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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 29 / Tuesday, February 16, 2021 / Proposed Rules Coast Groundfish FMP establish a procedure by which the tribes with treaty fishing rights in the area covered by the Pacific Coast Groundfish FMP
request new allocations or regulations specific to the tribes, in writing, before the first of the two meetings at which the Council considers groundfish management measures. The regulations at 50 CFR 660.324d further state, the Secretary will develop tribal allocations and regulations under this paragraph in consultation with the affected tribes and, insofar as possible, with tribal consensus. The tribal management measures in this proposed rule have been developed following these procedures.
The Office of Management and Budget has determined that this proposed rule is not significant for purposes of Executive Order 12866.
An Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analyses IRFA were prepared for this action, as required by section 603 of the Regulatory Flexibility Act RFA. The IRFA describes the economic impact this proposed rule, if adopted, would have on small entities. A description of the action, why it is being considered, and the legal basis for this action is contained in the SUMMARY section and at the beginning of the SUPPLEMENTARY
INFORMATION section of the preamble. A
summary of the IRFA follow. Copies of the IRFAs are available from NMFS See ADDRESSES.
Under the RFA, the term small entities includes small businesses, small organizations, and small governmental jurisdictions. The Small Business Administration has established size criteria for entities involved in the fishing industry that qualify as small businesses. A business involved in fish harvesting is a small business if it is independently owned and operated and not dominant in its field of operation including its affiliates and if it has combined annual receipts, not in excess of $11 million for all its affiliated operations worldwide see 80 FR 81194, December 29, 2015. A wholesale business servicing the fishing industry is a small business if it employs 100 or fewer persons on a full time, part time, temporary, or other basis, at all its affiliated operations worldwide. For marinas and charter/party boats, a small business now defined as one with annual receipts, not in excess of $7.5
million. A wholesale business servicing the fishing industry is a small business if it employs 100 or fewer persons on a full time, part time, temporary, or other basis, at all its affiliated operations worldwide. A small organization is any nonprofit enterprise that is independently owned and operated and
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is not dominant in its field. Small governmental jurisdictions such as governments of cities, counties, towns, townships, villages, school districts, or special districts are considered small jurisdictions if their populations are less than 50,000. Effective February 26, 2016, a seafood processor is a small business if it is independently owned and operated, not dominant in its field of operation, and employs 750 or fewer persons on a full time, part time, temporary, or other basis, at all its affiliated operations worldwide See NAICS 311710 at 81 FR 4469; January 26, 2016. For purposes of rulemaking, NMFS is also applying the seafood processor standard to catcher processors because whiting C/Ps earn the majority of the revenue from processed seafood product.
Description and Estimate of the Number of Small Entities to Which the Rule Applies, and Estimate of Economic Impacts by Entity Size and Industry This proposed rule would affect how Pacific whiting is allocated to the following sectors/programs: Tribal, Shorebased IFQ Program Trawl Fishery, MS Coop Program Whiting At-sea Trawl Fishery, and C/P Coop Program Whiting At-sea Trawl Fishery. The amount of Pacific whiting allocated to these sectors is based on the U.S. TAC.
We expect one tribal entity to fish for Pacific whiting in 2021. Tribes are not considered small entities for the purposes of RFA. Impacts to tribes are nevertheless considered in this analysis.
As of January 2021, the Shorebased IFQ
Program is composed of 166 Quota Share permits/accounts 134 of which were allocated whiting quota pounds, and 35 first receivers, one of which is designated as whiting-only receivers and 11 that may receive both whiting and non-whiting. These regulations also directly affect participants in the MS
Co-op Program, a general term to describe the limited access program that applies to eligible harvesters and processors in the MS sector of the Pacific whiting at-sea trawl fishery. This program consists of six MS processor permits, and a catcher vessel fleet currently composed of a single co-op, with 34 Mothership/Catcher Vessel MS/CV endorsed permits with three permits each having two catch history assignments. These regulations also directly affect the C/P Co-op Program, composed of 10 C/P endorsed permits owned by three companies that have formed a single co-op. These co-ops are considered large entities from several perspectives; they have participants that are large entities, and have in total more than 750 employees worldwide
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including affiliates. Although there are three non-tribal sectors, many companies participate in two sectors and some participate in all three sectors.
As part of the permit application processes for the non-tribal fisheries, based on a review of the Small Business Administration size criteria, permit applicants are asked if they considered themselves a small business, and they are asked to provide detailed ownership information. Data on employment worldwide, including affiliates, are not available for these companies, which generally operate in Alaska as well as the West Coast and may have operations in other countries as well. NMFS has limited entry permit holders self-report size status. For 2021, all 10 CP permits reported they are not small businesses, as did 8 mothership catcher vessels.
There is substantial, but not complete overlap between permit ownership and vessel ownership so there may be a small number of additional small entity vessel owners who will be impacted by this rule. After accounting for cross participation, multiple Quota Share account holders, and affiliation through ownership, NMFS estimates that there are 103 non-tribal entities directly affected by these proposed regulations, 89 of which are considered small businesses.
This rule will allocate Pacific whiting between tribal and non-tribal harvesters a mixture of small and large businesses. Tribal fisheries consist of a mixture of fishing activities that are similar to the activities that non-tribal fisheries undertake. Tribal harvests may be delivered to both shoreside plants and motherships for processing. These processing facilities also process fish harvested by non-tribal fisheries. The effect of the tribal allocation on nontribal fisheries will depend on the level of tribal harvests relative to their allocation and the reapportionment process. If the tribes do not harvest their entire allocation, there are opportunities during the year to reapportion unharvested tribal amounts to the nontribal fleets. For example, in 2020 NMFS
reapportioned 40,000 mt of the original 74,342 mt tribal allocation. This reapportionment was based on conversations with the tribes and the best information available at the time, which indicated that this amount would not limit tribal harvest opportunities for the remainder of the year. The reapportioning process allows unharvested tribal allocations of Pacific whiting to be fished by the non-tribal fleets, benefitting both large and small entities. The revised Pacific whiting allocations for 2020 following the
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