National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration March 2021 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Assistant Regional Administrator for Sustainable Fisheries, Greater Atlantic Region, NMFS, has made a preliminary determination that an Exempted Fishing Permit application contains all of the required information and warrants further consideration. The Exempted Fishing Permit would allow two commercial fishing vessels to use large mesh gillnet gear to collect pre-construction data on the abundance, size structure, and distribution of monkfish and winter skate in the South Fork Wind Farm work area and adjacent waters, under the direction of the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation. 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.

NMFS closes the Atlantic bluefin tuna (BFT) General category fishery for the January subquota period. The intent of this closure is to prevent overharvest of the adjusted January subquota.

On January 27, 2021, the White House issued an Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad. As part of this effort, NOAA is collecting recommendations on how to make fisheries and protected resources more resilient to climate change, including changes in management and conservation measures, and improvements in science, monitoring, and cooperative research. NOAA requests written input from interested parties on how best to achieve these objectives described in the Executive Order.

The Department of Commerce, in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), invites the general public and other Federal agencies to comment on proposed, and continuing information collections, which helps us assess the impact of our information collection requirements and minimize the public's reporting burden. The purpose of this notice is to allow for 60 days of public comment preceding submission of the collection to OMB.

The Western Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) will hold meetings of its Non-commercial Fisheries Advisory Committee (NCFAC), American Samoa Archipelago Fishery Ecosystem Plan (FEP) Advisory Panel (AP), Mariana Archipelago FEP-Guam AP, Fishing Industry Advisory Committee (FIAC), Hawaii Archipelago FEP AP, and Mariana Archipelago FEP-Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) AP to discuss and make recommendations on fishery management issues in the Western Pacific Region.

The New England Fishery Management Council is convening its Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) via webinar to consider actions affecting New England fisheries in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Recommendations from this group will be brought to the full Council for formal consideration and action, if appropriate.

NMFS proposes regulations to implement Amendment 12 to the Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for the Dolphin and Wahoo Fishery off the Atlantic States (Dolphin Wahoo FMP), as prepared and submitted by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council). This proposed rule would add bullet mackerel and frigate mackerel to the Dolphin Wahoo FMP and designate them as ecosystem component (EC) species. The purpose of this proposed rule and Amendment 12 is to acknowledge the ecological role of bullet mackerel and frigate mackerel as forage fish and to achieve the ecosystem management objectives in the Dolphin Wahoo FMP.

The SEDAR 72 stock assessment process for Gulf of Mexico gag grouper will consist of a series of data and assessment webinars. See SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION.

NMFS has received a request from Mayflower Wind Energy LLC (Mayflower) for authorization to take marine mammals incidental to site characterization surveys off the coast of Massachusetts in the area of the Commercial Lease of Submerged Lands for Renewable Energy Development on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS-A 0521) and along a potential submarine cable route to landfall at Falmouth, Massachusetts. Pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), NMFS is requesting comments on its proposal to issue an incidental harassment authorization (IHA) to incidentally take marine mammals during the specified activities. NMFS is also requesting comments on a possible one-year renewal that could be issued under certain circumstances and if all requirements are met, as described in Request for Public Comments at the end of this notice. NMFS will consider public comments prior to making any final decision on the issuance of the requested MMPA authorizations and agency responses will be summarized in the final notice of our decision.