[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 208 (Thursday, October 27, 2011)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 66672-66675]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-27853]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
50 CFR Part 622
RIN 0648-AY56
Fisheries of the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and South Atlantic;
Reef Fish Fishery of the Gulf of Mexico; Amendment 32
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of availability; request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council (Council) has
submitted Amendment 32 to the Fishery Management Plan for the Reef Fish
Resources of the Gulf of Mexico (FMP) for review, approval, and
implementation by NMFS. Amendment 32 proposes to implement a 10-year
rebuilding plan for gag; revise the annual catch limits (ACLs) and
accountability measures (AMs) for gag, red grouper, and shallow-water
grouper (SWG); revise recreational annual catch targets (ACTs) for gag
and red grouper; implement a 4-month gag recreational season; adjust
the commercial quota for gag and SWG for 2012 through 2015 and
subsequent fishing years; adjust multi-use individual fishing quota
(IFQ) shares for gag and red grouper; and implement a 22-inch (56-cm)
commercial minimum size limit for gag. The intent of Amendment 32 is to
end overfishing of gag, allow the gag stock to rebuild, and constrain
the harvest of red grouper consistent with the requirements of the
Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-
Stevens Act).
DATES: Written comments must be received on or before December 27,
2011.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments on the amendment identified by
``NOAA-NMFS-2011-0135'' by any of the following methods:
Electronic submissions: Submit electronic comments via the
Federal e-Rulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the
instructions for submitting comments.
[[Page 66673]]
Mail: Peter Hood, Southeast Regional Office, NMFS, 263
13th Avenue South, St. Petersburg, FL 33701.
Instructions: All comments received are a part of the public record
and will generally be posted to http://www.regulations.gov without
change. All Personal Identifying Information (for example, name,
address, etc.) voluntarily submitted by the commenter may be publicly
accessible. Do not submit Confidential Business Information or
otherwise sensitive or protected information.
To submit comments through the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov, click on ``submit a comment,'' then enter ``NOAA-
NMFS-2011-0135'' in the keyword search and click on ``search.'' To view
posted comments during the comment period, enter ``NOAA-NMFS-2011-
0135'' in the keyword search and click on ``search.'' NMFS will accept
anonymous comments (enter N/A in the required field if you wish to
remain anonymous). You may submit attachments to electronic comments in
Microsoft Word, Excel, WordPerfect, or Adobe PDF file formats only.
Comments through means not specified in this notice of availability
will not be accepted.
Electronic copies of Amendment 32 may be obtained from the
Southeast Regional Office Web Site at http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Peter Hood, Southeast Regional Office,
NMFS, telephone 727-824-5305; e-mail: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Magnuson-Stevens Act requires each
Regional Fishery Management Council to submit any fishery management
plan or amendment to NMFS for review and approval, disapproval, or
partial approval. The Magnuson-Stevens Act also requires that NMFS,
upon receiving a plan or amendment, publish an announcement in the
Federal Register notifying the public that the plan or amendment is
available for review and comment.
Background
The Magnuson-Stevens Act requires NMFS and regional fishery
management councils to prevent overfishing and achieve, on a continuing
basis, the optimum yield (OY) from federally managed fish stocks. These
mandates are intended to ensure fishery resources are managed for the
greatest overall benefit to the nation, particularly with respect to
providing food production and recreational opportunities, and
protecting marine ecosystems. To further this goal, the Magnuson-
Stevens Act requires fishery managers to specify their strategy to
rebuild overfished stocks to a sustainable level within a certain time
frame, and to minimize bycatch and bycatch mortality to the extent
practicable. The reauthorized Magnuson-Stevens Act, as amended through
January 12, 2007, requires the councils to establish ACLs for each
stock/stock complex and AMs to ensure these ACLs are not exceeded.
Amendment 32 addresses these requirements for gag, red grouper, and the
SWG complex.
Status of Stocks
Southeast Data, Assessment, and Review (SEDAR) stock assessment
updates were conducted for gag and red grouper in 2009. For gag, the
assessment indicated the gag stock was both overfished and undergoing
overfishing. The Council was informed of this status determination in
August of 2009. Until Amendment 32 could be completed, the Council
requested and NMFS implemented a series of temporary rules to control
harvest. For 2011, the gag commercial quota is 430,000 lb (195,045 kg)
and the gag recreational season is from September 16 through November
15 (76 FR 31874, June 2, 2011). This most recent temporary rule became
effective June 1, 2011.
