Notice2025-16829
Magnuson-Stevens Act Provisions; Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act Provisions; General Provisions for Domestic Fisheries; Application for Exempted Fishing Permits
Primary source
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Published
September 3, 2025
Issuing agencies
Commerce DepartmentNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Abstract
The Assistant Regional Administrator for Sustainable Fisheries, Greater Atlantic Region, NMFS, has made a preliminary determination that an Exempted Fishing Permit (EFP) application contains all of the required information and warrants further consideration. The EFP would allow federally permitted fishing vessels to fish outside fishery regulations in support of exempted fishing activities proposed by the Maine Department of Marine Resources. Regulations under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and the Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act require publication of this notification to provide interested parties the opportunity to comment on applications for proposed EFPs.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 168 (Wednesday, September 3, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 168 (Wednesday, September 3, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 42566-42568]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-16829]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
[RTID 0648-XF167]
Magnuson-Stevens Act Provisions; Atlantic Coastal Fisheries
Cooperative Management Act Provisions; General Provisions for Domestic
Fisheries; Application for Exempted Fishing Permits
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notice; request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The Assistant Regional Administrator for Sustainable
Fisheries, Greater Atlantic Region, NMFS, has made a preliminary
determination that an Exempted Fishing Permit (EFP) application
contains all of the required information and warrants further
consideration. The EFP would allow federally permitted fishing vessels
to fish outside fishery regulations in support of exempted fishing
activities proposed by the Maine Department of Marine Resources.
Regulations under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and
Management Act and the Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative
Management Act require publication of this notification to provide
interested parties the opportunity to comment on applications for
proposed EFPs.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before September 18, 2025.
ADDRESSES: You may submit written comments by the following method:
<bullet> Email: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#7f1112190c51181e0d511a190f3f11101e1e51181009"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="07696a61742960667529626177476968666629606871">[email protected]</span></a>. Include in the subject line
``ME DMR 2025 On-demand EFP''.
All comments received are a part of the public record and will
generally be posted for public viewing without change. All personal
identifying information (e.g., name, address), confidential business
information, or otherwise sensitive information submitted voluntarily
by the sender will be publicly accessible. NMFS will accept anonymous
comments (enter ``anonymous'' as the signature if you wish to remain
anonymous).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Caroline Potter, Fishery Resource
Management Specialist, <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#5d1e3c2f3231343338730d322929382f1d33323c3c733a322b"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="91d2f0e3fefdf8fff4bfc1fee5e5f4e3d1fffef0f0bff6fee7">[email protected]</span></a>, (978) 281-9325.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Maine Department of Marine Resources (ME
DMR) submitted a complete application for an EFP to conduct commercial
fishing activities that the regulations would otherwise restrict to
test alternative gear retrieval systems that only use one traditional
surface buoy. This EFP would exempt the participating vessels from the
following Federal regulations:
Table 1--Requested Exemptions
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CFR citation Regulation Need for exemption
------------------------------------------------------------------------
50 CFR 697.21(b)(2)........... Gear marking For trial of trap/pot
requirements. gear with no more
than one surface
marking on trawls of
more than three
traps.
50 CFR 648.84(b).............. Gear marking For trial of gillnet
requirements. gear with no more
than one surface
marking.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table 2--Project Summary
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Project title..................... Testing various acoustic on-demand,
timed and spring-release fishing
technologies that help minimize the
risk of large whale entanglements
in trap/pot and gillnet fishing
gear in the Gulf of Maine.
Project Start..................... 11/1/2025.
Project End....................... 12/31/2026.
Project objectives................ Provide access, training, and
support to fishers in the Gulf of
Maine to test acoustic on-demand,
spring-, and timed-release fishing
systems and acoustic gear
geolocation technology. Data
collected would help provide
feedback to manufacturers to adapt
to the specific needs of Maine
fishers involved in fixed gear
fleets. This work is important to
reduce the risk associated with
vertical lines to the endangered
North Atlantic right whale in the
Gulf of Maine.
Project location.................. Trap/pot: Lobster Management Area 1
and all Maine Lobster Conservation
Zones (A, B, C, D, E, F, G).
Gillnet: Statistical Areas 513, 514,
515.
