[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 223 (Tuesday, November 21, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 55352-55355]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-25160]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
RIN 0648-XF760
Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Application
for an Exempted Fishing Permit
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notice; receipt of application for exempted fishing permit.
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SUMMARY: This notice announces the receipt of an application and the
public comment period for an exempted fishing permit (EFP) from Mr.
John Gauvin of Gauvin and Associates, LLC. If granted, this permit
would allow the applicant to continue the development and testing of a
salmon excluder device for the Bering Sea pollock trawl fishery.
[[Page 55353]]
The objective of the EFP application is to identify upgraded excluder
design(s) and specific rigging configurations most likely to produce
the greatest relative reduction in Chinook salmon bycatch rates on
vessels from different horsepower and size classes of the Bering Sea
pollock fishery. The most effective current salmon excluder designs and
rigging configurations would be refined and tested systematically under
conditions that approximate as closely as possible actual commercial
fishing practices in that fishery. Testing will be conducted in 2018,
2019, and 2020, with results from each year guiding the device design
for each vessel size class to be tested the subsequent year during the
period of this EFP. This experiment has the potential to promote the
objectives of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management
Act.
DATES: Comments on this EFP application must be submitted to NMFS on or
before December 12, 2017. In addition, public comments can be presented
to The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) that will
review and consider the application at its meeting from December 4,
2017, through December 12, 2017, in Anchorage, AK.
ADDRESSES: The Council meeting will be held at the Anchorage Hilton
Hotel, 500 W 3rd Ave., Anchorage, AK 99501. The agenda for the Council
meeting is available at http://www.npfmc.org. In addition to submission
of public comments at the Council meeting, you may submit your
comments, identified by NOAA-NMFS-2017-0127, by either of the following
methods:
Federal e-Rulemaking Portal. Go to www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=NOAA-NMFS-2017-0127, click the ``Comment Now!'' icon,
complete the required fields, and enter or attach your comments.
Mail: Submit written comments to Glenn Merrill, Assistant
Regional Administrator, Sustainable Fisheries Division, Alaska Region
NMFS, Attn: Ellen Sebastian. Mail comments to P.O. Box 21668, Juneau,
AK 99802-1668.
Instructions: Comments sent by any other method, to any other
address or individual, or received after the end of the comment period,
may not be considered. All comments received are a part of the public
record and NMFS will post the comments for public viewing on
www.regulations.gov without change. All personal identifying
information (e.g., name, address), confidential business information,
or otherwise sensitive information submitted voluntarily by the sender
will be publicly accessible. NMFS will accept anonymous comments (enter
``N/A'' in the required fields if you wish to remain anonymous).
Electronic copies of the EFP application and the basis for a
categorical exclusion under the National Environmental Policy Act, the
final Environmental Impact Statement on Bering Sea Chinook Salmon
Bycatch Management (Amendment 91 under the Fishery Management Plan for
Groundfish of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area
(FMP)), and the Environmental Assessment prepared for Amendment 110 to
the FMP are available from the Alaska Region, NMFS Web site at http://alaskafisheries.noaa.gov/.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Bridget Mansfield, 907-586-7228.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NMFS manages the domestic groundfish
fisheries in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area (BSAI)
under the FMP, which the Council prepared under the Magnuson-Stevens
Fishery Conservation and Management Act. Regulations governing the BSAI
groundfish fisheries appear at 50 CFR parts 600 and 679. The FMP and
the implementing regulations at Sec. 600.745(b) and Sec. 679.6 allow
the NMFS Regional Administrator to authorize, for limited experimental
purposes, fishing that would otherwise be prohibited. Procedures for
issuing EFPs are contained in the implementing regulations
Background
Pacific salmon support large commercial, recreational, and
subsistence fisheries and continue to be of great cultural importance
throughout Alaska. Chinook salmon bycatch, where bycatch means fish
caught and released while targeting another species or caught and
released while targeting the same species, in the Bering Sea pollock
fishery is a concern to those who depend on those salmon resources in
Alaska and Canada, and further reduction in salmon bycatch is desired
by those who use salmon resources and by the pollock fishing industry.
Annual limits (PSC) are placed on the number of Chinook salmon that may
be taken in the BSAI trawl fisheries. Chinook salmon bycatch in the
Bering Sea pollock fishery is managed under a system of two PSC limits
(described below); allocations among the Bering Sea pollock fishery
sectors, inshore cooperatives, and Community Development Quota (CDQ)
groups; and other measures designed to minimize bycatch below the
higher PSC limit.
