National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration October 2, 2023 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Based on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's recommendations, we are implementing aggregate ownership caps in Lobster Conservation Management Areas 2 and 3, a maximum trap cap reduction in Area 3, and mandatory coastwide electronic harvester reporting for all federally permitted lobster vessels. The ownership caps and trap cap reduction measures are intended to reduce fishing exploitation and latent effort in the trap fishery by scaling the fishery to the size of the Southern New England lobster stock. The harvester reporting requirement is intended to improve the spatial resolution of harvester data, and improve and expand the collection of fishery effort data. This action is necessary to better manage the lobster fishery toward sustainability and to ensure fishery regulations for the lobster fishery in Federal waters remain compatible with the intent of the Commission's Interstate Fishery Management Plan for American Lobster and consistent with the Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act.

In preparation for the 2023 International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) meeting, the Advisory Committee to the U.S. Section to ICCAT is announcing the convening of its fall meeting.

The Economics Subcommittee of the Pacific Fishery Management Council's (Pacific Council) Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) will convene an online meeting to review the economic analysis associated with sablefish gear switching alternatives being considered by the Pacific Council. The SSC Economics Subcommittee meeting is open to the public.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council's (Pacific Council) Groundfish Management Team (GMT) will hold a week-long in-person work session that is open to the public.

NMFS proposes regulations to implement amendments to the Fishery Management Plans (FMPs) for the Snapper-Grouper Fishery of the South Atlantic Region (Snapper-Grouper FMP), the Golden Crab Fishery of the South Atlantic Region (Golden Crab FMP), and the Dolphin and Wahoo Fishery of the Atlantic (Dolphin and Wahoo FMP), referenced here as the Acceptable Biological Catch (ABC) Control Rule Amendments. If implemented, this proposed rule would modify the ABC control rules, allow the phase-in of ABC changes, allow some carry-over of an unharvested portion of the annual catch limit (ACL) to the following fishing year, and modify the FMP framework procedures to implement carry-overs of ACLs when appropriate. The purpose of this proposed rule is to ensure catch level recommendations are based on the best scientific information available, prevent overfishing while achieving optimum yield (OY), and increase flexibility in setting catch limits. NMFS also proposes an administrative clarification to existing regulations for the Snapper-Grouper FMP framework procedure.