[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 62 (Wednesday, April 1, 2015)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 17352-17354]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-07289]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
50 CFR Part 660
RIN 0648-XD339
Fisheries Off West Coast States; Coastal Pelagic Species
Fisheries; Amendment 14 to the Coastal Pelagic Species Fishery
Management Plan
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of agency decision.
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SUMMARY: NMFS announces the approval of Amendment 14 to the Coastal
Pelagic Species (CPS) Fishery Management Plan (FMP). The purpose of
Amendment 14 is to specify an estimate of maximum sustainable yield
(MSY) for the northern subpopulation of northern anchovy in the CPS
FMP. This action promotes the goals and objectives of the Magnuson-
Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the FMP, and other
applicable laws.
DATES: The amendment was approved on March 23, 2015.
ADDRESSES: Electronic copies of the CPS FMP as amended through
Amendment 14 are available from the Pacific Fishery Management Council
(Council) Web site at: http://www.pcouncil.org/coastal-pelagic-species/fishery-management-plan-and-amendments/. Requests for the list of
references used in this document should be addressed to: NMFS, West
Coast Region, Sustainable Fisheries Division, 501 West Ocean Blvd.,
Suite 4200, Long Beach, CA 90802. c/o Joshua Lindsay
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Joshua B. Lindsay, Sustainable
Fisheries Division, NMFS, at 562-980-4034 or Kerry Griffin, Pacific
Fishery Management Council, at 503-820-2280.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The CPS fishery in the U.S. exclusive
economic zone (EEZ) off the West Coast is managed under the CPS FMP,
which was developed by the Council pursuant to the Magnuson-Stevens
Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act), 16
U.S.C. 1801 et seq. Species managed under the CPS FMP include Pacific
sardine, Pacific mackerel, jack mackerel, northern anchovy, market
squid and krill. The CPS FMP was approved by the Secretary of Commerce
and was implemented by regulations at 50 CFR part 660, subpart I.
The Magnuson-Stevens Act requires that each regional fishery
management council submit proposed amendments to a fishery management
plan to NMFS for review and approval, disapproval, or partial approval
by the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary). The Magnuson-Stevens Act also
requires that, upon receiving a fishery management plan amendment, NMFS
immediately publish in the Federal Register a notice that the amendment
is available for public review and comment. NMFS determined that
Amendment 14 to the FMP is consistent with the Magnuson-Stevens Act and
other applicable laws, and the Secretary approved Amendment 14 on March
23, 2015. The December 24, 2014, Notice of Availability contains
additional information on this action. No changes to Federal
regulations are necessary to implement Amendment 14. Amendment 14 will
change the CPS FMP so that it now includes a specification of an
estimate MSY for the northern subpopulation of northern
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anchovy. NMFS has determined that the specification of an FMSY of 0.3
as the MSY reference for the northern subpopulation of northern anchovy
point as recommended by the Council is appropriate and supported by the
best available information.
At the November 2013 Council meeting the Council adopted an
FMSY of 0.3 as the best estimate of MSY for the northern
subpopulation of northern anchovy and voted to amend the CPS FMP
accordingly to include this reference point. This action was based on
data compiled by the CPS Management Team and a recommendation by the
Council's Science and Statistical Committee (SSC). An FMSY
equal to 0.3, the default exploitation rate for Pacific mackerel, a
stock for which more information is known regarding stock variability
and productivity, was deemed an appropriate specification of MSY by the
SSC. This was deemed appropriate by the SSC because the best available
information regarding northern anchovy shows that northern anchovy are
likely to be at least as productive as Pacific mackerel, and likely
have higher natural mortality, which would typically be associated with
a higher FMSY. Speaking further to their recommendation of
the FMSY, the SSC stated that due to both high uncertainty
in the available biomass estimates and large fluctuations in stock
biomass that are known to occur in species such as anchovy, a fixed
biomass-based approach to specifying MSY would likely not be
appropriate. Additionally, because the northern subpopulation of
northern anchovy is lightly fished, with inconsistent effort over time,
the existing time series of catch was likely an unreliable indicator of
stock status and therefore determining a catch-based MSY would not be
meaningful.
The Notice of Availability for Amendment 14 was published in the
Federal Register on December 24, 2014 (79 FR 77426), with a 60-day
comment period that ended on February 23, 2015. NMFS received one
comment letter during the public comment period. No changes were made
in response to these comments. NMFS summarizes and responds to that
comment below.
Comment: The majority of points raised in the comment were outside
the scope of Amendment 14 and instead were related to the CPS FMP as a
whole and/or other aspects of the management of the northern
subpopulation of northern anchovy beyond the establishment of an MSY
reference point, which is the purpose and substance of Amendment 14.
