Proposed Rule2025-03571
Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Amendment 25 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan; Atlantic Cod Stocks in Need of Conservation and Management
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Published
March 5, 2025
Issuing agencies
Commerce DepartmentNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Abstract
NMFS announces that the New England Fishery Management Council (Council) has transmitted Amendment 25 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan to the Secretary of Commerce for review. If approved, Amendment 25 would revise the stocks of Atlantic cod managed in the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan. This action is necessary to incorporate the best scientific information available into the fishery management plan. The intended effect of Amendment 25 is to revise the fishery management plan to manage Atlantic cod in U.S. waters as four stocks rather than two. This document is intended to alert the public to this action and provide an opportunity for comment.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 42 (Wednesday, March 5, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 42 (Wednesday, March 5, 2025)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 11246-11248]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-03571]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
50 CFR Part 648
RIN 0648-XE236
Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Amendment 25 to the
Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan; Atlantic Cod Stocks in
Need of Conservation and Management
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notification of availability of fishery management plan
amendment; request for comments.
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SUMMARY: NMFS announces that the New England Fishery Management Council
(Council) has transmitted Amendment 25 to the Northeast Multispecies
Fishery Management Plan to the Secretary of Commerce for review. If
approved, Amendment 25 would revise the stocks of Atlantic cod managed
in the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan. This action is
necessary to incorporate the best scientific information available into
the fishery management plan. The intended effect of Amendment 25 is to
revise the fishery management plan to manage Atlantic cod in U.S.
waters as four stocks rather than two. This document is intended to
alert the public to this action and provide an opportunity for comment.
DATES: Comments on Amendment 25 must be received on or before May 5,
2025.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments on this document, identified by
NOAA-NMFS-2024-0141, by the following method:
<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-2024-0141 in the Search box.
Click on the ``Comment'' icon, complete the required fields, and enter
or attach your comments.
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="https://www.regulations.gov">https://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).
Electronic copies of Amendment 25 may be obtained from <a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a> and the New England Fishery Management Council
website at https://www. <a href="https://www.nefmc.org/library/northeast-multispecies-groundfish-amendment-25">https://www.nefmc.org/library/northeast-multispecies-groundfish-amendment-25</a>. Electronic copies of the 2023
Research Track Assessment of Atlantic Cod may be obtained from <a href="https://apps-nefsc.fisheries.noaa.gov/saw/sasi.php">https://apps-nefsc.fisheries.noaa.gov/saw/sasi.php</a>.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mark Grant, 978-281-9145,
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#ddb0bcafb6f3baafbcb3a99db3b2bcbcf3bab2ab"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="c2afa3b0a9eca5b0a3acb682acada3a3eca5adb4">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The New England Fishery Management Council
manages the northeast multispecies (groundfish) fishery under the
Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan (FMP). Amendment 25 to
the FMP would revise the current Atlantic cod stock management units to
ensure that the FMP reflects the best scientific information available
for stocks in need of conservation and management. Since its creation
in 1985, the FMP has been based on scientific information indicating
that Atlantic cod consist of two biological stock units: Gulf of Maine
cod and Georges Bank cod. Recent scientific information indicates that
Atlantic cod is more appropriately considered to consist of four
biological stocks. Amendment 25 would revise the FMP to reflect the
four stocks of Atlantic cod defined in the 2023 Research Track
Assessment of Atlantic Cod (see ADDRESSES). A peer review of the
research track stock assessment approved the outcomes and the 4-stock
structure for Atlantic cod is now the best scientific information
available (BSIA). A copy of the Summary Report of the Atlantic Cod
Research Track Stock Assessment Peer Review is available at: <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/s3//2023-08/PanelSummaryReportoftheAtlanticCodRTPeerReviewAugust172023-mlt-508-8-23-23ajd-508gw.pdf">https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/s3//2023-08/PanelSummaryReportoftheAtlanticCodRTPeerReviewAugust172023-mlt-508-8-23-23ajd-508gw.pdf</a>. After reviewing the National Standard guidelines
implementing the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management
Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act), the Council has recommended that the four
new Atlantic cod stocks in the FMP be:
<bullet> New stock unit of Eastern Gulf of Maine cod;
[[Page 11247]]
<bullet> New Stock unit of Western Gulf of Maine cod;
<bullet> Revised stock unit of Georges Bank cod; and
<bullet> New Stock unit of Southern New England Cod.
The overall geographic area managed under Amendment 25 would remain
unchanged and would continue to encompass all Atlantic cod in U.S.
waters (see Table 1 and Figure 1).
Table 1--Statistical Reporting Areas (SRA) Comprising the Stock Areas
for the Four New Atlantic Cod Stock Units as Determined by the 2023
Atlantic Cod Research Track Assessment
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Stock SRAs
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Eastern Gulf of Maine cod............ 465, 467, 511, 512.
Western Gulf of Maine cod............ 513, 514, 515, 521, 526, 541.
Georges Bank cod..................... 464, 522, 525, 542, 543, 551,
552, 561, 562.
Southern New England cod............. 533, 534, 537, 538, 539, 611,
612, 613, 614, 615, 616, 621,
622, 623, 624, 625, 626, 627,
628, 629, 631, 632, 633, 634,
635, 636, 637, 638, 639.
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Figure 1. Stock Areas for the Four New Atlantic Cod Stock Units and
the Current Two Atlantic Cod Stock Units.
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TP05MR25.001
The Magnuson-Stevens Act requires that each Regional Fishery
Management Council transmit any amendment it prepares to NMFS for
review and approval, disapproval, or partial approval. The Magnuson-
Stevens Act also requires that upon a Council's transmittal to NMFS of
an amendment and associated regulations deemed necessary by the Council
to implement the amendment, on or before the 5th day after the day on
which a Council transmits the plan amendment, NMFS must immediately
commence a review of the plan or amendment to determine whether the
plan or amendment is consistent with the Act's national standards,
other provisions of the Act, and any other applicable law. NMFS must
also publish notification in the Federal Register that the amendment is
available for public review and comment for a period of 60 days
beginning on the date that the document is published. The transmittal
date for Amendment 25 was February 27 2025. Although the stock units
guide management decisions for the Northeast multispecies fishery, they
are not formally codified within the regulatory text. Therefore, this
action is administrative in nature with no immediate or direct impact
on the fishery and/or the FMP's implementing regulations.
The Northeast Multispecies FMP specifies the management measures
for 13 groundfish species (cod, haddock, yellowtail flounder, pollock,
plaice, witch flounder, white hake, windowpane flounder, Atlantic
halibut, winter flounder, redfish, ocean pout, and Atlantic wolffish)
off the New England and Mid-Atlantic coasts. Some of these species
(cod, haddock, yellowtail flounder, winter flounder, and windowpane
flounder) are further sub-divided into individual stocks that are
attributed to different geographic areas.
[[Page 11248]]
Section 301 of the Magnuson-Stevens Act (16 U.S.C. Sec. Sec. 1801
et seq.) requires any fishery management plan or amendment be
consistent with ten national standards. In developing Amendment 25, the
Council considered the national standard guidelines for adding or
removing a stock from an FMP (see ADDRESSES). The National Standard
Guidelines at 50 CFR 600.305(c)(7) state that councils should
periodically review FMPs and the Best Scientific Information Available
(Sec. 600.315(a)) to determine if the stocks are appropriately
defined. The guidelines at Sec. 600.305(c) state that any stock that
is predominately caught in Federal waters and is overfished or subject
to overfishing, or likely to become overfished or subject to
overfishing, is considered to require conservation and management. In
the same paragraph, the guidelines also include a non-exhaustive list
of factors that a council should consider when deciding whether stocks
require conservation and management. In Amendment 25, the Council
included an analysis of those factors as the basis for determining that
the four cod stocks, as defined by the 2023 Research Track Assessment
of Atlantic Cod, each require conservation and management.
The regulations implementing the National Standard 1 guidelines
(Sec. 600.310(c)) include a summary of items to include in an FMP for
each stock. This includes maximum sustainable yield, optimum yield,
status determination criteria, and accountability measures. Management
measures for the four Atlantic cod stocks that Amendment 25 would add
to the FMP are included in a companion Council action titled Framework
Adjustment 69 (Framework 69). Framework 69 also includes specifications
(i.e., quotas) for the four new cod stocks and management measures to
implement the specifications. On December 4, 2024, the Council adopted
Framework 69 for submission to NMFS for review.
NMFS welcomes comments on the proposed FMP amendment through the
end of the 60-day comment period. NMFS expects to publish, and request
public review and comment on, proposed regulations to implement
Framework 69 within this comment period. For public comments to be
considered in the approval or disapproval decision on Amendment 25,
those comments must be received by close of business on the last day of
the comment period on Amendment 25. All comments received by the end of
the Amendment 25 comment period will be considered in the approval/
disapproval decision. If the comment period for the Framework 69
proposed rule overlaps with the Amendment 25 comment period announced
in this document, comments on Framework 69 that pertain to the action
to establish four stocks of cod, will be considered in the approval/
disapproval decision for both Amendment 25 and Framework 69.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: February 28, 2025.
Karen H. Abrams,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2025-03571 Filed 3-4-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P
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