For red grouper, a 2009 SEDAR assessment update indicated that
although the stock continues to be neither overfished nor undergoing
overfishing, the stock has declined since 2005. After reviewing a rerun
of the assessment update completed in late 2010, the SSC recommended
that the overfishing limit for red grouper be set at 8.10 million lb
(3.67 million kg) (the equilibrium yield at FMSY (the
fishing mortality associated with harvesting the maximum sustainable
yield) and the allowable biological catch (ABC) be set at 7.93 million
lb (3.60 million kg) (the equilibrium yield at FOY). For
2011, the SSC recommended the harvest could be increased to 6.88
million lb (3.12 million kg). A 2011 regulatory amendment is in the
process of being implemented to set total allowable catch (TAC) at 6.88
million lb (3.12 million kg) for 2011, and increase the red grouper TAC
and commercial quota annually through 2015. The proposed rule to
implement this regulatory amendment published on September 21, 2011 (76
FR 58455) and the final rule is currently being developed.
Actions Contained in Amendment 32
Gag Rebuilding Plan
The Council selected a 10-year rebuilding plan in Amendment 32 for
gag. This is the maximum time frame allowed under the requirements of
the Magnuson-Stevens Act. However, because the Council intends to
manage the stock using the FOY yield stream (based on
protocols from Amendment 30B), the stock is projected to be rebuilt in
7 years. Given management uncertainties and uncertainties regarding
stock assessment projections more than a few years in the future, a 10-
year rebuilding plan would allow for fluctuations in catches and
provide leeway to account for the needs of fishing communities when
setting catch levels and management measures.
ACLs and ACTs
Based on the SSC's recommendations for ABCs for gag and red
grouper, Amendment 32 would establish sector-specific ACLs and ACTs for
each species based on the allocation ratios assigned for the commercial
and recreational sectors. The allocation of gag between the commercial
and recreational sectors is 39 percent and 61 percent, respectively.
Amendment 32 would implement sector-specific ACLs, which when combined
would equal to the SSCs recommended ABCs. The sector-specific ACTs for
gag are based on the FOY yield stream which provides lower
annual yields than the Frebuild yields used to determine the
ABC and resulting sector ALCs. This results in sector-specific ACTs
less than the ACLs, and helps ensure the sector-specific ACLs are not
exceeded. Recreational landings would be evaluated relative to the ACL
based on a moving multi-year average of landings, as described in the
FMP. Commercial ACTs are similarly reduced from the commercial ACL
because the management strategy follows FOY yield streams.
However, due to the limited amount of gag IFQ allocation available for
harvest in the initial years of the gag rebuilding plan, gag bycatch
and discards from fishermen targeting red grouper or other fish may be
higher than assumed in the assessment projections. Therefore, the
Council determined the commercial gag quota should be reduced from the
ACT by 14 percent to account for additional dead discards not accounted
for in the assessment analyses.
For red grouper, sector-specific ACLs are based on the current 76
percent commercial and 24 percent recreational allocation ratio. The
commercial quota (ACT) is being established through a separate
rulemaking, the 2011 red
[[Page 66674]]
grouper regulatory amendment, which is expected to be effective prior
to the implementation of Amendment 32. Amendment 32 would adjust the
recreational ACL and ACT in a method similar to the one used for gag.
Recreational landings would be evaluated relative to the ACL based on a
moving multi-year average of landings, as described in the FMP.
Because the commercial SWG ACL is the sum of the commercial gag and
red grouper ACLs, Amendment 32 would adjust the commercial SWG ACL.
Similarly, reductions in the gag quota correspond to reductions in the
SWG quota. Therefore, Amendment 32 would adjust the commercial SWG
quota.
AMs
Amendment 32 proposes to modify the AMs for gag, red grouper, and
SWG. AMs are intended to prevent ACLs from being exceeded or mitigate
future harvests after ACLs have been exceeded. For the commercial
sector, the current AMs were implemented through Amendment 30B to the
FMP (74 FR 17603, April 16, 2009), before red grouper, gag and SWG were
managed under an IFQ program. Therefore, the current AMs would be
triggered if the sector exceeds the respective species' quota. However,
the IFQ program Gulf groupers and tilefishes acts as an AM because the
overall quota is divided among shareholders and the program includes
controls that do not allow shareholders to exceed their individual
allocation of the quota. To reduce redundancy in the commercial AMs,
Amendment 32 proposes to eliminate the quota-based AM in favor of the
existing IFQ program.
Current recreational AMs for gag and red grouper include
restricting future increases in harvest and shortened subsequent
seasons, should an ACL be exceeded. However, AMs have no provisions for
handling overages or in-season adjustments as authorized under the
National Standard 1 guidelines (74 FR 3178, January 16, 2009).
