National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration July 3, 2013 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This action corrects the final rule implementing Amendment 37 to the FMP for the Reef Fish Resources of the Gulf of Mexico (Gulf Reef Fish Amendment 37), which was published in the Federal Register on May 9, 2013. This correcting amendment revises an amendatory instruction that precluded incorporation of new regulatory language in the final rule implementing Gulf Reef Fish Amendment 37 into the Code of Federal Regulations. The intent of this correcting amendment is to correct the amendatory instruction and regulatory text to eliminate confusion among interested persons.

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.

NMFS publishes this final rule implementing the Final Amendment 5a to the 2006 Consolidated Atlantic Highly Migratory Species (HMS) Fishery Management Plan (FMP). In developing Amendment 5a to the 2006 Consolidated HMS FMP, we examined a full range of management alternatives to maintain rebuilding of sandbar sharks; end overfishing and rebuild scalloped hammerhead and Atlantic blacknose sharks; and establish a total allowable catch (TAC) and commercial quota and recreational measures for Gulf of Mexico blacknose and blacktip sharks, consistent with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act), and other applicable laws. This final rule implements the final conservation and management measures in Amendment 5a to the 2006 Consolidated HMS FMP for sandbar, scalloped hammerhead, blacknose, and Gulf of Mexico blacktip sharks. This final rule also announces the revised 2013 annual regional quotas for aggregated large coastal sharks (LCS), hammerhead, Gulf of Mexico blacktip, blacknose, and non-blacknose small coastal sharks (SCS). These changes could affect all commercial and recreational fishermen who fish for sharks in the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea.