Proposed Rule2025-11737
Fisheries off West Coast States; Coastal Pelagic Species Fisheries; Annual Specifications; 2025-2026 Annual Specifications and Management Measures for Pacific Sardine
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Published
June 26, 2025
Issuing agencies
Commerce DepartmentNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Abstract
NMFS proposes to implement annual harvest specifications and management measures for the northern subpopulation of Pacific sardine (hereafter, Pacific sardine), for the fishing year from July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026. This proposed rule would prohibit most directed commercial fishing for Pacific sardine off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California. Pacific sardine harvest would be allowed only for use as live bait, in minor directed fisheries, as incidental catch in other fisheries, or as authorized under exempted fishing permits. The proposed harvest specifications for 2025-2026 include an overfishing limit of 4,645 metric tons (mt), an acceptable biological catch of 3,957 mt, an annual catch limit of 2,200 mt, and an annual catch target of 2,100 mt. This proposed rule is intended to conserve, manage, and rebuild the Pacific sardine stock off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 121 (Thursday, June 26, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 121 (Thursday, June 26, 2025)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 27273-27276]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-11737]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
50 CFR Part 660
[Docket No. 250618-0101; RTID 0648-XE809]
Fisheries off West Coast States; Coastal Pelagic Species
Fisheries; Annual Specifications; 2025-2026 Annual Specifications and
Management Measures for Pacific Sardine
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Proposed rule; request for comments.
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SUMMARY: NMFS proposes to implement annual harvest specifications and
management measures for the northern subpopulation of Pacific sardine
(hereafter, Pacific sardine), for the fishing year from July 1, 2025
through June 30, 2026. This proposed rule would prohibit most directed
commercial fishing for Pacific sardine off the coasts of Washington,
Oregon, and California. Pacific sardine harvest would be allowed only
for use as live bait, in minor directed fisheries, as incidental catch
in other fisheries, or as authorized under exempted fishing permits.
The proposed harvest specifications for 2025-2026 include an
overfishing limit of 4,645 metric tons (mt), an acceptable biological
catch of 3,957 mt, an annual catch limit of 2,200 mt, and an annual
catch target of 2,100 mt. This proposed rule is intended to conserve,
manage, and rebuild the Pacific sardine stock off the coasts of
Washington, Oregon, and California.
DATES: Comments must be received by July 11, 2025.
ADDRESSES: A plain language summary of this rule is available at
<a href="https://www.regulations.gov/docket/NOAA-NMFS-2024-0040">https://www.regulations.gov/docket/NOAA-NMFS-2024-0040</a>. You may submit
comments on this document, identified by NOAA-NMFS-2024-0040, by the
following method:
<bullet> Electronic Submissions: Submit all 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-2024-0040 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 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).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Katie Davis, West Coast Region, NMFS,
(323) 372-2126, <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#b6fdd7c2dfd398f2d7c0dfc5f6d8d9d7d798d1d9c0"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="d69db7a2bfb3f892b7a0bfa596b8b9b7b7f8b1b9a0">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NMFS manages the Pacific sardine fishery in
the U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ) off the Pacific coast (i.e., off
the U.S. West Coast states of California, Oregon, and Washington) in
accordance with the Coastal Pelagic Species (CPS) Fishery Management
Plan (FMP). The CPS FMP and its implementing regulations require NMFS
to set annual reference points and management measures for the Pacific
sardine fishery based on the annual specification framework and control
rules in the FMP. These control rules include the harvest guideline
(HG) control rule, which, in conjunction with the overfishing limit
(OFL) and acceptable biological catch (ABC) control rules in the FMP,
are used to set required reference points, in accordance with the
Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) (16
U.S.C. 1801 et seq.).
The NMFS Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC) conducts annual
stock assessments for Pacific sardine, typically alternating between
benchmark assessments in one year and update assessments the following
two years. During public meetings each year, the Council and its
advisory bodies, including the CPS Management Team,
[[Page 27274]]
CPS Advisory Subpanel, and Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC),
review the estimated biomass and the status of the fishery in these
stock assessments, and recommend applicable reference points, catch
limits, and management measures. Following Council review and public
comment, the Council recommends these harvest specifications and
management measures and any in-season accountability measures to NMFS,
who then reviews the Council's recommendations to ensure they are
consistent with the CPS FMP and all applicable laws. Following that
review, NMFS publishes annual specifications in the Federal Register to
establish annual reference points (e.g., the OFL, ABC, and annual catch
limit (ACL)) and management measures for each Pacific sardine fishing
year.
