National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration April 20, 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This action corrects the final rule implementing the Generic Annual Catch Limits/Accountability Measures Amendment (Generic ACL Amendment) to the Red Drum, Reef Fish Resources, Shrimp, and Coral and Coral Reefs Fishery Management Plans for the Gulf of Mexico (FMPs), which was published on December 29, 2011. Specifically, this action reinserts an inadvertently removed title from a table in the rule.

NMFS proposes to supplement the regulations implementing the Comprehensive Annual Catch Limit Amendment (Comprehensive ACL Amendment) for the Fishery Management Plan for the Snapper-Grouper Fishery of the South Atlantic Region (Snapper-Grouper FMP), as prepared and submitted by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council). The Comprehensive ACL Amendment specified, in part, annual catch limits (ACLs) and accountability measures (AMs) for species in the Snapper-Grouper FMP. A final rule implementing the Comprehensive ACL Amendment was published in the Federal Register on March 16, 2012, and is effective on April 16, 2012. However, after publishing the final rule, NMFS discovered that the commercial quota for greater amberjack (commercial ACL for greater amberjack), which was specified in the Comprehensive ACL Amendment, was inadvertently not specified in the proposed or final rules. The intent of this supplemental proposed rule is to specify the commercial ACL for greater amberjack, while maintaining catch levels consistent with achieving optimum yield (OY) for the resource.

This final rule removes the recreational accountability measures that were implemented in January 2012 to address an overage of the fishing year 2010 Gulf of Maine haddock sub-annual catch limit by the recreational fishery. Newly available data indicate that there was no overage by the recreational fishery for fishing year 2010. Therefore, possession limits and an increase in the minimum size for haddock caught in the Gulf of Maine by recreational anglers aboard private or charter/party vessels are no longer needed.

The Social and Economic Sub-Committee of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council's (Council) Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) will meet with the Council's Atlantic Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish Advisory Panel (AP). The purpose of the meeting is to develop Fishery Performance Reports for the Atlantic Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish fisheries in preparation for setting specifications for 2013.

The SEDAR Steering Committee will meet via webinar to discuss the SEDAR process and assessment schedule. See SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION.