[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 82 (Tuesday, April 29, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 23940-23941]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-09742]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
RIN 0648-XD259
Magnuson-Stevens Act Provisions; General Provisions for Domestic
Fisheries; Application for Exempted Fishing Permits
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notice; request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The Assistant Regional Administrator for Sustainable
Fisheries, Greater Atlantic Region, NMFS (Assistant Regional
Administrator), has made a preliminary determination that an Exempted
Fishing Permit (EFP) application contains all of the required
information and warrants further consideration. This EFP would allow up
to three commercial fishing vessels to conduct exploratory fishing in
year-round groundfish closed areas (Closed Areas (CAs) I and II) for
the purposes of obtaining fisheries dependent catch information. This
research is being conducted by Atlantic Trawlers Fishing, Inc.
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 EFPs.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before May 14, 2014.
ADDRESSES: You may submit written comments by any of the following
methods:
Email: [email protected]. Include in the subject line
``Comments on Exploratory Closed Area Fishing EFP.''
Mail: John K. Bullard, Regional Administrator, NMFS, NE
Regional Office, 55 Great Republic Drive, Gloucester, MA 01930. Mark
the outside of the envelope ``Comments on Closed Area Exploratory
Fishing EFP.''
Fax: (978) 281-9135.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Brett Alger, Fisheries Management
Specialist, 978-675-2153, [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In a proposed rule for Northeast
Multispecies Sector vessels that would allow vessels using selective
trawl gear into portions of year-round Georges Bank (GB) groundfish CAs
I and II in fishing year (FY) 2014, NMFS announced interest in
gathering catch data from these areas through EFPs (79 FR 14639, March
17, 2014). This would provide NMFS with fisheries dependent data from
these areas, which have been closed to groundfish bottom trawling for
nearly 20 years, to help inform whether to allow conditional access to
CAs I and II to sector vessels through the sector exemption process.
Data from vessels operating under an EFP would be used to characterize
catch rates of target and non-target species in the CAs, as well as
help inform industry on the economic feasibility of industry-funded
monitoring for trips into CAs I and II in FY 2014. Atlantic Trawlers
Fishing, Inc. submitted a complete application for an EFP to conduct
commercial fishing activities that the regulations would otherwise
restrict. The EFP would authorize three vessels to fish during the
entire fishing year, and inside portions of groundfish CA I and CA II
during specified times of the fishing year. Under this EFP, vessels
would be allowed to use nets with codend mesh as small as 5.1-inch (13
cm) square mesh when fishing with a haddock separator or Ruhle trawl.
In addition, for sampling purposes, vessels would be authorized to
temporarily retain sub-legal fish, and fish in excess of possession
limits. All under-size fish and fish in excess of possession limits
would be discarded as soon as practicable following data collection.
The GB haddock fishery has historically been a specialized fishery
where a sub-subset of groundfish fishery participants accounted for a
large proportion of the landings. GB haddock are found across a wide
range of depths, substrates and sub-areas of GB. The applicant notes
that haddock behavior and movement patterns are highly variable; and
that catchability is dictated by many environmental factors, including
tide, current, moon phase, and diurnal cycles. These highly variable
haddock catch rates pose a relatively high economic risk for vessels
targeting this species, which would be further compounded by having to
pay for an at-sea monitor. Due to the variable catch rates, the
applicant states that a large portion of catch from a trip is often
caught in one or two very large tows, and that successful haddock
fishermen must spend significant time trying to locate haddock
concentrations. Consequently, the applicant has stated that vessels
must have consistent access to CAs I and II to effectively characterize
target and non-target catch rates.
The EFP applicant seeks to address five objectives in this EFP as
follows: (1) Generate data on the composition of catch, including
presence and absence of target (e.g., GB haddock) and non-
[[Page 23941]]
target species; (2) test the effectiveness of utilizing gear comparable
to the Canadian haddock fishery on Georges Bank (e.g., haddock
separator trawl with 5.1 inch (13 cm) square mesh codend) to improve
haddock selectivity, catch ratios, and improved annual catch limit
(ACL) utilization rates; (3) collect data to examine the economic
feasibility of an industry funded monitoring program for CA trips; (4)
test the effectiveness of providing access to portions of the existing
CAs for improving utilization rates of GB haddock; and (5) collect
information from CAs I and II so that NMFS may conduct analyses to
determine whether fishing can be allowed at a level of observer
coverage of less than 100 percent, should an exemption be approved.
To fulfill these objectives, vessels would be accompanied by a
technician with an at-sea-monitor certification, and would be required
to fish with either a haddock separator trawl or a Ruhle trawl, fitted
with either a 6-inch (15.2 cm) diamond mesh codend (currently allowed
in the fishery) or a 5.1-inch (13-cm) square mesh codend. The applicant
claims that the 5.1-inch (13-cm) square mesh codend will improve their
ability to target legal-size haddock while maintaining the ability to
filter out small non-target catch, including sub-legal haddock. All
three vessels will be equipped with echo sounders that operate on
multiple frequencies, which provide the capability of revealing fish
size distribution and bottom hardness.
For CA I, vessels would be given access to all areas within CA1
that are not existing Habitat Management Areas or contained in the New
England Fisheries Management Council's (Council) draft Omnibus Habitat
Amendment as Habitat Management Area alternatives as of April 30, 2014,
from the date that the EFP is issued, through February 15, 2015. NMFS
has raised concerns about spawning in CA I from January 1 to February
15, but the applicant has requested access for this period to collect
information to address questions about spawning fish.
In CA II, vessels would be given access to all areas within CA II
that are not existing Habitat Management Areas or contained in the
Council's draft Omnibus Habitat Amendment as Habitat Management Area
alternatives as of April 30, 2014. Vessels would have access from the
date that the EFP is issued, through June 15, 2014, and then from
November 1, 2014 through February 15, 2015. Similar to CA I, NMFS has
raised concerns about spawning in CA II from January 1 to February 15,
but the applicant has requested access for this period to collect
information to address questions about spawning fish. The dates for CA
II access reflect an agreement between sector trawl fishermen and the
lobster industry, which was developed in anticipation of sectors being
granted CA II access through an exemption in FY 2013. The agreement was
established to avoid gear conflicts between lobster and groundfish
vessels. The applicant and members of the lobster industry remain
concerned about gear conflicts that could arise from this, or any other
EFP, that are accessing CA II. Therefore, the applicant would not
access portions of CA II from June 15 through November 1, the time
period that the lobster industry is allowed access.
The applicant requests issuance of the EFP for the entire fishing
year in order to use a smaller mesh codend throughout the year, but
access to the closed areas would be for only portions of the year.
Fishing effort under the EFP would be heavily dependent upon
operational decisions dictating whether to fish within CAs I and II, as
compared to outside the areas. As previously described, the applicant
has stated that the directed haddock fishery is highly dynamic and
requires a high degree of mobility. If approved, the applicant has
stated that the three participating vessels would focus on the directed
haddock fishery throughout the study period, and makes tows both inside
and outside the CAs on the same trip. Vessel tow duration would vary
from 30 minutes to 3 hours and trawling would occur up to 18 hours per
fishing day. An average trip duration would be seven days, consisting
of five days fishing and two days steaming, and there would be an
average of three trips total, per month. All legal sized fish will be
landed and sold with all proceeds retained by the vessel owner. All
three vessels are members of the Sustainable Harvest Sector (SHS) and
all catch of allocated stocks (e.g., haddock, cod) would be accounted
for under the annual catch entitlements (ACEs) of the SHS. If the SHS
exceeds its ACE for an allocated stock, it would need to lease in
additional ACE in order to continue fishing.
If approved, the applicant may request minor modifications and
extensions to the EFP throughout the year. EFP modifications and
extensions may be granted without further notice if they are deemed
essential to facilitate completion of the proposed research and have
minimal impacts that do not change the scope or impact of the initially
approved EFP request. Any fishing activity conducted outside the scope
of the exempted fishing activity would be prohibited.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: April 24, 2014.
Emily H. Menashes,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2014-09742 Filed 4-28-14; 8:45 am]
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