National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration April 7, 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The NMFS Assistant Regional Administrator for Sustainable Fisheries, Greater Atlantic Region, has made a preliminary determination that an exempted fishing permit application contains all of the required information and warrants further consideration. This exempted fishing permit would allow a commercial lobster fishing vessel in collaboration with the University of New England to conduct research on the injury and mortality of Atlantic cod caught as bycatch in lobster traps fished in the Gulf of Maine. Regulations under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act require publication of this notification to provide interested parties the opportunity to comment on applications for a proposed exempted fishing permit.

NMFS specifies an annual catch limit (ACL) of 326,000 lb for Deep 7 bottomfish in the main Hawaiian Islands (MHI) for the 2015-16 fishing year. As an accountability measure (AM), if the ACL is projected to be reached, NMFS would close the commercial and non- commercial fisheries for MHI Deep 7 bottomfish for the remainder of the fishing year. The ACL and AM specifications support the long-term sustainability of Hawaii bottomfish.