In 2019, the estimated stock biomass of Pacific sardine dropped
below its 50,000-metric-ton minimum stock size threshold (MSST), and
NMFS declared the stock overfished. A rebuilding plan for Pacific
sardine was finalized as Amendment 18 to the CPS FMP on June 24, 2021
(86 FR 33142), which was challenged in the U.S. District Court for the
Northern District of California (Court). In 2024, the Court partially
vacated Amendment 18 and ordered NMFS to implement a revised Pacific
sardine rebuilding plan by June 1, 2025. The Council submitted their
recommendations for a revised Pacific sardine rebuilding plan to NMFS
as Amendment 23 to the CPS FMP for review by the Secretary of Commerce.
NMFS published an announcement of the availability of Amendment 23 to
the CPS FMP on March 12, 2025 (90 FR 11817). If approved, Amendment 23
would set ACLs based on tiered biomass levels: when the estimated
biomass is 50,000 mt or less, the ACL would be the lesser of the
calculated ABC or 2,200 mt; when the biomass is greater than 50,000 mt,
the ACL would be the lesser of the calculated ABC or 5 percent of the
biomass.
This rule proposes the Council's recommended catch limits for the
July 1, 2025-June 30, 2026 fishing year consistent with their November
2024 recommendations on a revised Pacific sardine rebuilding plan,
management measures to ensure that harvest does not exceed those
limits, an OFL, and an ABC that takes into consideration uncertainty
surrounding the OFL.
Recommended Catch Limits
At the Council's April 2025 meeting, the Council and its advisory
bodies reviewed the 2025 stock assessment update for Pacific sardine.
Based on this assessment, the associated estimated age 1+ biomass of
30,158 mt, and the control rule formulas in the FMP, NMFS is proposing,
as the Council recommended, an OFL of 4,645 mt, an ABC of 3,957 mt, and
an ACL of 2,200 mt. The proposed OFL and ABC were based on the control
rules in the FMP and on recommendations from the Council's SSC and
their determination of best scientific information available for
calculating the OFL and recommended precautionary buffer for the ABC.
Since 2014, the SSC has recommended the use of a temperature-
recruitment relationship based on a running 3-year average of the
California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI)
temperature index to calculate the E<INF>MSY</INF> for Pacific sardine.
E<INF>MSY</INF> is a parameter of the OFL and ABC harvest control rules
(see table 1). During recent annual specification discussions, the SSC
has recommended that the analysis and assumptions surrounding a
CalCOFI-based E<INF>MSY</INF> be revisited. To help inform the SSC's
recommendation for this year's proposed reference points, NMFS
conducted a correlation analysis of the CalCOFI-based temperature with
sardine productivity (recruits-per-spawner) for the years 1983-2023; an
update from the last analysis in 2013 that examined data from 1984 to
2008. In February 2025, NMFS presented the analysis to the SSC's CPS
Subcommittee, which reported that ``the analysis demonstrates there is
still valid statistical evidence for a relationship between CalCOFI
[sea surface temperature] and recruits-per-spawner.'' At the April 2025
Council meeting, the full SSC reviewed the analysis and reported that
it ``provides the first of many steps toward potentially updating
E<INF>MSY</INF> for Pacific sardine, but does not compel a change at
this time.'' The SSC recommended the 2025-2026 OFL and ABC be
calculated using the ``status quo approach to E<INF>MSY</INF>,'' which
uses the CalCOFI temperature index.
According to the CPS FMP, the catch limit for the primary directed
fishery is determined using the FMP-specified HG formula. This Pacific
sardine HG control rule, the primary mechanism for setting the primary
directed fishery catch limit, includes a CUTOFF parameter, the lowest
level of estimated biomass at which directed harvest is allowed (a
biomass level of 150,000 mt). This amount is subtracted from the annual
biomass estimate before calculating the applicable HG for the fishing
year. Because the biomass estimate used this year (30,158 mt) is below
that value, the formula results in an HG of zero, and no Pacific
sardine are available for the primary directed fishery during the 2025-
2026 fishing season.
Pacific sardine catch during the 2025-2026 fishing season is
therefore prohibited unless it is harvested as part of the live bait,
tribal,\1\ or minor directed fisheries, as incidental catch in other
fisheries, or as part of exempted fishing permit (EFP) activities. For
these small types of harvests, NMFS is proposing, as the Council
recommended, an annual catch target (ACT) of 2,100 mt for the 2025-2026
fishing year. The recommended reference point calculations (i.e., OFL,
ABC, and HG as established under Amendment 13 and ACL consistent with
their recommendation under Amendment 23 to the CPS FMP) are presented
below in table 1.
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\1\ For the 2025-2026 fishing year, the Quinault Indian Nation
has not requested a tribal set-aside, and therefore none is
proposed.
