National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration January 31, 2013 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Western Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) will hold the 112th meeting of its Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC).

NMFS proposes to implement an annual catch limit (ACL), harvest guideline (HG), and associated annual reference points for Pacific sardine in the U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ) off the Pacific coast for the fishing season of January 1, 2013, through December 31, 2013. This rule is proposed according to the Coastal Pelagic Species (CPS) Fishery Management Plan (FMP). The proposed 2013 maximum HG for Pacific sardine is 66,495 metric tons (mt). The proposed initial overall commercial fishing HG, that is to be allocated across the three allocation periods for sardine management, is 57,495 mt. This amount would be divided across the three seasonal allocation periods for the directed fishery the following way: January 1-June 3019,123 mt; July 1-September 1422,998 mt; and September 15-December 3113,374 mt with an incidental set-aside of 1,000 mt for each of the three periods. This rule is intended to conserve and manage the Pacific sardine stock off the U.S. West Coast.

NMFS has received a request from the U.S. Navy (Navy) for authorization to take marine mammals incidental to the training and testing activities conducted in the Atlantic Fleet Training and Testing (AFTT) study area from January 2014 through January 2019. Pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), NMFS is requesting comments on its proposal to issue regulations and subsequent Letters of Authorization (LOAs) to the Navy to incidentally harass marine mammals.