[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 187 (Friday, September 26, 1997)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 50525-50526]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-25625]
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
50 CFR Part 648
[Docket No. 961210346-7035-02; I.D. 092297B]
Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Summer Flounder
Fishery; Commercial Quota Harvested for New Jersey
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Commercial quota harvest.
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SUMMARY: NMFS announces that the summer flounder commercial quota
available to the State of New Jersey has been harvested. Vessels issued
a commercial Federal fisheries permit for the summer flounder fishery
may not land summer flounder in New Jersey for the remainder of
calendar year 1997, unless additional quota becomes available through a
transfer. Regulations governing the summer flounder fishery require
publication of this notice to advise the State of New Jersey that the
quota has been harvested and to advise vessel and dealer permit holders
that no commercial quota is available for landing summer flounder in
New Jersey.
DATES: Effective 0001 hours September 24, 1997, through December 31,
1997.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dana Hartley, Fishery Management
Specialist, 978-281-9226.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Regulations governing the summer flounder
fishery are found at 50 CFR part 648. The regulations require annual
specification of a commercial quota that is apportioned among the
states from North Carolina through Maine. The process to set the annual
commercial quota and the percentage allocated to each state are
described in Sec. 648.100.
The initial total commercial quota for summer flounder for the 1997
calendar year was set equal to 11,111,298 lb (5,040,000 kg) (March 7,
1997, 62 FR 10473). The percentage allocated to vessels landing summer
flounder in New Jersey is 16.72499 percent, or 1,858,363 lb (842,939
kg) for 1997.
Section 648.100(d)(2) stipulates that any overages of commercial
quota landed in any state be deducted from that state's annual quota
for the following year. In the calendar year 1996, a total of 2,369,134
lb (1,074,621 kg) were landed in New Jersey. The amount allocated for
New Jersey landings in 1996 was 1,858,363 lb
[[Page 50526]]
(842,939 kg), creating a 510,771 lb (231,682 kg) overage that was
deducted from the amount allocated for landings in that State during
1997 (July 15, 1997, 62 FR 37741). The resulting 1997 quota for New
Jersey is 1,347,592 lb (611,257 kg).
Section 648.101(b) requires the Administrator, Northeast Region,
NMFS (Regional Administrator), to monitor state commercial quotas and
to determine when a state's commercial quota is harvested. The Regional
Administrator is further required to publish a notice in the Federal
Register advising a state and notifying Federal vessel and dealer
permit holders that, effective upon a specific date, the state's
commercial quota has been harvested and no commercial quota is
available for landing summer flounder in that state. Because the
available information indicates that the State of New Jersey has
attained its quota for 1997, the Regional Administrator has determined
based on dealer reports and other available information, that the
State's commercial quota has been harvested.
The regulations at Sec. 648.4(b) provide that Federal permit
holders agree as a condition of the permit not to land summer flounder
in any state that the Regional Administrator has determined no longer
has commercial quota available. Therefore, effective 0001 hours
September 24, 1997, further landings of summer flounder in New Jersey
by vessels holding commercial Federal fisheries permits are prohibited
for the remainder of the 1997 calendar year, unless additional quota
becomes available through a transfer and is announced in the Federal
Register. Effective on September 24, 1997, federally permitted dealers
are also advised that they may not purchase summer flounder from
federally permitted vessels that land in New Jersey for the remainder
of the calendar year, or until additional quota becomes available
through a transfer.
Classification
This action is required by 50 CFR part 648 and is exempt from
review under E.O. 12286.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: September 22, 1997.
Bruce C. Morehead,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 97-25625 Filed 9-24-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-F