Amendment 32 proposes to add an overage adjustment and in-season
recreational AMs for gag and red grouper. Should gag or red grouper be
in a rebuilding plan and the sector ACL is exceeded, the overage
adjustment would be equal to the full amount of the overage, unless the
best scientific information available shows that a greater, lesser, or
no overage adjustment is needed to mitigate the effects of the overage.
In addition, Amendment 32 proposes that if gag or red grouper landings
are projected to exceed the ACL, as estimated by the Southeast
Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC), without regard to overfished status,
the AA would file a notification closing the recreational harvest for
the species projected to reach its ACL for the rest of the fishing year
on the date the ACL is projected to be harvested.
In addition to these AMs, Amendment 32 proposes an AM for
recreational red grouper that incorporates an adaptive management
approach should the recreational sector exceed its ACL. The Council has
submitted a red grouper regulatory amendment for Secretarial approval,
and NMFS has published a proposed rule (September 21, 2011, 76 FR
58455) that includes a red grouper bag limit increase from two to four
fish, within the four-fish aggregate grouper bag limit. The adaptive
management AM proposed in Amendment 32 would reduce the bag limit from
four fish to three fish if, at the end of any season, it is determined
that the recreational sector has exceeded the recreational red grouper
ACL. The bag limit would be reduced from three fish to two fish if, at
the end of any subsequent season, it is determined that the
recreational sector has exceeded its ACL again. The minimum bag limit
for red grouper would remain at two fish, regardless if the
recreational sector exceeded the ACL in subsequent fishing years.
Other Commercial Management Measures
To allow for flexibility and to account for varying gag to red
grouper quota ratios across the Gulf in the commercial grouper-tilefish
IFQ program, at the beginning of each fishing year a percentage of the
gag and red grouper allocation is designated as multi-use allocation,
valid for harvesting either gag or red grouper. Currently, 4 percent of
the red grouper allocation and 8 percent of the gag allocation are
designated as multi-use allocation. However, under the red grouper and
gag ACLs proposed in Amendment 32, the current multi-use allocations
could result in commercial harvest of red grouper or gag exceeding its
sector ACL. To prevent this from occurring, Amendment 32 proposes that
if a stock is not under a rebuilding plan, the respective multi-use
allocation would be based on the difference between the ACL and the
ACT. If a stock is under a rebuilding plan, as with gag, then no multi-
use allocation would be set aside. Therefore, red grouper multi-use
allocation would be set to zero if gag is under a rebuilding plan. The
equations used to determine multi-use allocation for gag and red
grouper are as follows:
Gag Multi-use (in percent) = 100*[Red Grouper ACL--Red Grouper
Allocation]/Gag Allocation.
Red Grouper Multi-use (in percent) = 100*[Gag ACL--Gag Allocation]/Red
Grouper Allocation.
National Standard 9 dictates bycatch and the mortality of
unavoidable bycatch should be minimized to the extent practicable.
Because the commercial sector fishes in deeper waters on average than
the recreational sector, it has a higher discard mortality rate. One
possible way to reduce gag regulatory dead discards is to reduce the
commercial minimum size limit so that gag that would have been
discarded can be retained. To reduce gag discards, Amendment 32 would
reduce the minimum size limit of gag from 24 inches (61 cm) to 22
inches (56 cm) TL. This change could reduce discards by approximately
30 percent, and would have the advantage of simplifying enforcement by
having a single gag size limit for both sectors.
Other Recreational Management Measures
In selecting a recreational management strategy, the Council
favored achieving the longest practicable fishing season for gag, while
maintaining the current size and bag limits and constraining harvest to
the ACT. Therefore, Amendment 32 proposes to set the gag fishing season
from June 1 through October 31. The current two-gag bag limit within
the four-fish grouper aggregate bag limit and 22-inch (56-cm) TL
minimum size limit will remain unchanged.
Proposed Rule for Amendment 32
A proposed rule that would implement Amendment 32 has been drafted.
In accordance with the Magnuson-Stevens Act, NMFS is evaluating
Amendment 32 to determine whether it is consistent with the FMP, the
Magnuson-Stevens Act, and other applicable law. If the determination is
affirmative, NMFS will publish the proposed rule in the Federal
Register for public review and comment.
Consideration of Public Comments
The Council submitted Amendment 32 for Secretarial review,
approval, and implementation. NMFS' decision to approve, partially
approve, or disapprove Amendment 32 will be based, in part, on
consideration of comments, recommendations, and information received
during the comment period on this notice of availability.
Public comments received by 5 p.m. eastern time, on December 27,
2011,
[[Page 66675]]
will be considered by NMFS in the approval/disapproval decision
regarding Amendment 32.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: October 24, 2011.
Steven Thur,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2011-27853 Filed 10-26-11; 8:45 am]
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