Table 1--Overfishing Limit (OFL), Acceptable Biological Catch (ABC),
Harvest Guideline (HG), and Annual Catch Limit (ACL) Calculations \1\
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Harvest specification and formula parameters Value
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BIOMASS (ages 1+, mt)................................ 30,158
BUFFER Pstar (Category 2)............................ 0.8519
Calculated EMSY...................................... 0.1771
[[Page 27275]]
DISTRIBUTION (U.S.) 0.87
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2024-2025 Pacific sardine annual specifications Metric tons
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OFL = BIOMASS * EMSY * DISTRIBUTION.................. 4,645
ABC = BIOMASS * BUFFER0.45 * EMSY * DISTRIBUTION..... 3,957
HG................................................... 0
ACL.................................................. 2,200
ACT.................................................. 2,100
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\1\ BUFFER is the percentage reduction of the OFL as determined by the
SSC's evaluation of scientific uncertainty (sigma) and the Council's
risk policy (P*).
The following are the additional proposed management measures and
in-season accountability measures for the 2025-2026 Pacific sardine
fishing year:
(1) An incidental per-landing limit of 20 percent (by weight) of
Pacific sardine applies to other CPS primary directed fisheries (e.g.,
Pacific mackerel);
(2) If the ACT of 2,100 mt is attained, then a per-trip limit of 1
mt of Pacific sardine would apply to all CPS fisheries (i.e., (1) would
no longer apply); and
(3) An incidental per-landing allowance of 2 mt of Pacific sardine
would apply to non-CPS fisheries until the ACL is reached.
In addition to the management measures and in-season accountability
measures listed in the previous paragraphs, Pacific sardine catch in
the minor directed fishery for finfish remains limited to 1 mt per trip
per day, and 1 trip per day by any vessel, per regulations at 50 CFR
660.511(d)(2).
At the April 2025 meeting, the Council also recommended that NMFS
approve one EFP proposal requesting an exemption from the prohibition
to directly harvest sardine during their discussion of sardine
management measures. The EFP proposal included a total amount of up to
520 mt, and will be reviewed and potentially approved by NMFS through a
separate process.
All sources of catch including any fishing occurring as part of an
EFP, the live bait fishery, and other minimal sources of harvest, such
as incidental catch in CPS and non-CPS fisheries and minor directed
fishing, would be accounted for against the ACT and ACL.
The NMFS West Coast Regional Administrator would publish a notice
in the Federal Register to announce when catch reaches the incidental
limits, as well as any changes to allowable incidental catch
percentages or trip limits. Additionally, to ensure that the regulated
community is informed of any closure, NMFS would make announcements
through other means available, including emails to fishermen,
processors, and state fishery management agencies.
Classification
Pursuant to section 304(b)(1)(A) of the MSA, the NMFS Assistant
Administrator has determined that this proposed rule is consistent with
the CPS FMP, other provisions of the MSA, and other applicable law,
subject to further consideration after public comment.
NMFS finds that a 15-day comment period for this action provides a
reasonable opportunity for public participation in this action pursuant
to Administrative Procedure Act section 553(c) (5 U.S.C. 553(c)), while
also ensuring that the final specifications are in place for the start
of the Pacific sardine fishing year on July 1, 2025. Annual harvest
specifications and management measures for Pacific sardine are based on
an annual stock assessment, which is usually finalized in early Spring
and reviewed by the Council and its advisory bodies during the
Council's regularly-scheduled meeting in April. NMFS received the
recommendations from the Council that form the basis for this rule
following the Council's April 2025 meeting. The Council provided an
opportunity for public comment at that meeting, as it does every year
before adopting the recommended harvest specifications and management
measures for the proceeding fishing year. The subject of this proposed
rule--the establishment of the reference points--is considered a
routine action, because they are calculated annually based on the
framework control rules in the FMP. A prolonged comment period and
subsequent potential delay in implementation past the start of the 2025
fishing year would be contrary to the public interest, as it could
create confusion in the Pacific sardine industry around current
specifications and management measures. Such a delay would effectively
open the fishery without the restrictions necessary to manage harvest
rates for a stock that is rebuilding.
This proposed rule is exempt from review under Executive Order
12866 because it is a routine rule that would implement regulations for
less than 1 year.
This proposed rule is not an Executive Order 14192 regulatory
action because this rule is not significant under Executive Order
12866.
The Chief Counsel for Regulation of the Department of Commerce
certified to the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Business
Administration that this proposed rule, if adopted, would not have a
significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities,
for the reasons provided below.
For Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) purposes only, NMFS has
established a small business size standard for businesses, including
their affiliates, whose primary industry is commercial fishing (see 50
CFR 200.2). A business primarily engaged in commercial fishing (North
American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code 11411) is
classified as a small business if it is independently owned and
operated, is not dominant in its field of operation (including its
affiliates) and has combined annual receipts not in excess of $11
million for all its affiliated operations worldwide.
The purpose of this proposed rule is to conserve and rebuild the
Pacific sardine stock by preventing overfishing, while still allowing
limited harvest opportunity among differing fishery sectors. This will
be accomplished by implementing the 2025-2026 annual specifications for
Pacific sardine in the U.S. EEZ off the Pacific coast. The small
entities that would be affected by the proposed action are the vessels
that would be expected to participate in the primary directed Pacific
sardine fishery as part of the Pacific coast CPS small purse seine
fleet. In 2014 (i.e., the last year that a directed fishery for Pacific
sardine was allowed) there were
[[Page 27276]]
approximately 81 vessels permitted to operate in the directed sardine
fishery component of the CPS fishery off the U.S. West Coast, with that
total comprising 58 vessels in the Federal CPS limited entry fishery
off California (south of lat. 39[deg] N) and a combined 23 vessels in
Oregon and Washington's state Pacific sardine fisheries. NMFS does not
collect or have access to information about affiliation between vessels
or affiliation between vessels and processing entities in this fishery,
or receipts in Alaska, Hawai[revaps]i, or international fisheries, so
it is possible that some impacted entities may exceed $11 million in
ex-vessel revenue or another size-standard threshold. Based on
available data, the average annual Pacific coast revenue per vessel for
all west coast vessels, including those described above potentially
affected by this rule, was well below the threshold level of $11
million as of 2025. Therefore, all of these vessels are considered
small businesses under the RFA. Because each affected vessel is a small
business, this proposed rule is considered to equally affect all of
these small entities in the same manner. Therefore, this rule would not
create disproportionate costs between small and large vessels/
businesses.
The CPS FMP and its implementing regulations require NMFS to
annually set an OFL, ABC, ACL, and HG or annual catch target for the
Pacific sardine fishery based on the specified harvest control rules in
the FMP applied to the current stock biomass estimate for that year.
The derived annual HG is the level typically used to manage the
principal commercial sardine fishery and is the harvest level NMFS
typically uses for profitability analysis each year. As stated above,
the CPS FMP dictates that when the estimated biomass drops below a
certain level (150,000 mt), the HG is zero. Because there is again no
directed fishing for the 2024-2025 fishing year, as has been the case
for the last 10 years, this proposed rule will not change the potential
profitability compared to the previous fishing year or years following
the closure of the directed fishery. Additionally, the proposed 2025-
2026 ACL is still expected to account for the various fishery sector
needs (i.e., live bait, incidental catch in other CPS fisheries, EFPs,
and minor directed fisheries).
The revenue derived from harvesting Pacific sardine is typically
only one of the sources of fishing revenue for the commercial vessels
that participate in this fishery. As a result, the economic impact to
the fleet from the proposed action cannot be viewed in isolation. From
year to year, depending on market conditions and availability of fish,
most CPS/sardine vessels supplement their income by harvesting other
species. Many vessels in California also harvest anchovy, mackerel,
and, in particular, squid, making Pacific sardine only one component of
a multi-species CPS fishery. Additionally, some sardine vessels that
operate off of Oregon and Washington also fish for salmon in Alaska or
squid in California during the times of the year when sardine are not
available. The purpose of the incidental catch limits proposed in this
action are to ensure the vessels impacted by a prohibition on directly
harvesting sardine can still access these other profitable fisheries
while minimizing Pacific sardine harvest.
CPS vessels typically rely on multiple species for profitability
because abundance of Pacific sardine, like the other CPS stocks, is
highly associated with ocean conditions and seasonality. Variability in
ocean conditions and season results in variability in the timing and
location of CPS harvest throughout the year. Because each species
responds to ocean conditions in its own way, not all CPS stocks are
likely to be abundant at the same time. Therefore, as abundance levels
and markets fluctuate, the CPS fishery as a whole has relied on a group
of species for its annual revenues.
Therefore, the proposed action, if adopted, will not have a
significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities.
As a result, an Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis is not
required, and none has been prepared.
This action does not contain a collection-of-information
requirement for purposes of the Paperwork Reduction Act. There are no
relevant Federal rules that may duplicate, overlap, or conflict with
the proposed action.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: June 23, 2025.
Samuel D. Rauch III,
Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Programs, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2025-11737 Filed 6-25-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P
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