National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration April 8, 2020 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council) will hold a webinar-based meeting with the public to provide information on options available to recreational anglers fishing for blueline or golden tilefish for electronically submitting Vessel Trip Reports (VTRs) in the Greater Atlantic Region. This is in support of the Council's action that could require electronic reporting of VTRs by operators fishing for tilefish managed under Amendment 6 to the Council's Tilefish Fishery Management Plan.

The Assistant Regional Administrator for Sustainable Fisheries, Greater Atlantic Region, NMFS, has made a preliminary determination that an exempted fishing permit application submitted by the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen's Alliance contains all of the required information and warrants further consideration. This exempted fishing permit would require participants to use electronic monitoring systems on 100 percent of sector trips for catch accounting in the Northeast multispecies fishery; additionally, vessels would be authorized to access portions of Northeast multispecies closed areas. 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 proposed exempted fishing permits.

This serves as a correction and notice of a new meeting for the Hydrographic Services Review Panel (HSRP) who will have a virtual public meeting on April 28, 1 p.m. EDT, by webinar. This announcement is a correction and replaces the prior public meeting notice for a meeting scheduled for April 28-30, 2020. The meeting originally scheduled for April 28-30, 2020, which will focus on Hawaii and the Pacific, has been postponed to the week of September 21, 2020, in Oahu, Hawaii. For the virtual public meeting on April 28, 2020, 1 p.m. EDT, the public comments are requested in advance and/or during the public comment period. Information about the HSRP meetings, agendas, presentations, and advance webinar registration, is posted and updated online. The meeting documents will be available for downloading prior to the meeting at: https://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/hsrp/hsrp.html and https://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/hsrp/meetings.html.

This action serves as a notice that NMFS, on behalf of the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary), has found that Southern Atlantic greater amberjack, Southern Atlantic red grouper, Gulf of Mexico greater amberjack, and Gulf of Mexico gray triggerfish are now subject to overfishing; Gulf of Maine/Georges Bank white hake and Georges Bank winter flounder are now overfished; Gulf of Maine/Georges Bank windowpane flounder, Atlantic witch flounder, Southern New England/Mid- Atlantic yellowtail flounder, Pribilof Islands blue king crab, and Atlantic white marlin are still overfished; and both Georges Bank Atlantic cod and Gulf of Maine Atlantic cod are still subject to overfishing and still overfished. NMFS, on behalf of the Secretary, notifies the appropriate regional fishery management council (Council) whenever it determines that overfishing is occurring, a stock is in an overfished condition, or a stock is approaching an overfished condition.