National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration November 1, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

NMFS proposes quotas for the ocean quahog fishery for 2006 and 2007. Specifications for the Atlantic surfclam and Maine ocean quahog fishery, which remain unchanged from the multi-year quota specifications, are reprinted here for clarity. Regulations governing these fisheries require NMFS to publish the proposed specifications for the 2006 and 2007 fishing years and seek public comment on such proposed measures. The intent of this action is to propose allowable harvest levels of ocean quahogs from the Exclusive Economic Zone.

The Department of Commerce, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

This action extends an emergency rule, now in effect, that establishes routine management measure authority, under the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan (Pacific Coast Groundfish FMP), to reduce trip limits to incidental levels in the open access fishery for groundfish before the sector has taken its full target groundfish species' allocations, to minimize impacts on overfished species. The mechanism established by this action is necessary to quickly restrict the directed open access groundfish fishery if NMFS estimates that the incidental catch of an overfished species is too high.