Number of vessels................. 65.
[[Page 42567]]
Number of trips, trip duration See project narrative.
(days), total number of days,
number of tows or sets, and
duration of tows or sets.
Gear type(s)...................... Trap/pot and anchored gillnet.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Project Narrative
This EFP would allow federally permitted vessels to test
alternative gears to reduce entanglement risk to protected species,
mainly the North Atlantic right whale, in trap/pot and sink gillnet
fisheries. There would be two components to this EFP, a gear library
component, which is an assortment of devices and technologies to
retrieve gear, and a gear geolocation component.
This EFP would allow for the continued research for a project that
has been conducted under previously issued EFPs. Since the start of the
project, ME DMR has conducted about 2,635 trap/pot hauls as part of the
gear library component. Of these, about 2,117 hauls were conducted
under the most recent EFP, which became effective May 1, 2024. No hauls
have been conducted with gillnet gear and six hauls, which did not use
active fishing traps, have been completed as part of the gear
geolocation component.
The project objectives are to: (1) collect data on deployments and
retrievals of various acoustic on-demand fishing gear within the trap/
pot and gillnet fisheries in the Gulf of Maine; (2) provide support and
training to fishers on various on-demand technologies; (3) assess
fishing areas that may be best suited for adopting the tested retrieval
systems; (4) increase familiarity of on-demand gear within the trap/pot
and gillnet fisheries; (5) provide feedback to on-demand fishing gear
manufacturers to increase performance under commercial fishery
conditions; (6) trial gear geolocation and marking systems that promote
interoperability for fishers and management; and (7) compare the
relative precision of various gear geolocation technologies to improve
understanding of how transitioning to acoustic technologies may impact
fishing behavior.
For the gear library component, participating vessels would replace
one traditional surface marking with their choice of alterative gear
available in the Maine Innovative Gear Library. Currently, there are
several options including, but not limited to: (1) buoy and stowed rope
systems (e.g., Sub Sea Sonics, Ashored, Edgetech); (2) lift-bag systems
(e.g., SMELTS, Ropeless Systems); (3) stowed rope/timed release (e.g.,
Nova Robotics); and (4) stowed rope/spring release (e.g., Nova
Robotics). Vessels would be required to use one traditional surface
marking on one end of trap trawls of more than three traps and on all
gillnet gear. For trap trawls of fewer than three traps, vessels would
still use one traditional surface marking, in addition to the on-demand
retrieval system; therefore, there would be no fully ropeless trawls.
Other than gear markings, all trap trawls and gillnet strings would be
consistent with the regulations of the management area where the vessel
is fishing and would be fished in accordance with the participating
vessels' standard operations (i.e., number and length of trips, soak
times, trap limits, etc.). Because the on-demand systems would replace
buoyed systems that the fishermen would otherwise be fishing, the gear
library component would not increase fishing effort.
For the geolocation component, vessels would use acoustic
positioning systems from Teledyne Benthos, Ropeless Systems, Ashored,
Nova Robotics, or Advanced Navigation. Each of these systems uses a
surface unit to communicate with a unit on the seafloor to determine
the gear's geolocation. Vessels would set up to three trawls at
different distances apart, within a 1 kilometer radius. Trawls would be
allowed to soak no longer than 1 hour each. Up to 10 discrete, single-
day gear geolocation trials would be conducted within the fishing year,
resulting in a maximum of 150 gear retrievals for the geolocation
component. In instances where traps are used, they would not have fresh
bait. These trials would increase trap/pot effort via short soaks and
high rate of retrieval. However, catch per unit effort would be
reduced. The focus of the geolocation component would be to test the
acoustic positioning systems to determine the extent of difference
between acoustic geolocation and surface buoy or surface GPS
geolocation, as well as testing the performance of the different
acoustic positioning systems in an environment where multiple acoustic
signals are being transmitted simultaneously.
ME DMR researchers anticipate, for the gear library component, up
to 6,240 trap/pot trawl retrievals and up to 500 gillnet string
retrievals, and up to an additional 150 retrievals of trap/pot trawls
for the gear geolocation component. Trap trawls would be consistent
with Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan (ALWTRP) regulations.
