Proposed Rule2023-16230
Control Date for Pacific Cod by Catcher Vessels Greater Than or Equal to 60 Feet Length Overall and Catcher/Processors Using Pot Gear in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
August 1, 2023
Issuing agencies
Commerce DepartmentNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Abstract
At the request of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council), this document announces a control date of August 1, 2023, that may be used to determine future participation in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) Pacific cod fishery by license limitation program (LLP) license holders, vessel owners and vessel operators of catcher/processors (C/Ps), and vessel owners and vessel operators of catcher vessels (C/Vs) greater than or equal to 60 ft (18.3 meters (m)) length overall (LOA), who participate in Federal groundfish fisheries with pot gear in the BSAI. This document is necessary to inform interested parties that the Council is considering a future action that may affect or limit the number of participants in this fishery and that participants should locate and preserve all fishing related documents. This control date corresponds to the date of publication of this advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR). This document provides notice to the public that any person participating in the applicable sector after the control date may not receive continued access to this fishery under a future management action. This document is intended to discourage speculative entry or fishing activity in this fishery while the Council considers whether and how access to the fishery may be further limited under a future management action.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 88 Issue 146 (Tuesday, August 1, 2023)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 146 (Tuesday, August 1, 2023)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 50097-50098]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2023-16230]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
50 CFR Part 679
[Docket No. 230726-0176]
RIN 0648-BM45
Control Date for Pacific Cod by Catcher Vessels Greater Than or
Equal to 60 Feet Length Overall and Catcher/Processors Using Pot Gear
in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Advance notice of proposed rulemaking; control date; request
for comments.
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SUMMARY: At the request of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council
(Council), this document announces a control date of August 1, 2023,
that may be used to determine future participation in the Bering Sea
and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) Pacific cod fishery by license limitation
program (LLP) license holders, vessel owners and vessel operators of
catcher/processors (C/Ps), and vessel owners and vessel operators of
catcher vessels (C/Vs) greater than or equal to 60 ft (18.3 meters (m))
length overall (LOA), who participate in Federal groundfish fisheries
with pot gear in the BSAI. This document is necessary to inform
interested parties that the Council is considering a future action that
may affect or limit the number of participants in this fishery and that
participants should locate and preserve all fishing related documents.
This control date corresponds to the date of publication of this
advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR). This document provides
notice to the public that any person participating in the applicable
sector after the control date may not receive continued access to this
fishery under a future management action. This document is intended to
discourage speculative entry or fishing activity in this fishery while
the Council considers whether and how access to the fishery may be
further limited under a future management action.
DATES: Written comments must be received on or before October 2, 2023.
August 1, 2023, shall be known as the control date for LLP license
holders, vessel owners, and vessel operators of C/Ps and C/Vs greater
than or equal to 60 ft (18.3 m) LOA who participate in Federal
groundfish fisheries with pot gear in the BSAI, and may be used as a
reference date for participation in a future management action that is
consistent with the Council's objectives and applicable Federal laws.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments on this document, identified by
NOAA-NMFS-2023-0088, by any of the following methods:
<bullet> Electronic Submission: Submit all electronic public
comments via the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal. Go to <a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a> and enter NOAA-NMFS-2023-0088 in the Search box.
Click on the ``Comment'' icon, complete the required fields, and enter
or attach your comments.
<bullet> Mail: Submit written comments to Gretchen Harrington,
Assistant Regional Administrator, Sustainable Fisheries Division,
Alaska Region NMFS. Mail comments to P.O. Box 21668, Juneau, AK 99802-
1668.
<bullet> Fax: (907) 586-7465; Attn: Gretchen Harrington.
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 by NMFS. All comments received are a part of the
public record and will generally be posted for public viewing on
<a href="http://www.regulations.gov">www.regulations.gov</a> without change. All personal identifying
information (e.g., name, address, etc.), 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).
Please consult the Council's website at <a href="https://www.npfmc.org/">https://www.npfmc.org/</a> for
information on public participation in the Council's decision-making
process.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Alicia M. Miller: 907-586-7228 or
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#60010c090309014e0d4e0d090c0c0512200e0f01014e070f16"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="67060b0e040e06490a490a0e0b0b0215270908060649000811">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NMFS manages the groundfish fisheries in the
U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the BSAI under the Fishery
Management Plan for Groundfish of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands
Management Area (FMP). The Council prepared, and NMFS approved, the FMP
under the authority of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and
Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act), 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Regulations governing U.S. fisheries and implementing the FMP appear at
50 CFR parts 600 and 679.
This ANPR establishes August 1, 2023 as the control date for use in
determining historical participation in the BSAI Pacific cod pot gear
catcher/processors (C/P) and catcher vessels (C/Vs) greater than or
equal to 60 ft (18.3 m) length overall (LOA) fishery. Interested
persons should locate and preserve all records that substantiate and
verify their participation in this fishery.
