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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 28 / Friday, February 12, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
rebuilding period. Additional information on these plans is available in the preamble of the proposed rule and is not repeated here.
Response to Comments On October 1, 2020, NMFS published a proposed rule and requested public comment on the proposed rule 85 FR
61912. The comment period ended on November 2, 2020. Concurrent with the comment period on the proposed rule, NMFS made the related draft EAs available online for public comment.
Eight individuals submitted comments on the proposed rule; no comments were submitted on the draft EAs. Most comments were supportive of regulating fishing, but did not express specific support for, or opposition to, the proposed rebuilding plans. Specific comments and responses are discussed below.
Comment 1: Two commenters expressed concern about ensuring compliance with fishery regulations.
Response: NMFS agrees that compliance with fishery regulations is important. NMFS Office of Law Enforcement participates on the Councils Enforcement Consultants advisory body, along with representatives from state police agencies, state fish and wildlife agencies, and the Coast Guard. The Enforcement Consultants provide advice to the Council about whether proposed management actions are enforceable and how they affect safety at sea. These agencies also work to enforce fishery regulations at sea and at various fishing ports on the West Coast. The input of these agencies was considered in the development of the Councils proposal, as included in the proposed rule.
Comment 2: One comment was specifically supportive of the proposed rebuilding plans as described in the proposed rule and felt they would benefit both fish and fishermen.
Response: NMFS agrees that the Councils recommended rebuilding plans are the most appropriate response to rebuild the overfished coho salmon stocks at this time, as they rebuild the overfished stocks in the shortest time possible while taking into account the needs of the fishing communities, as required by the MSA.
Comment 3: One comment opposed the proposed rebuilding plans as not being sufficiently restrictive of fishery impacts and suggested applying a 30percent buffer on exploitation rates.
Response: NMFS disagrees with the suggestion that there is a need for more restrictive exploitation rates at this time.
For all three coho salmon stocks, the Councils Salmon Technical Teams
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STTs analysis, as detailed in the EAs, determined that freshwater and marine habitat conditions were the primary cause of these stocks meeting the FMPs criteria for being overfished rather than fishing. In addition, exploitation rates on these coho salmon stocks in Councilmanaged fisheries are a small fraction of the total exploitation rates in all fisheries, which include Alaskan and Canadian fisheries, and non-Council pre-terminal and terminal fisheries. The STTs analysis included exploitation rates for the overfished coho stocks in all fisheries for the period 20042017.
For Juan de Fuca coho, the overall annual exploitation rate averaged 10.5
percent and the Council-area annual exploitation rate averaged 2.3 percent.
For Queets coho, the overall annual exploitation rate averaged 38.5 percent and the Council-area annual exploitation rate averaged 7.2 percent.
For Snohomish coho, the overall annual exploitation rate averaged 22.8 percent and the Council-area annual exploitation rate averaged 1.9 percent.
Adding an additional 30 percent buffer to the already constrained exploitation rates in Council-area fisheries would have a severe impact on the fishing community, especially in the area from the U.S./Canada border to Cape Falcon, OR, and would not result in rebuilding these stocks substantially sooner than under the Councils rebuilding plans.
Comment 4: One comment opposed the rebuilding plans on the basis that they did not sufficiently address the impact of freshwater habitat and water quality on marine survival of salmon.
Response: NMFS understands and agrees with the concern about freshwater habitat for coho salmon. The STTs analysis found that both freshwater and marine productivity were the primary causes of these coho stocks meeting the overfished criteria, rather than fishery impacts. These rebuilding plans have been developed pursuant to the MSA, which regulates fishing in the exclusive economic zone EEZ. NMFSs authority in adopting these rebuilding plans is therefore limited to that scope. The Council may direct its Habitat Committee to work with state, federal, and tribal fishery managers to review freshwater habitat conditions and develop recommendations for habitat recommendations and restoration as an action separate and apart from these rebuilding plans.
Changes From Proposed Rule There are no changes made to the regulatory text of the proposed rule.

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Classification Pursuant to section 304b1A of the MSA, the NMFS Assistant Administrator has determined that this final rule is consistent with the FMP, other provisions of the MSA, and other applicable law.
This final rule has been determined to be not significant for purposes of 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 during the proposed rule stage that this action would not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. The factual basis for the certification was published in the proposed rule and is not repeated here.
No comments were received regarding this certification. As a result, a regulatory flexibility analysis was not required and none was prepared.
This final rule contains no information collection requirements under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.
This final rule was developed after meaningful collaboration with the tribal representative on the Council; the tribal representative has agreed with the provisions that apply to tribal vessels.
List of Subjects in 50 CFR Part 660
Fisheries, Fishing, Recordkeeping and reporting requirements.
Dated: February 8, 2021.
Samuel D. Rauch, III, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Programs, National Marine Fisheries Service.

For the reasons set out in the preamble, 50 CFR part 660 is amended as follows:
PART 660FISHERIES OFF WEST
COAST STATES
1. The authority citation for part 660
continues to read as follows:

Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq., 16 U.S.C.
773 et seq., and 16 U.S.C. 7001 et seq.

2. In 660.413, add paragraphs c through e to read as follows:

660.413
plans.

Overfished species rebuilding

c Juan de Fuca coho. The Juan de Fuca coho salmon stock was declared overfished in 2018. The target year for rebuilding Juan de Fuca coho is 2023.
The harvest control rule during the rebuilding period for Juan de Fuca coho is the abundance-based stepped harvest rate as shown in table 1 to this paragraph c.

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