The PSC limits became effective in 2011 as part of Amendment 91 to
the FMP (75 FR 53026, August 30, 2010) to manage Chinook salmon bycatch
in the Bering Sea pollock trawl fishery. Amendment 91 includes two
Chinook salmon PSC limits: the 60,000 Chinook salmon PSC limit is
available to those who participate in an industry-developed incentive
plan agreement (IPA) that provides incentives for each vessel to avoid
Chinook salmon bycatch, and a 47,591 Chinook salmon PSC limit applies
fleet-wide if industry does not form any IPAs. Currently all vessels in
this fishery participate in an IPA. Amendment 110 to the FMP was
implemented in 2016 (81 FR 37534, June 10, 2016) to modify the existing
Chinook salmon bycatch program, specifically to make it more effective
at avoiding Chinook salmon, particularly when Chinook salmon abundance
is low. More details on Amendments 91 and 110 may be found in the final
Environmental Impact Statement on Bering Sea Chinook Salmon Bycatch
Management (Amendment 91), and the Environmental Assessment prepared
for Amendment 110 (see ADDRESSES).
The majority of pollock fishermen in the Bering Sea use salmon
excluder devices on a regular basis as part of the overall effort by
the fishery to reduce salmon bycatch under the Chinook PSC limits and
bycatch avoidance incentive programs in place in the fishery.
Improvements in Chinook salmon escapement and pollock retention rates
for these excluder devices would provide an enhanced opportunity to
minimize Chinook salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea pollock fishery to
the extent practicable, while maintaining the potential for the full
harvest of the pollock total allowable catch (TAC) within specified PSC
limits. An EFP is needed to facilitate effective testing of
improvements to the excluder devices, because exemptions from certain
regulations, as described below, would be required to meet the needs of
the experimental design.
Exempted Fishing Permit
On August 15, 2017, Mr. John Gauvin, of Gauvin and Associates, LLC,
submitted an application for an EFP for 2018 through 2020 to improve
the performance of the salmon excluder device developed under EFP 15-01
from 2015 to 2016, and to validate the performance of this device for
pollock trawl gear used in the Bering Sea. The objective of the
proposed 2018 EFP is to test refinements to existing salmon excluder
devices on vessels from different horsepower and size classes in the
Bering Sea pollock fishery to
[[Page 55354]]
identify the excluder design(s) and specific rigging variations that
are most likely to produce the greatest relative improvements to
reductions in Chinook salmon bycatch rates without significantly
lowering pollock catch rates. Salmon are designated as prohibited
species that are incidentally caught in the pollock fishery (Sec.
679.21(e) and (f)). The most effective current excluder designs and
rigging configurations will be refined and tested systematically under
conditions that approximate as closely as possible actual commercial
fishing practices in the Bering Sea pollock trawl fishery. Testing will
be conducted in 2018, 2019, and 2020 during the ``A'' season for
pollock from January 20 through June 10. Results from each year would
guide the device design tests in each vessel size class for each
subsequent year of this EFP.
The experiment would be conducted on vessels authorized to fish in
the Bering Sea pollock trawl fishery. Tests would be performed in each
of the following three vessel classes: (1) Catcher vessels equal to or
less than 1,800 horsepower, (2) catcher vessels greater than 1,800
horsepower, and (3) catcher processors. Experimental methods specify
that each device and specific adjustments to be tested be inserted into
a pollock trawl net with improved camera and lighting systems to
monitor the flow of salmon and pollock within the net and the level of
escapement through the excluder portal during normal fishing
operations. The effectiveness of the excluder devices will be monitored
under a set of systematic vessel operations for each vessel class.
Approximately 600 non-Chinook salmon and 600 Chinook salmon from
the ``A'' season for each year from 2018 through 2020 would be required
to support the project. In total, the applicant would be limited to
harvesting 1,800 non-Chinook and 1,800 Chinook salmon during the EFP
period. The experimental design requires this quantity of salmon to
ensure statistically valid results. A total of 2,500 metric tons (mt)
of groundfish (primarily pollock) would be taken during each ``A''
season in 2018 through 2020 over the duration of the EFP. Approximately
97 to 99 percent of the groundfish harvested is expected to be pollock.
The experimental design requires this quantity of pollock to ensure a
statistically adequate sample size for measuring pollock escapement
through the salmon excluder device.
To test the salmon excluder devices, exemptions would be necessary
from regulations for salmon bycatch management, observer requirements,
closure areas, TACs for groundfish, and PSC limits for the pollock
fishery. Following the practice that the Council and NMFS have approved
for past EFP experiments dedicated to salmon bycatch reduction,
groundfish and prohibited species taken during the experiment would not
be counted against the annual TAC and PSC limits (65 FR 55223,
September 13, 2000). Chinook salmon taken during the experiment would
not be counted toward the Chinook salmon PSC limits under Sec.
679.21(f). If the EFP salmon were counted toward and exceeded PSC
limits, possibly triggering additional management measures, those EFP
salmon could create an additional burden on pollock trawl fishermen.
