National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration January 5, 2017 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Commerce, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

The Caribbean Fishery Management Council (Council) has submitted Amendment 8 to the Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for the Reef Fish Fishery of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) (Reef Fish FMP), Amendment 7 to the FMP for the Spiny Lobster Fishery of Puerto Rico and the USVI (Spiny Lobster FMP), and Amendment 6 to the FMP for the Corals and Reef Associated Plants and Invertebrates of Puerto Rico and the USVI (Coral FMP) for review, approval, and implementation by NMFS. In combination, these amendments represent the Accountability Measure (AM) Timing Amendment. The AM Timing Amendment would change the date for the implementation of AM-based closures for all species and species groups managed by the Council under the subject FMPs and specify that the Council must periodically revisit this implementation date. The purpose of the AM Timing Amendment is to minimize, to the extent practicable, the adverse socio-economic impacts of AM-based closures, while constraining catch levels to the applicable annual catch limit (ACL) and preventing overfishing.