National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration March 17, 2014 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

NMFS is proposing two actions in this rulemaking: A requirement for daily Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) catch reporting for vessels declared to fish in the Eastern U.S./Canada Area; and the de minimis amount of unused fishing year (FY) 2013 sector annual catch entitlement (ACE) that may be carried over, beginning in FY 2014, without being subject to potential accountability measures. The revision to the reporting requirement is necessary to better ensure accurate and timely Eastern U.S./Canada Area catch reporting for quota monitoring purposes. The proposed de minimis carryover amount is necessary to complete the carryover process NMFS described for FY 2014 in conjunction with the May 2013 rulemaking for Framework Adjustment 50 to the Northeast (NE) Multispecies Fishery Management Plan (FMP). The intended effect of these actions is to inform the public and solicit public comment on NMFS's proposed measures.

The Caribbean Fishery Management Council (Council) is transitioning from species specific fishery management to island- specific fisheries management for the exclusive economic zones of Puerto Rico, St. Thomas/St. John and St. Croix separately. This transition is in response to the numerous requests received by the Council to consider the differences among the islands in the U.S. Caribbean. These differences include preference for certain species of fish, ways in which fish species are harvested and other cultural and socio economic factors such as market availability of importance in managing fisheries. The scoping document includes actions and alternatives for each island to make changes to the existing fishery management units by including or excluding species, establish or modify management reference points to determine the status of the stocks, and identify and describe essential fish habitat for any new species considered for federal management. These actions and alternatives are presented for each island specific fishery management plan in the scoping document that is available at the Council's Web page: www.caribbeanfmc.com.

We propose to approve 19 sector operations plans and contracts for fishing year (FY) 2014, provide Northeast (NE) multispecies annual catch entitlements (ACE) to these sectors, and grant regulatory exemptions. We request comment on the proposed sector operations plans and contracts; the environmental assessment (EA) analyzing the impacts of the operations plans; and our proposal to grant 20 of the 28 regulatory exemptions requested by the sectors. Approval of sector operations plans is necessary to allocate ACE to the sectors and for the sectors to operate. The NE Multispecies Fishery Management Plan (FMP) allows limited access permit holders to form sectors, and requires sectors to submit their operations plans and contracts to us, NMFS, for approval or disapproval. Approved sectors are exempt from certain effort control regulations and receive allocation of NE multispecies (groundfish) based on its members' fishing history. This rule also announces the target at-sea monitoring (ASM) coverage rate for sector trips for FY 2014.