Notice2023-13064
Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act Provisions; Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act Provisions; General Provisions for Domestic Fisheries; Application for Exempted Fishing Permits
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Published
June 20, 2023
Issuing agencies
Commerce DepartmentNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Abstract
The Assistant Regional Administrator for Sustainable Fisheries, Greater Atlantic Region, NMFS, has made a preliminary determination that an Exempted Fishing Permit application contains all of the required information and warrants further consideration. The Exempted Fishing Permit would allow commercial fishing vessels to fish outside fishery regulations in support of research conducted by the applicant. Regulations under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and the Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act require publication of this notification to provide interested parties the opportunity to comment on applications for proposed Exempted Fishing Permits.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 88 Issue 117 (Tuesday, June 20, 2023)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 117 (Tuesday, June 20, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 39829-39831]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2023-13064]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
[RTID 0648-XD084]
Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act
Provisions; Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management 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, has made a preliminary
determination that an Exempted Fishing Permit application contains all
of the required information and warrants further consideration. The
Exempted Fishing Permit would allow commercial fishing vessels to fish
outside fishery regulations in support of research conducted by the
applicant. Regulations under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation
and Management Act and the Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative
Management Act require publication of this notification to provide
interested parties the opportunity to comment on applications for
proposed Exempted Fishing Permits.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before July 5, 2023.
ADDRESSES: You may submit written comments by the following method:
<bullet> Email: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#f896959e8bd69f998ad69d9e88b896979999d69f978e"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="3f5152594c11585e4d115a594f7f51505e5e11585049">[email protected]</span></a>. Include in the subject line
``NEFSC On-Demand Gear EFP.''
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Laura Deighan, Fishery Management
Specialist, <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#1b577a6e697a355f7e727c737a755b75747a7a357c746d"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="97dbf6e2e5f6b9d3f2fef0fff6f9d7f9f8f6f6b9f0f8e1">[email protected]</span></a>, (978) 281-9184.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center
submitted a complete application for an Exempted Fishing Permit (EFP)
to conduct commercial fishing activities that the regulations would
otherwise restrict to expand trials of on-demand fishing gear that uses
one or no surface buoys and to test the ability of gear marking systems
to consistently locate gear. This EFP would exempt the participating
vessels from the gear marking requirements at 50 CFR 697.21(b)(2) to
allow the use of trawls of more than three traps with no more than one
surface marking and Sec. 648.84(b) to allow the use of gillnet gear
with no more than one surface marking. Exempted fishing activities
would take place between August 21, 2023, and August 20, 2024.
The project is a continuation and expansion of the Center's efforts
to trial on-demand fishing systems (also known as ropeless or buoyless)
aimed at reducing entanglement risk to protected species, mainly the
North Atlantic right whale, in trap/pot and gillnet fisheries. The
Center's existing EFP will expire on August 21, 2023, and authorizes
gear trials on up to 100 trap/pot vessels. As of March 2023, the Center
had collected data from 707 hauls of on-demand gear in Federal waters
under its current EFP. Of these, 267 hauls took place in Lobster
Management Area (LMA) 3, 164 in LMA 2, and 276 in LMA 1. The Center
reported two instances of gear loss or gear conflict. One incident
involved a
[[Page 39830]]
gear conflict with a mobile fishing vessel, the second incident was
related to a malfunction of the on-demand gear itself. The Center has
increased outreach to encourage use of the Trap Tracker app by non-
participant vessels. As of March 2023, approximately 42 fixed-gear and
5 mobile-gear vessels are using Trap Tracker.
This project would expand trials to allow up to 200 trap/pot
vessels to replace up to 10 of their existing trawls (up to 2,000
trawls total) with modified trawls, including in Atlantic Large Whale
Take Reduction Plan (ALWTRP) Restricted Areas. It would also add the
opportunity to trial on-demand gear in gillnet fisheries, with up to 5
of the 200 vessels fishing up to 8 (40 total) modified gillnet strings.
