National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration March 30, 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council will hold a joint meeting of its Shrimp and Deepwater Shrimp APs in North Charleston, SC. The meeting is open to the public.

The National Ocean Service (NOS) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) publishes this notice to announce a series of webinars designed to initiate conversation between federal representatives and stakeholders on a number of topics related to harmful algal blooms (HABs) and hypoxia, as mandated by the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Amendments Act of 2014 (HABHRCA). HABHRCA tasks federal agencies to advance the understanding of HAB and hypoxia events, and to respond to, detect, predict, control, and mitigate these events to the greatest extent possible. The Interagency Working Group on HABHRCA (IWG-HABHRCA) is comprised of representatives from a number of federal agencies. Through these webinars, the group seeks to connect and speak with a wide range of stakeholders, including relevant management and planning bodies, resource officials, economists, tribal resource management officials, scientists and public health experts, industries affected by HABs and hypoxia, nonprofit groups, the general public, and others. The IWG-HABHRCA would like to consult with stakeholders on topics such as: Regional priorities for ecological, economic, and social research on the causes and impacts of HABs and hypoxia, needs for improved monitoring and early warning, and new approaches to prevention, control, and mitigation; Communication and information dissemination methods that state, tribal, and local governments may undertake to educate and inform the public concerning HABs and hypoxia; and Perceived needs for handling HAB and hypoxia events, as well as an action strategy for managing future situations.

The SEDAR 41 assessments of the South Atlantic stocks of red snapper and gray triggerfish will consist of a series of workshops and webinars: Data Workshops; an Assessment Process; and a Review Workshop. This notice is for a webinar associated with the Data portion of the SEDAR process. See SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION.

The Western Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) will hold meetings of its Joint Hawaii, Marianas and American Samoa Archipelago Plan Team (Joint PT) and the Council's Fishery Data Collection and Research CommitteeTechnical Committee (FDCRC-TC). The Joint PT will review the status of the nearshore fisheries, data collection and research issues and improvements, evaluation of the 2014 catch and Annual Catch Limit (ACL) specifications, developing a Cooperative Research framework and review the essential fish habitat (EFH) and habitat area of particular concern criteria for the Western Pacific Region. The FDCRC-TC will review the status of the data collection projects, determine priority tasks, schedule, and assignments as well as develop an omnibus FDCRC proposal.

NMFS issues regulations to implement Amendment 32 to the Fishery Management Plan for the Snapper-Grouper Fishery of the South Atlantic Region (FMP), as prepared by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council). This rule removes blueline tilefish from the deep-water complex; establishes blueline tilefish commercial and recreational sector annual catch limits (ACLs) and accountability measures (AMs); revises the deep-water complex ACLs and AMs; establishes a blueline tilefish commercial trip limit; and revises the blueline tilefish recreational bag limit. The purpose of this rule is to specify ACLs and AMs for blueline tilefish to end overfishing of the stock and maintain catch levels consistent with achieving optimum yield (OY) for the blueline tilefish resource.