The final 2018 Bering Sea pollock harvest specifications were
published on February 27, 2017 (82 FR 11826). The acceptable biological
catch (ABC) level is 2,979,000 mt, and the TAC is 1,345,000 mt. Up to
2,500 mt of pollock per year would be allowed to be harvested under the
proposed EFP without accruing against the Bering Sea pollock TAC. That
amount equates to 0.08 percent of the 2018 Bering Sea pollock ABC, 1.8
percent of the TAC, and 1.5 percent of the difference between the ABC
and the TAC. The ABC and TAC levels for 2019 and 2020 would be set
under the normal harvest specifications setting process as stipulated
at Sec. 679.20. If Bering Sea pollock ABC and TAC levels for those
years are similar to 2018, the amount of pollock taken under the EFP
would represent similarly low fractions of the ABC and TAC. The EFP
fishing will be permitted for this proposed action if the ABC for
Bering Sea pollock exceeds the TAC by at least 2,500 mt in 2019 and
2020.
Very little groundfish incidental catch occurs in the pollock
fishery, and the harvest of other fish species during the EFP fishing
is expected to be 25 mt to 75 mt per season. The majority of these
other species harvested under the EFP likely would be Pacific cod,
skates, flatfish, halibut, and jellyfish. The amount of groundfish
harvest under the EFP and by the commercial groundfish fisheries is not
expected to cause the ABCs for any groundfish species to be exceeded in
any year from 2018 through 2020 because other groundfish TACs are set
with a sufficient difference between ABC and TAC to accommodate EFP
fishing catch of groundfish species other than pollock.
The EFP would include an exemption from selected observer
requirements at Sec. 679.50. Participating vessels would use ``sea
samplers,'' who are NMFS-trained observers. They would not be deployed
as NMFS observers, however, at the time of the EFP fishing. Space
limitations aboard the participating vessels would preclude placing
both sea samplers and observers aboard and allowing for concurrent
operations. The ``sea samplers'' would conduct the EFP data collection
and perform other observer duties that normally would be required for
vessels directed fishing for pollock. Vessels would not be exempt from
observer requirements for non-EFP fishing during trips in which both
EFP and non-EFP fishing occurs.
The applicant also requested an exemption to fish in areas
otherwise closed to fishing with trawl gear under 50 CFR part 679:
Sec. 679.22(a)(7)(ii) and the Steller Sea Lion Conservation Area (SCA)
(Sec. 679.22(a)(7)(vii)). Exempted fishing must be conducted outside
Steller sea lion protection areas closed to pollock trawl fishing, as
described at Sec. 679.22(a)(7), except the sector closure of the
Steller Sea Lion Conservation Area (SCA) under Sec.
679.22(a)(7)(vii)(C)(2). The SCA exemption will only apply as long as
the combined amount of pollock taken from the SCA does not exceed the
28 percent annual total allowable catch limit (TAC) before April 1, as
specified in the Steller sea lion protection measures (Sec. Sec.
679.20(a)(5)(i)(C) and 679.22(a)(7)(vii)). The experimental design
requires that the tests be conducted in areas of salmon concentration
sufficient to ensure a statistically adequate sample size. The SCA
includes areas of high salmon concentration and is therefore an ideal
location for conducting the experiment and ensuring that the vessel
encounters sufficient concentrations of salmon and pollock for meeting
the experimental design.
The applicant would be required to submit to NMFS a final report of
the EFP results by December 31, 2020. The report would include the
salmon excluder device designs and rigging configurations tested in the
experiment; how the tests were conducted, including operational
variables tested (such as towing speeds, water conditions, target catch
rates); performance of the device in terms of salmon bycatch reduction,
target catch escapement, handling, and maintenance; and the total catch
of each groundfish species and Pacific halibut in metric tons and the
total number of each salmon species caught during EFP fishing.
The activities that would be conducted under this EFP are not
expected to have a significant impact on the human environment, as
detailed in the draft categorical exclusion prepared
[[Page 55355]]
for this action (see ADDRESSES). The EFP would be subject to
modifications pending any new relevant information regarding the 2018
through 2020 fishery, including the groundfish harvest specifications.
In accordance with Sec. 679.6 and 600 CFR 745(b)(3)(ii), NMFS has
determined that the application warrants further consideration and has
forwarded the application to the Council to initiate consultation. The
Council is scheduled to consider the EFP application during its
December 2017 meeting, which will be held at the Anchorage Hilton
Hotel, 500 W 3rd Ave, Anchorage, AK. The applicant has been invited to
appear in support of the application.
Public Comments
Interested persons may comment on the application at the December
2017 Council meeting during public testimony or until December 12,
2017. Information regarding the meeting is available at the Council's
Web site at http://www.npfmc.org. Copies of the application and
categorical exclusion are available for review from NMFS (see
ADDRESSES). Comments also may be submitted directly to NMFS (see
ADDRESSES) by the end of the comment period (see DATES).
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: November 15, 2017.
Emily H. Menashes,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2017-25160 Filed 11-20-17; 8:45 am]
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