Rule2024-05603
Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Summer Flounder Fishery; Quota Transfer From Virginia to New Jersey
Primary source
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Published
March 15, 2024
Effective
March 14, 2024
Issuing agencies
Commerce DepartmentNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Abstract
NMFS announces that the Commonwealth of Virginia is transferring a portion of its 2024 commercial summer flounder quota to the State of New Jersey. This adjustment to the 2024 fishing year quota is necessary to comply with the Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Fishery Management Plan (FMP) quota transfer provisions. This announcement informs the public of the revised 2024 commercial quotas for Virginia and New Jersey.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 89 Issue 52 (Friday, March 15, 2024)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 52 (Friday, March 15, 2024)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 18831-18832]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2024-05603]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
50 CFR Part 648
[Docket No. 231215-0305; RTID 0648-XD808]
Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Summer Flounder
Fishery; Quota Transfer From Virginia to New Jersey
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Temporary rule; quota transfer.
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SUMMARY: NMFS announces that the Commonwealth of Virginia is
transferring a portion of its 2024 commercial summer flounder quota to
the State of New Jersey. This adjustment to the 2024 fishing year quota
is necessary to comply with the Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea
Bass Fishery Management Plan (FMP) quota transfer provisions. This
announcement informs the public of the revised 2024
[[Page 18832]]
commercial quotas for Virginia and New Jersey.
DATES: Effective March 14, 2024, through December 31, 2024.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Laura Deighan, Fishery Management
Specialist, (978) 281-9184.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Regulations governing the summer flounder
fishery are found in 50 CFR 648.100 through 648.111. These regulations
require annual specification of a commercial quota that is apportioned
among the coastal states from Maine through North Carolina. The process
to set the annual commercial quota and the percent allocated to each
state is described in Sec. 648.102 and final 2024 allocations were
published on December 21, 2023 (88 FR 88266).
The final rule implementing amendment 5 to the Summer Flounder FMP,
as published in the Federal Register on December 17, 1993 (58 FR
65936), provided a mechanism for transferring summer flounder
commercial quota from one state to another. Two or more states, under
mutual agreement and with the concurrence of the NMFS Greater Atlantic
Regional Administrator, can transfer or combine summer flounder
commercial quota under Sec. 648.102(c)(2). The Regional Administrator
is required to consider three criteria in the evaluation of requests
for quota transfers or combinations: (1) the transfers or combinations
would not preclude the overall annual quota from being fully harvested;
(2) the transfers address an unforeseen variation or contingency in the
fishery; and (3) the transfers are consistent with the objectives of
the FMP and the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management
Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act). The Regional Administrator has determined
these three criteria have been met for the transfer approved in this
notification.
Virginia is transferring 2,860 pounds (lb; 1,297 kilograms (kg)) to
New Jersey through a mutual agreement between the states. This transfer
was requested to repay landings made by an out-of-state permitted
vessel under a safe harbor agreement. The revised summer flounder
quotas for 2024 are: Virginia, 1,876,941 lb (851,366 kg); and New
Jersey, 1,472,958 lb (668,123 kg).
Classification
NMFS issues this action pursuant to section 305(d) of the Magnuson-
Stevens Act. This action is required by 50 CFR 648.102(c)(2)(i) through
(iv), which was issued pursuant to section 304(b), and is exempted from
review under Executive Order 12866.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: March 11, 2024.
Everett Wayne Baxter,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2024-05603 Filed 3-14-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on March 15, 2024.
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