Modified gear would replace one or both traditional end lines with
acoustic on-demand systems and other alternatives to static buoy lines
(including, but not limited to, spooled systems, buoy and stowed rope
systems, lift bag systems, and grappling).
The ultimate goal of this project is to enable the continuation of
some of the region's most valuable and historically significant
fisheries while also meeting the requirements set forth by the ALWTRP
and section 118(f) of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, specifically
reducing the level of serious injury and mortality of North Atlantic
right, humpback, and fin whales in commercial fisheries. To achieve
this, the project includes objectives to test the efficacy of fully on-
demand trawls and the adequacy of gear marking systems that use data
hubs and visualization platforms to share on-demand gear locations. The
project is intended to address challenges and data needs associated
with on-demand gear, including:
<bullet> Increasing availability of and standardizing participant
training;
<bullet> Reducing operational interruptions (line snarls, gear
breakage, acoustic response issues, etc.);
<bullet> Evaluating multiple prototypes under the range of fishing
conditions;
<bullet> Evaluating retrieval times with through-hull transducers;
<bullet> Evaluating float modifications;
<bullet> Evaluating modifications to facilitate faster retrieval in
low visibility conditions;
<bullet> Evaluating new prototypes;
<bullet> Improving stackability on deck;
<bullet> Improving gear detection by other fishermen and relevant
stakeholders (e.g., wind surveyors);
<bullet> Improving access to location data (e.g., overlaying on
digital charts);
<bullet> Improving the ability to upload data (e.g., outside of
cell data range);
<bullet> Increasing data to support regulatory analyses (e.g.,
costs in time and landings; costs/savings associated with gear
conflicts); and,
<bullet> Increasing performance of on-demand gear through feedback
to manufacturers.
To ensure that on-demand fishing and gear marking technologies are
adequately tested across the breadth of regional commercial fishing
conditions, the Center requests the flexibility to test on-demand gear
across the geographic range of the Federal American lobster and Jonah
crab fishery (LMAs 1-5 and the Nearshore Outer Cape LMA), including
testing fully on-demand gear (no persistent vertical lines) in ALTWRP
Restricted Areas. It also requests the opportunity to trial on-demand
gillnet gear on federally permitted monkfish, groundfish, spiny
dogfish, and skate vessels from Maine to Virginia. To cover a greater
area and target areas where data is needed, the Center has requested
the flexibility to have greater than 200 participants during the one-
year period (with only 200 fishing at one time) and would provide
requested modifications to the active participants, general locations,
and technologies to be tested one month in advance. Priority would be
given to participants who are seasonally excluded from fishing in
certain areas and/or participants in offshore fisheries that have
limited entanglement mitigation options available. The Center is also
specifically targeting increased wintertime data collection.
This permit would only exempt vessels from the specified Federal
regulations in Federal waters. It would not exempt the vessels from any
requirements imposed by any state, the Endangered Species Act, the
Marine Mammal Protection Act, or any other applicable laws. The
applicant would be responsible for obtaining all required state
authorizations. Other than gear markings, all trap trawls and gillnet
strings would be consistent with the regulations of the management area
where the vessel is fishing and would be fished in accordance with the
participating vessels' standard operations (number and length of trips,
soak times, trap limits, etc.).
The use of on-demand trap/pot gear in the ALWTRP Restricted Areas
is limited to gear without any persistent vertical lines. The Center
would allow incremental expansion of on-demand trials in the Restricted
Areas, depending on its capacity to provide gear and manage the
activity. In recognition of industry's interest in grappling as a low-
cost alternative to acoustic on-demand systems, this project would also
allow up to 25 vessels to retrieve fewer than 10 buoyless trawls via
grappling, including in ALWTRP Restricted Areas. This would enable the
Center to collect data on the viability of grappling at a commercial
scale. This would be consistent with what is authorized under the
existing EFP, although no grappling trials have occurred to-date.
