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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 129 / Friday, July 9, 2021 / Rules and Regulations TABLE 1HARVEST SPECIFICATIONS FOR THE 20212022 SARDINE FISHING YEAR IN METRIC TONS
mt
Biomass estimate
OFL

ABC

HG

ACL

ACT

28,276

5,525

3,329

0

3,329

3,000

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Measures for commercial sardine harvest during the 20212022 fishing year:
1 If landings in the live bait fishery reach 1,800 mt of Pacific sardine, then a 1-mt per-trip limit of sardine would apply to the live bait fishery.
2 An incidental per-landing limit of 20-percent by weight Pacific sardine applies to other CPS primary directed fisheries e.g., Pacific mackerel.
3 If the ACT of 3,000 mt is attained, then a 1-mt per-trip limit of Pacific sardine would apply to all CPS fisheries i.e., 1 and 2 would no longer apply.
4 An incidental per-landing allowance of 2 mt of Pacific sardine would apply to non-CPS fisheries until the ACL is reached.
All sources of catch, including any exempted fishing permit EFP setasides, the live bait fishery, and other minimal sources of harvest, such as incidental catch in CPS and non-CPS
fisheries and minor directed fishing, will be accounted for against the ACT
and ACL. At the April 2021 Council meeting, the Council approved 830 mt of the ACL for three EFP proposals to support stock assessments for Pacific sardine. Any Pacific sardine harvested between July 1, 2021, and the effective date of the final rule will count toward the 20212022 ACT.
The NMFS West Coast Regional Administrator will publish a notification in the Federal Register to announce when catch reaches the incidental limits as well as any changes to allowable incidental catch percentages. Additionally, to ensure that the regulated community is informed of any closure, NMFS will make announcements through other means available, including emails to fishermen, processors, and state fishery management agencies.
Comments and Responses On May 26, 2021, NMFS published a proposed rule for this action and solicited public comments through June 10, 2021 86 FR 28325. NMFS received one public comment letter containing multiple comments from the environmental group Oceana. After considering the public comment, NMFS
made no changes from the proposed rule. NMFS summarizes and responds to the comment letter from Oceana below.

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Comment: Oceana states that the proposed harvest specifications are not based on the best available science, fail to prevent overfishing, and will impede rebuilding. Oceana requests that NMFS
revise the proposed specifications to reduce catch limits. Specifically, Oceana suggests that NMFS use a different EMSY value to calculate the OFL, ABC, and ACL, which would result in an OFL of 1,230 mt, an ABC
of 741 mt, and an ACL lower than 741
mt. Oceana also suggests that NMFS
reduce catch by limiting live bait harvest of sardine, denying EFP
applications that propose to land or sell sardine or limiting their catch to 10 mt, and limiting incidental catch of sardine in other directed CPS fisheries to no more than 10 percent of landings.
Response: NMFS has determined this action is based on the best available science, prevents overfishing, and will not impede rebuilding. NMFS disagrees with Oceanas suggestion that setting a lower ACL, specifically an ACL lower than 741 mt, is necessary to prevent overfishing. The reference points being implemented through this action were recommended by the Council based on the control rules in the FMP and were endorsed by the Councils Scientific and Statistical Committee SSC as the best scientific information available for setting the 20212022 harvest specifications for Pacific sardine. In addition, the management measures adopted by the Council, including an ACT that was set even lower than the ACL 3,000 mt, are more than adequate to ensure catch does not exceed the ACL/ABC and OFL, and therefore add an additional measure for preventing overfishing. Furthermore, although the SSC did not endorse the 2021 catchonly projection due to uncertainty in the model including the level of catch by Mexico, more precaution was built into the Councils ABC recommendation to account for this uncertainty and to ensure overfishing is prevented. The reference points implemented through this action should also be viewed in the context of the non-discretionary harvest restrictions already in place, pursuant to the CPS FMP, which generally restrict the fishery from catching the full ACL.
These non-discretionary restrictions include the continued closure of the primary directed fishery i.e., the largest
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fishery that takes the majority of Pacific sardine catch and restrictions on incidental harvest of Pacific sardine in other CPS fisheries which are currently less than half of typical incidental limits.
NMFS also finds it unnecessary to further limit the landings of sardine by implementing any of the additional measures recommended by Oceana i.e., limiting live bait harvest, denying EFP applications or limiting their allowable catch, and reducing the percentage of landings allowed in other directed CPS fisheries. The Council considered the overfished status of Pacific sardine, as well as the uncertainty around the 2021 catch update due to the inability to collect survey data during the COVID19
pandemic, and incorporated precautionary measures in their recommendations to NMFS to account for those factors. Those precautionary measures included: 1 Deeming the assessment Tier 3 high uncertainty; 2
using a P value of 0.4 high uncertainty; 3 reducing the ACT from the ACL; 4 reducing the EFP allowance from the requested amount; 5 limiting incidental sardine landings in CPS
fisheries to 20 percent; and 6
incorporating accountability measures.
These accountability measures include:
1 Limiting live bait landings to 1 mt per landing once 1,800 mt of sardine is attained; 2 imposing a per-trip limit of 1 mt of sardine in all CPS fisheries once the ACT is attained; and 3
implementing an incidental per-landing allowance of 2 mt in non-CPS fisheries until the ACL is reached.
Finally, although changes to how EMSY is calculated is beyond the scope of this rulemaking, NMFS would nevertheless like to respond to Oceanas suggestion in this regard. NMFS is aware of the 2019 scientific publication referenced by Oceana in their comment letter and of ongoing Council discussions related to EMSY. NMFS is committed to participating in discussions about new science and whether that science justifies a change to how EMSY is calculated for management purposes. Regarding the 2019 paper mentioned by Oceana that was authored by researchers at the SWFSC, NMFS notes that research related to the appropriate temperature
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