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

NMFS is prohibiting directed fishing for arrowtooth flounder in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area (BSAI). This action is necessary to prevent exceeding the 2020 arrowtooth flounder initial total allowable catch (ITAC) in the BSAI.

This temporary rule extends emergency measures that extend portions of the fishing year 2019 carryover provisions in the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan into the 2020 fishing year published on June 1, 2020 (85 FR 33027), which is scheduled to expire on November 29, 2020. This action is necessary to prevent the Limited Access General Category Individual Fishery Quota vessels from losing any carryover granted by this emergency action and to prevent the Nantucket Lightship-West Access Area from opening on November 29, 2020. This action is intended to provide additional time for Limited Access General Category Individual Fishery Quota vessels to land the 2019 carryover allocation granted by the original emergency action and to provide the New England Fishery Management Council additional time to develop a plan for the management of the Nantucket Lightship-West Access Area while it remains closed.

Federal commercial tilefish permit holders are prohibited from fishing for, catching, possessing, transferring or landing tilefish in the Tilefish Management Unit for the remainder of the 2020 fishing year. This action is required when NMFS projects that 100 percent of the 2020 total allowable landings will have been caught by the effective date. This action is intended to prevent over-harvest of blueline tilefish for the fishing year.

NMFS is prohibiting directed fishing for Pacific cod, except for the Community Development Quota program (CDQ), in the Bering Sea subarea of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area (BSAI). This action is necessary to prevent exceeding the non-CDQ allocation of the 2020 Pacific cod total allowable catch (TAC) in the Bering Sea subarea of the BSAI.

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 New England Fishery Management Council (Council) is scheduling a public meeting of its Scallop Advisory Panel 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.

This final rule delays implementation of the Electronic Monitoring (EM) Program for the West Coast Groundfish Trawl Rationalization Program to January 1, 2022. NMFS is making this change to provide additional time for industry and prospective service providers to prepare for implementation, to strengthen Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) and industry support for the EM program, and to increase participation when it is implemented in 2022.

We, NMFS, announce a 90-day finding on a petition to list the giant devil ray (Mobula mobular) as an endangered or threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The petition requests that we list the giant devil ray (M. mobular) as a distinct species with a limited range throughout the Mediterranean Sea. Information in our files indicates a recent taxonomic revision that found M. mobular and M. japanica (spinetail devilray) to be synonymous species (i.e., same taxon described and named more than once independently) with circumglobal distribution in tropical and warm temperate seas. The petition relies on obsolete information to identify the species, and therefore we find that the petition does not present substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that the petitioned action may be warranted.

The New England Fishery Management Council (Council) is scheduling a public meeting of its Herring Advisory Panel 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.

The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council) will hold meetings of the following: Snapper Grouper Committee; Dolphin Wahoo Committee; Habitat and Ecosystem-Based Management Committee, Mackerel Cobia Committee; Executive Committee (partially Closed Session); and Citizen Science Committee. The meeting week will also include a formal public comment session and a meeting of the Full Council (with a partially Closed Session). Due to public health concerns associated with COVID-19 and current travel restrictions, the meeting originally planned for Wrightsville Beach, NC will be held via webinar.

NMFS issues this proposed rule to revise the annual reference points, including the overfishing limit (OFL), acceptable biological catch (ABC) and annual catch limit (ACL), for the central subpopulation of northern anchovy in the U.S. exclusive economic zone off the west coast under the Coastal Pelagic Species Fishery Management Plan. NMFS prepared this rulemaking in response to a September 2020 court decision (Oceana, Inc. v. Ross et al.) that vacated the OFL, ABC, and ACL for the central subpopulation of northern anchovy and ordered NMFS to promulgate a new rule in compliance with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and Administrative Procedure Act. NMFS is proposing an OFL of 119,153 metric tons (mt), an ABC of 29,788 mt, and an ACL of 25,000 mt. If the ACL for this stock is reached or projected to be reached, then fishing will be closed until it reopens at the start of the next fishing season. This rule is intended to conserve and manage the central subpopulation of northern anchovy off the U.S. West Coast.