On June 11, 2023, the Council announced its intent to evaluate
participation and effort in the BSAI Pacific cod pot gear C/Ps and C/Vs
greater than or equal to 60 ft (18.3 m) LOA fishery and consider
further limits on access to this fishery. This document is intended to
promote awareness of possible rulemaking and provide notice to the
public that any person participating in the BSAI Pacific cod pot C/P
and C/V greater than or equal to 60 ft (18.3 m) LOA fishery after the
control date may not have continued access to this fishery under a
future management action. This document is also intended to discourage
speculative entry into this fishery while the Council considers whether
and how access to the fishery may be further limited under a future
management action. The Council requested that the date of their
decision
[[Page 50098]]
be established as the control date. However, because this ANPR cannot
act as a retroactive notice to the public and can act only as a
prospective notice, the date of this ANPR's publication in the Federal
Register is the control date. This ANPR is being published relatively
close to the Council's decision date and consequently provides most of
the temporal disincentives to further entry into the fishery as the
Council's decision date.
This ANPR and related future rulemaking would apply to LLP license
holders, vessel owners, and vessel operators of C/Ps and C/Vs greater
than or equal to 60 ft (18.3 m) LOA who participate in Federal
groundfish fisheries with pot gear in the BSAI. The BSAI is defined at
Sec. 679.2 and shown in Figure 1 to 50 CFR part 679.
The Council and NMFS annually establish overfishing limits and
annual total allowable catch limits for groundfish species to
sustainably manage the groundfish fisheries in the BSAI. To achieve
these objectives, NMFS requires vessel operators participating in BSAI
Pacific cod fishery to comply with various regulatory restrictions,
such as fishery closures and limits on participation and effort.
The Council and NMFS have long sought to control fishing effort in
the North Pacific Ocean, including the BSAI management area, to ensure
that fisheries are conservatively managed and do not exceed established
biological thresholds. One of the measures used by the Council and NMFS
is the LLP, which limits access to the federally managed groundfish,
crab, and scallop fisheries in the BSAI and the Gulf of Alaska (GOA).
For groundfish, the LLP requires that persons hold and assign a license
to each vessel that is used to fish in federally managed fisheries,
with some limited exemptions. The preamble to the final rule
implementing the groundfish LLP provides a more detailed explanation of
the rationale for specific provisions in the LLP (October 1, 1998; 63
FR 52642).
A vessel participating in groundfish fisheries in Federal waters in
the BSAI or the GOA is required to have an LLP license with the
applicable area, gear, and operation type endorsements, and a
sufficient maximum LOA. In 2023, there were a total of seven LLP
licenses with a Bering Sea (BS) Pacific cod pot C/P endorsement. Of
those seven LLP licenses, five LLP licenses also had an Aleutian
Islands (AI) Pacific cod pot C/P endorsement. In 2023 there were a
total of fifty LLP licenses with a BS Pacific cod pot C/V endorsement
with a minimum LOA of equal to or greater than 60 ft. Of those fifty
LLP licenses, two also had an AI Pacific cod pot C/V endorsement with a
maximum LOA of equal to or greater than 60 ft.
As it had in previous meetings over time, in June 2023, the Council
received public testimony from participants in the BSAI Pacific cod pot
C/V sector. These participants requested Council action to address
factors that are negatively impacting fishery participants. These
factors include: decreasing Pacific cod catch limits; an increase in
the number of participating LLP licenses in the C/V sector; the
potential for additional new participants in both the C/V sector and
the CP sector; a race among existing participants (often in unsafe
conditions) to harvest the available Pacific cod catch limits,
resulting in an inability to control bycatch of crab; and increasingly
shortened seasons in recent years.
After considering this public testimony at the June meeting, the
Council stated its intent to evaluate methods--including allocation of
available Pacific cod, bycatch management, and cooperatives--for
further limiting participation by CPs and C/Vs greater than or equal to
60 ft LOA using pot gear in a future management action. To prevent
speculative entry into these fishery sectors during this deliberative
period, the Council announced a control date. The control date may be
used as a cutoff or reference date for a future management action to
further limit access to the BSAI Pacific cod pot gear C/P and C/V
sectors. The Council is not obligated to use this control date in any
future management action. Furthermore, this control date does not
obligate the Council to take any action and does not prevent the
Council from selecting another control date. Accordingly, this document
is intended to promote awareness that the Council may develop a future
management action to achieve its objectives for the BSAI Pacific cod
pot C/Ps and C/Vs greater than or equal to 60 ft (18.3 m) LOA; to
provide awareness to the public that new eligibility criteria for any
current or future access to the Pacific cod pot gear fishery may be
affected or restricted; and to discourage speculative participation and
behavior in the fishery while the Council considers whether to initiate
a management action to further limit access to this fishery. Any
measures the Council considers may require changes to the FMP. Such
measures may be adopted in a future amendment to the FMP, which would
require a rulemaking action that includes opportunity for further
public participation and comment.
NMFS encourages public participation in the Council's consideration
of a management action to further limit access to BSAI Pacific cod
fishery. Please consult the Council's website (See ADDRESSES) for
information on public participation in the Council's consideration of a
management action. The Council will schedule review of information
collected and analyses prepared for a future Council meeting or
meetings.
This notification and control date do not impose any legal
obligations, requirements, or expectations.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Samuel D. Rauch, III,
Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Programs, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2023-16230 Filed 7-31-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P
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