Rule2024-16639
Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Atlantic Bluefish Fishery; Quota Transfers From New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia to Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, and North Carolina
Primary source
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Published
July 29, 2024
Effective
July 26, 2024
Issuing agencies
Commerce DepartmentNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Abstract
NMFS announces that the States of New Jersey and Maryland and the Commonwealth of Virginia are transferring a portion of their 2024 commercial bluefish quota to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the States of Rhode Island, New York, and North Carolina. These adjustments to the 2024 fishing year quotas are necessary to comply with the Atlantic Bluefish Fishery Management Plan quota transfer provisions. This announcement informs the public of the revised 2024 commercial bluefish quotas for New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, and North Carolina.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 89 Issue 145 (Monday, July 29, 2024)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 145 (Monday, July 29, 2024)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Page 60835]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2024-16639]
[[Page 60835]]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
50 CFR Part 648
[Docket No. 231221-0314; RTID 0648-XE132]
Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Atlantic Bluefish
Fishery; Quota Transfers From New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia to
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, and North Carolina
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Temporary rule; quota transfers.
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SUMMARY: NMFS announces that the States of New Jersey and Maryland and
the Commonwealth of Virginia are transferring a portion of their 2024
commercial bluefish quota to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the
States of Rhode Island, New York, and North Carolina. These adjustments
to the 2024 fishing year quotas are necessary to comply with the
Atlantic Bluefish Fishery Management Plan quota transfer provisions.
This announcement informs the public of the revised 2024 commercial
bluefish quotas for New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Massachusetts,
Rhode Island, New York, and North Carolina.
DATES: Effective July 26, 2024, through December 31, 2024.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Laura Deighan, Fishery Management
Specialist, (978) 281-9184.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Regulations governing the Atlantic bluefish
fishery are found in 50 CFR 648.160 through 648.167. These regulations
require annual specification of a commercial quota that is apportioned
among the coastal states from Maine through Florida. The process to set
the annual commercial quota and the percent allocated to each state is
described in Sec. 648.162, and the final 2024 allocations were
published on January 2, 2024 (89 FR 34).
The final rule implementing Amendment 1 to the Bluefish Fishery
Management Plan (FMP), as published in the Federal Register on July 26,
2000 (65 FR 45844), provided a mechanism for transferring bluefish
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 request approval to transfer or combine
bluefish commercial quota under Sec. 648.162(e). The Regional
Administrator is required to consider three criteria in the evaluation
of requests for quota transfers or combinations: (1) the transfers
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 criteria have been met for the transfers approved in this
notification.
The donor and recipient states mutually agreed to a multistate
transfer divided among the recipient states proportional to their 2024
bluefish allocations (table 1) to ensure that the recipient states
would not exceed their 2024 state quotas. Table 1 provides the
participating states' revised bluefish quotas for 2024.
Table 1--State Quota Transfer Amounts and Revised State Quotas
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Transfer Transfer Revised quota Revised quota
amount (lb) amount (kg) (lb) (kg)
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Donor States:
New Jersey.................................. -100,000 -45,359 248,898 112,898
Maryland.................................... -25,000 -11,340 36,471 16,543
Virginia.................................... -50,000 -22,680 175,380 79,551
Recipient States:
Massachusetts............................... 22,837 10,359 220,862 100,181
Rhode Island................................ 22,376 10,150 216,401 98,158
New York.................................... 40,243 18,254 389,190 176,534
North Carolina.............................. 89,544 40,616 865,996 392,809
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Classification
NMFS issues this action pursuant to section 305(d) of the Magnuson-
Stevens Act. This action is required by 50 CFR 648.162(e)(1)(i) through
(iii), 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: July 24, 2024.
Lindsay Fullenkamp,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2024-16639 Filed 7-26-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on July 29, 2024.
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