Trawls would not exceed 50 traps per trawl and the gear library
component trawls would soak for no shorter than 3 days and no longer
than 30 days. Gillnets would be consistent with ALWTRP and Harbor
Porpoise Take Reduction Plan regulations. Gillnets would use 15-30.5 cm
mesh, would not exceed 3,200 m, and are estimated to soak for no more
than 24 hours. Any legal catch would be sold to a dealer.
To maximize data collection and participation, ME DMR requests
flexibility to modify the participant vessel list with the ability to
list up to 65 fishermen and up to 7 gillnet fishermen on the EFP. ME
DMR would submit modifications to the active participants list at least
1 month in advance of any changes.
ME DMR or partnering organizations and a representative from gear
manufacturers would distribute gear and train all participants on its
use. Scientific observers may accompany the participants on up to two
trips per vessel, within budget and safety limitations. ME DMR would
provide standardized data collection sheets to all participants.
Individually identifiable data would only be made available via consent
of the participants.
ME DMR has requested to exempt trap/pot participants from EFP trip
reporting requirements. ME DMR states that this requirement is a
barrier to recruiting fishermen for this project and is duplicative of
the required electronic vessel trip reporting. This project would build
on the research conducted under a previous EFP (DA23-076), which waived
the EFP trip report requirement.
ME DMR has proposed the following best practices and risk
management:
<bullet> Buoy lines associated with this project would contain
unique white and blue markings above the required regional markings;
<bullet> Weekly mandatory gear loss reporting;
<bullet> After release, the on demand vertical line would be
retrieved as quickly as possible to minimize time in the water column;
<bullet> Visual right whale sightings would be recorded on data
sheets and
[[Page 42568]]
fishermen would notify NMFS via email (<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#325c571c40451c41474044574b725c5d53531c555d44"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="7e101b500c09500d0b0c081b073e10111f1f50191108">[email protected]</span></a>) or via
phone (866-755-6622), or the U.S. Coast Guard via radio (Channel 16);
<bullet> Typical soak time is anticipated to be less than 14 days
and no longer than 30 days (weather permitting and without unforeseen
circumstances);
<bullet> Project vessels would adhere to a 10-knot speed limit when
transiting dynamic management areas, transiting areas closed to
vertical lines, and/or whales are observed;
<bullet> All vessels would adhere to current approach regulations
that create a 500-yard (457.2-meter) buffer zone in the presence of a
surfacing right whale and would depart immediately at a safe and slow
speed. Hauling any fishing gear would cease once the entire string or
trawl is aboard the vessel, to accommodate the regulation, and be
redeployed only after it is reasonable to assume the whale has left the
area;
<bullet> Law enforcement agencies, including Maine Marine Patrol
and NOAA Office of Law Enforcement, would be notified of project
participants and activities in advance of the project start date.
Materials related to the redeployment of alternative retrieval gear
systems would be provided along with this notice. Law enforcement would
be able to inspect gear at any time as usual, because at least one
traditional endline would be present at all times. Law enforcement
would be provided with the information necessary to continue relevant
enforcement operations with participant gear;
<bullet> Trap Tracker or an equivalent application would be
utilized for acoustic on-demand retrieval and set positioning details
and would be available to Federal, State, and corresponding enforcement
personnel;
<bullet> Gear locations would be available to those who have
downloaded gear marking applications, but otherwise locations would be
treated with sensitivity to mitigate the possibility of gear
molestation from members of the public who oppose project activities;
<bullet> Project updates would be updated through the ME DMR
website for public awareness of general activities related to this EFP;
and
<bullet> Premature deployments of on-demand gear would be
documented and would be retrieved as soon as circumstances (e.g.,
weather) allow.
If approved, the applicant may request minor modifications and
extensions to the EFP throughout the year. EFP modifications and
extensions may be granted without further notice if they are deemed
essential to facilitate completion of the proposed research and have
minimal impacts that do not change the scope or impact of the initially
approved EFP request. Any fishing activity conducted outside the scope
of the exempted fishing activity would be prohibited.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: August 28, 2025.
Kelly Denit,
Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries
Service.
[FR Doc. 2025-16829 Filed 9-2-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P
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