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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 18 / Friday, January 29, 2021 / Proposed Rules
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 50 CFR Part 622
RIN 0648BK22

Fisheries of the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and South Atlantic; Dolphin and Wahoo Fishery Off the Atlantic States; Amendment 12
National Marine Fisheries Service NMFS, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA, Commerce.
ACTION: Announcement of availability of fishery management plan amendment;
request for comments.
AGENCY:

The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council Council submitted Amendment 12 to the Fishery Management Plan FMP for the Dolphin and Wahoo Fishery off the Atlantic States Dolphin Wahoo FMP for review, approval, and implementation by NMFS. If approved by the Secretary of Commerce, Amendment 12 to the Dolphin Wahoo FMP Amendment 12
would add bullet mackerel and frigate mackerel to the Dolphin Wahoo FMP
and designate them as ecosystem component EC species. The purpose of Amendment 12 is to acknowledge the ecological role of bullet mackerel and frigate mackerel as forage fish and to achieve the ecosystem management objectives in the Dolphin Wahoo FMP.
DATES: Written comments must be received on or before March 30, 2021.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments on Amendment 12, identified by NOAANMFS20200146, by either of the following methods:
Electronic Submission: Submit all electronic public comments via the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal. Go to www.regulations.gov/
!docketDetail;D=NOAA-NMFS-20200146, click the Comment Now! icon, complete the required fields, and enter or attach your comments.
Mail: Submit written comments to Nikhil Mehta, Southeast Regional Office, NMFS, 263 13th Avenue South, St. Petersburg, FL 33701.
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 www.regulations.gov without change. All personal identifying information e.g., name, address,
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SUMMARY:

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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 12, which includes a fishery impact statement, a Regulatory Flexibility Act analysis, and a regulatory impact review, may be obtained from the Southeast Regional Office website at https www.fisheries.noaa.gov/action/
amendment-12-add-bullet-mackereland-frigate-mackerel-ecosystemcomponent-species.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Nikhil Mehta, telephone: 727824
5305, or email: nikhil.mehta@noaa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act Magnuson-Stevens Act requires each regional fishery management council to submit any FMP or FMP amendment to the Secretary of Commerce the Secretary for review and approval, partial approval, or disapproval. The Magnuson-Stevens Act also requires that NMFS, upon receiving an FMP or amendment, publish an announcement in the Federal Register notifying the public that the FMP or amendment is available for review and comment.
The Council prepared the Dolphin Wahoo FMP that is being revised by Amendment 12. If approved, Amendment 12 would be implemented by NMFS through regulations at 50 CFR
part 622 under the authority of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
Background The Council manages dolphin and wahoo under the Dolphin Wahoo FMP
in Federal waters off the Atlantic states from Maine south to the Florida Keys in the Atlantic. In the western North Atlantic, bullet mackerel are found from Cape Cod to the Gulf of Mexico, and frigate mackerel are found mostly from North Carolina to Florida. As described in Amendment 12, both bullet mackerel and frigate mackerel are found in the diets of dolphin and wahoo in the North Atlantic. In particular, wahoo has been demonstrated to have a strong dietary reliance on bullet and frigate mackerel, indicating that these mackerel species are the most dominant forage species observed in the diets of wahoo. Dolphin tend to have more diverse diets than wahoo and have a lower reliance on these mackerel species as prey.
Additionally, bullet and frigate mackerel have been identified as important forage species for other
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offshore pelagic predatory species in the Atlantic such as blue marlin and yellowfin tuna. Bullet mackerel feed on a variety of prey, especially clupeoids i.e., herrings and sardines, crustaceans, and squids. Frigate mackerel feed on a variety of fish, squid, and small crustaceans. Therefore, given their presence as a common forage fish and prey food source, bullet mackerel and frigate mackerel are an important component of the marine environment in the Atlantic. There is no stock assessment for dolphin, wahoo, bullet mackerel, or frigate mackerel. In Atlantic Federal waters, dolphin and wahoo are targeted both commercially and recreationally. Annual reported commercial and recreational landings of bullet mackerel and frigate mackerel are low along the entire Atlantic coastline.
Regulations implemented under the Magnuson-Stevens Act define EC
species as stocks that a Council or the Secretary has determined do not require conservation and management, but desire to list in a FMP in order to achieve ecosystem management objectives 50 CFR 600.305d13.
National Standards NS General guidelines state that a Council should consider a list of ten non-exhaustive list of factors when deciding whether additional stocks require Federal conservation and management 50 CFR
600.305c1. The proposed EC
designation for bullet and frigate mackerel was recommended to the Council by the Councils Scientific and Statistical Committee SSC, their Dolphin Wahoo Advisory Panel AP, the Habitat Protection and EcosystemBased Management Habitat AP, and through extensive positive comments from the public during scoping of Amendment 12. The Dolphin Wahoo AP
and Habitat AP members acknowledged that wahoo particularly target these mackerel species as prey. The AP
members also stated that the Council should consider a conservative approach to ensure there are no major increases in the harvest of bullet mackerel and frigate mackerel in the foreseeable future as a result of any EC
designation. This designation would address the Councils growing emphasis on developing ecosystem management approaches to fisheries management and advancing ecosystem management objectives in the Dolphin Wahoo FMP.
The extent to which the low landings of bullet mackerel and frigate mackerel occur within the dolphin and wahoo fishery is unknown; however, it is unlikely that these species are often harvested in conjunction with efforts to target dolphin and wahoo, especially in the commercial sector. Bullet and frigate
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