher vessel delivering catch to
a mothership must hold an area endorsement and general license with a
trawl limited access sector yellowfin sole directed fishery
endorsement.
Finally, a section would be added to Appendix A, summarizing the
main provisions of Amendment 116, and the Table of Contents would be
revised.
The proposed rule to implement proposed Amendments 116 provides the
details of the eligibility criteria for a BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole
directed fishery endorsement to a groundfish LLP license, the process
to establish eligibility of individual groundfish LLP licenses based on
historical participation in the fishery, and issuance of the
endorsements. The specific groundfish LLP licenses eligible for such an
endorsement would be named in the proposed rule and in the regulations
implementing the rule.
The Council considered a range of dates and levels of
participation, as well as conditions to increase participation when
yellowfin TAC is high, before adopting its preferred alternative for
Amendment 116. The Council determined and NMFS agrees that the
eligibility requirements for a BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole directed
fishery endorsement within Amendment 116 would balance the need to
limit entry to the BSAI TLAS yellowfin sole directed fishery to control
the pace of fishing and halibut bycatch with the needs of more recent
participants by continuing to provide harvest opportunities in this
fishery for AFA CPs and CVs, and non-AFA CVs.
NMFS is soliciting public comments on proposed Amendment 116
through the end of the comment period (see DATES). NMFS intends to
publish in the Federal Register and seek public comment on a proposed
rule that would implement Amendments 116, following NMFS' evaluation of
the proposed rule under the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
Respondents do not need to submit the same comments on Amendment
116 and the proposed rule. All relevant written comments received by
the end of the applicable comment period, whether specifically directed
to the FMP amendments or the proposed rule will be considered by NMFS
in the approval/disapproval decision for Amendment 116 and addressed in
the response to comments in the final decision. Comments received after
end of the applicable comment period will not be considered in the
approval/disapproval decision on Amendment 116. To be considered,
comments must be received, not just postmarked or otherwise
transmitted, by the last day of the comment period (see DATES).
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: May 14, 2018.
Kathleen E. Barrett,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2018-10597 Filed 5-17-18; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P