Those comments will not be addressed here. However, NMFS found the
comments valuable and will consider them for future management
planning, and will ensure the Council is aware of the comments. Related
to Amendment 14, the commenter questioned some of the scientific
rationale underlying the MSY recommendation, specifically the commenter
states that productivity is not constant and states that the MSY
estimate does not account for the current productivity of the stock and
may overestimate the productivity of the stock during periods of low
natural recruitment, which the commenter states currently appears to be
the case from recent NMFS, CalCOFI, and independent surveys and that
the use of information on Pacific mackerel to help determine the
estimate may not be appropriate. The commenter however did not state
that the Amendment should not be approved and expressed encouragement
by the establishment of this reference point.
Response: NMFS agrees with the commenter that productivity of the
northern subpopulation of northern anchovy is likely not constant over
time. Much like other CPS stocks, the northern subpopulation of
northern anchovy is likely subject to relatively large fluctuations in
stock biomass that are driven by changes in environmental conditions.
As described below, this specific life history trait was in fact part
of the rationale for the SSC's recommendation to the Council and
subsequent adoption by the Council of an FMSY equal to 0.3
over a fixed biomass-based or catch-based MSY that may not fully take
these factors into consideration. Additionally, NMFS points out that by
definition MSY is a long-term average, therefore at times any estimate
may be an overestimate or an underestimate, however, the MSY estimate
is intended to reflect a fishing mortality rate that does not
jeopardize the capacity of a stock or stock complex to produce MSY.
As it relates to the specific information used to make the
determination that an FMSY equal to 0.3 is appropriate for
use as the MSY reference point for the northern subpopulation of
northern anchovy, NMFS has determined the best available scientific
information was used. In addition, an FMSY equal to 0.3 was
recommended to the Council by its SSC, the scientific advisory body to
the Council tasked with making such recommendations based on the best
available information. Although the commenter states that there is
recent survey information that is contrary to this determination, no
specific evidence or citations for this referenced information is
provided to show that the a FMSY equal to 0.3 does not
represent the best available science for estimating MSY for this stock.
Furthermore, the commenter references the California Cooperative
Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) survey however this survey
only occurs off of southern and south-central California, were as the
southern extent of the habitat range for the northern subpopulation of
northern anchovy is northern California. In making their recommendation
on MSY the SSC reviewed all of the available information on the stock,
which although limited, included information such as egg and larvae
survey data, density and distribution data, stock productivity and
vulnerability information and landings data, which was prepared and
presented to them by the Council's CPSMT (Agenda Item I.2.c, CPSMT
Report 1, November 2010 and references contained within). Included in
this scientific and fishery information, and specifically examined for
potential use in estimating MSY, were (the only) two estimates of
biomass: One from the 1970s (Richardson 1981), and the other from an
acoustic survey conducted by researchers at the Southwest Fisheries
Science Center in 2008 as well as the historical time series of catch
going back to the 1950s. In reviewing this information, however, the
SSC noted that the available biomass estimates were uncertain and,
because there were only two, they provided little information on the
variability of stock biomass over time. Furthermore, the SSC also noted
that because the northern subpopulation of anchovy has been lightly
fished, with inconsistent effort, that the time series of catch was an
unreliable indicator of annual stock status. It was therefore
determined that because of the paucity of biomass data and the nature
of the landings information, that a MSY estimate based either of these
sources would not be representative of the biology of the stock, and
that it would be more appropriate to use a rate-based approach to
estimate MSY instead of biomass or catch-based method.
Although general biological information on the northern
subpopulation of northern anchovy exists, specific productivity
information is limited; therefore the SSC looked at information
available for the other CPS stocks to help determine an appropriate
rate. For instance, the default exploitation rate for Pacific mackerel,
a stock for which more information is known regarding stock variability
and productivity (stock assessments for
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Pacific mackerel have occurred since 1978, with annual assessments
generally since 2000), is 0.3. Based on what information is known
regarding northern anchovy, they are assumed to be at least as
productive as Pacific mackerel, and likely have higher natural
mortality (Patrick et al. 2009, PFMC 1998, Crone et al. 2011) which
would typically be associated with a higher FMSY. Therefore
an FMSY equal to 0.3 was deemed an appropriate specification
of MSY by the SSC, for the northern subpopulation of northern anchovy,
in part, because the previous determination of 0.3 as the default
exploitation rate for Pacific mackerel and the existing knowledge of
the two stocks.
References Cited
The complete citations for the references used in this document
can be obtained by contacting NMFS (See ADDRESSES and FOR FURTHER
INFORMATION CONTACT).
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: March 23, 2015.
Samuel D. Rauch III,
Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Programs, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2015-07289 Filed 3-31-15; 8:45 am]
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