In the first phase of participation, staff from the Center and the
gear manufacturers would provide training to ensure the system is
working as intended and all participants have sufficient experience
with the gear prior to borrowing from the gear cache library. In the
second phase, participating vessels would rig an on-demand system to
one end of a standard trawl or string and fish it as a hybrid (with one
traditional surface marking) for at least 10 hauls per system. In phase
three, participants would fish the gear as part of normal fishing
operations, including fishing fully on-demand gear and in the ALTWRP
Restricted Areas. In some cases, a scientific observer may be on board,
and/or GoPro Systems (or equivalent) may record gear retrievals. The
Center would provide standardized data collection sheets to all
participants, but individually-identifiable data will only be made
public with the express permission of the vessel owner.
The Center also plans to include targeted geolocation studies in
areas with limited trawling and/or dredging to test new location-
marking systems on the seafloor and automated location-marking when
gear is set and retrieved. This EFP would support efforts to improve
gear-marking and gear-conflict avoidance technologies, including
testing the amount of effort to mark sub-surface gear location in the
Trap Tracker app (vs. surface location where the gear is deployed) and
other sub-surface gear marking technologies. This EFP would also test
the use of the EarthRanger platform that displays gear locations from
various gear-marking technologies. The Center would demonstrate and
continue to encourage the adoption of these technologies with non-
participant vessels.
The Center proposes the following best practices and risk reduction
measures:
<bullet> All vessels would report all right whale sightings to NMFS
via <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#3658531844411845434440534f765859575718515940"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="90fef5bee2e7bee3e5e2e6f5e9d0fefff1f1bef7ffe6">[email protected]</span></a> or NOAA (866-755-6622) or the U.S. Coast
Guard (Channel 16) and record sightings on data sheets;
<bullet> All vessels would retrieve on-demand vertical lines as
quickly as possible to minimize time in the water column;
[[Page 39831]]
<bullet> All vessels would adhere to current approach regulations--
a 500-yard (457.2-meter or 1,500-foot) buffer zone created by a
surfacing right whale--and must depart immediately at a safe and slow
speed, in accordance with current regulations. Hauling any lobster gear
would immediately cease (by removal) to accommodate the regulation and
be reinitiated only after it is reasonable to assume the whale has left
the area;
<bullet> All vessels would provide mandatory, weekly gear loss
reports;
<bullet> All vessels would operate within a 10-knot speed limit
when transiting Restricted Areas or when whales are observed;
<bullet> For fully on-demand gear without traditional surface
markings, participants would use the Trap Tracker or an equivalent
technology for retrieval and set positioning details, which would be
available to Federal, state, and corresponding enforcement personnel,
as well as other fishermen;
<bullet> For fully on-demand gear without traditional surface
markings, on-demand vertical lines would be marked with unique yellow/
black/orange marks above the regional markings, in addition to ALWTRP
regulations (per agreement with the NMFS Atlantic Large Whale Take
Reduction Team Coordinator);
<bullet> When fishing in ALWTRP Restricted Areas, vessels would
check real-time right whale sightings information (such as Right Whale
Sightings Advisories and Whale Alert before setting any gear and avoid
areas of high right whale abundance, and all vessels would be
recommended to follow this process when setting gear outside the ALWTRP
Restricted Areas;
<bullet> In the Restricted Areas, vessels would fly a unique flag
for enforcement recognition;
<bullet> The Center would provide monthly updates on any gear
conflicts to the Sustainable Fisheries Division at the Greater Atlantic
Regional Fisheries Office; and,
<bullet> Sustainable Fisheries Division staff would be invited to
recurring gear coordination calls with time dedicated to EFP
discussion.
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.
All comments received are a part of the public record and will
generally be posted for public viewing at <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/organization/information-technology/foia-reading-room">https://www.noaa.gov/organization/information-technology/foia-reading-room</a> 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 ``anonymous'' as the signature if
you wish to remain anonymous).
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: June 14, 2023.
Jennifer M. Wallace,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2023-13064 Filed 6-16-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P
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