NMFS will hold a 1-day Atlantic Highly Migratory Species (HMS) Advisory Panel (AP) meeting via webinar in December 2020. The intent of the meeting is to consider options for the conservation and management of Atlantic HMS. The meeting is open to the public.

Notice is hereby given that permits have been issued to the following entities under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA), as applicable.

The Western Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) will hold its 138th Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC), Pelagic and International Standing Committee, Executive and Budget Standing Committee, and 184th Council meetings to take actions on fishery management issues in the Western Pacific Region. A portion of the Council's Executive and Budget Standing Committee meeting will be closed to the public.

This document announces the reapportionment of 40,000 metric tons of Pacific whiting from the tribal allocation to the non-tribal commercial fishery sectors via automatic action on September 16, 2020. This reapportionment is to allow full utilization of the Pacific whiting resource.

NMFS proposes to implement management measures described in Regulatory Amendment 34 to the Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for the Snapper-Grouper Fishery of the South Atlantic Region (Snapper-Grouper FMP), as prepared and submitted by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council). If implemented, this proposed rule would create 34 special management zones (SMZs) around artificial reefs in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) off North Carolina and South Carolina. The purpose of this proposed rule is to designate new SMZs and to restrict fishing gear with greater potential to result in high exploitation rates. The restrictions are expected to reduce adverse effects to snapper-grouper species and enhance recreational fishing opportunities at these SMZs.

NMFS solicits nominations for the Atlantic Highly Migratory Species (HMS) Advisory Panel (AP). NMFS consults with and considers the comments and views of the HMS AP when preparing and implementing Fishery Management Plans (FMPs) or FMP amendments for Atlantic tunas, swordfish, sharks, and billfish. Nominations are being sought to fill approximately one-third (10) of the seats on the HMS AP for 3-year appointments. Individuals with definable interests in the recreational and commercial fishing and related industries, environmental community, academia, and non-governmental organizations are considered for membership on the HMS AP.

The New England Fishery Management Council (Council) is scheduling a public meeting of its Groundfish Advisory Panel 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.

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council (Council) will hold a two-day webinar meeting to consider actions affecting the Gulf of Mexico fisheries in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

The SEDAR 73 assessment of the South Atlantic stock of red snapper will consist of a data scoping webinar, a workshop, and a series of assessment webinars. See SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION.

NMFS proposes specifications for the 2021 commercial golden tilefish fishery and projected specifications for 2022. This action also proposes to implement emergency measures for the golden tilefish fishery at the request of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council. The proposed action is intended to establish allowable harvest levels and other management measures to prevent overfishing while allowing optimum yield, consistent with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and the Tilefish Fishery Management Plan. The proposed emergency measures would allow a limited one-time carryover of up to 5 percent of unharvested fishing quota from the 2020 fishing year into the 2021 fishing year. This action also informs the public of the proposed specifications and emergency measures and provides opportunity for public comment.

NMFS received a request from Dominion Energy Virginia (Dominion) on September 29, 2020, for a modification to the incidental harassment authorization (IHA) that was issued on August 28, 2020. This initial IHA allowed Dominion to take nine species of marine mammals, by Level B harassment, incidental to marine site characterization surveys conducted in the areas of the Commercial Lease of Submerged Lands for Renewable Energy Development on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Offshore Virginia (Lease No. OCS-A-0483) as well as in coastal waters where an export cable corridor will be established in support of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Commercial (CVOW Commercial) Project. Dominion was recording take of Atlantic spotted dolphin (Stenella frontalis) by Level B harassment at a rate that would exceed the authorized limit on this species and therefore, NMFS is proposing to modify the IHA to increase authorized take by Level B harassment of spotted dolphin. The mitigation, monitoring, and reporting measures remain the same as prescribed in the initial IHA and no additional take was requested for other species. NMFS will consider public comments on the requested modification prior to making any final decision and agency responses will be summarized in the final notice of our decision.