National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration December 27, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

NMFS announces that the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) proposes to amend the Fishery Management Plan for the Bottomfish and Seamount Groundfish of the Western Pacific Region (Bottomfish FMP). Bottomfish FMP Amendment 14 was developed in response to a determination by NMFS that Hawaiian bottomfish stocks are experiencing overfishing, with the primary problem being excessive fishing mortality on seven deep water bottomfish species in the main Hawaiian Islands. Amendment 14 would end the overfishing by reducing bottomfish fishing mortality by 24 percent in 2008, and by establishing a management mechanism that would control fishing effort by responding to changes in the status of bottomfish stocks in the future.

NMFS issues this final rule to revise VMS requirements applicable to the commercial reef fish fishery in the Gulf of Mexico (Gulf) and to revise the allowable methods for complying with the advance notification of landing requirement in the Gulf red snapper individual fishing quota (IFQ) program. Regarding the VMS program, this final rule allows commercial reef fish vessel owners or operators to reduce the frequency of VMS transmissions while in port; extends the existing power-down exemption to include reef fish vessels while in port; and adds a grandfather clause to address VMS units approved for use in the Gulf reef fish fishery. Regarding the IFQ program, this final rule expands the allowable methods for communicating the required advance notification of landing. The intended effects of this final rule are to resolve an unanticipated technological problem with the VMS draining power from vessels that are in port without access to external power sources; provide a grandfather clause for previously approved Gulf reef fish VMS units; and facilitate compliance with the advance notification of landing requirement in the IFQ program. Finally, NMFS informs the public of the approval by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) of the collection-of-information requirements contained in this final rule and publishes the OMB control numbers for those collections.

NMFS reduces the trip limit in the commercial hook-and-line fishery for king mackerel in the northern Florida west coast subzone to 500 lb (227 kg) of king mackerel per day in or from the exclusive economic zone (EEZ). This trip limit reduction is necessary to protect the Gulf king mackerel resource.