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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 142 / Wednesday, July 28, 2021 / Rules and Regulations Table of Contents
achieve the goals and objectives of the fishery management plan. The final measures are intended to help prevent overfishing, rebuild overfished stocks, achieve optimum yield, and ensure that management measures are based on the best scientific information available.
DATES:

1. Summary of Approved Measures 2. Status Determination Criteria 3. Rebuilding Plan for White Hake 4. Fishing Year 2021 Shared U.S./Canada Quotas 5. Catch Limits for Fishing Years 20212023
6. Universal Sector Exemption for Acadian Redfish Redfish 7. Comments and Responses on Measures Proposed in the Framework 61 Proposed Rule 8. Changes From the Proposed Rule
Effective July 27, 2021.

Copies of Framework Adjustment 61, including the Environmental Assessment, the Regulatory Impact Review, and the Regulatory Flexibility Act Analysis prepared by the New England Fishery Management Council in support of this action, are available from Thomas A.
Nies, Executive Director, New England Fishery Management Council, 50 Water Street, Mill 2, Newburyport, MA 01950.
The supporting documents are also accessible via the internet at: http
www.nefmc.org/management-plans/
northeast-multispecies or http
www.regulations.gov.

ADDRESSES:

Liz Sullivan, Fishery Policy Analyst, phone:
9782828493; email: Liz.Sullivan@
noaa.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

1. Summary of Approved Measures This action approves the management measures in Framework Adjustment 61
to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan FMP. The measures implemented in this final rule:
Revise the status determination criteria SDC for Georges Bank GB and Southern New England/Mid-Atlantic SNE/MA winter flounder and provide the numeric estimates of the SDCs for these stocks, based on the peer review recommendations;
Implement a revised rebuilding plan for white hake;
Set fishing year 2021 shared U.S./
Canada quotas for GB yellowtail flounder and eastern GB cod and haddock;

Set 20212023 specifications, including catch limits, for nine groundfish stocks and adjust 20212022
allocations for seven other groundfish stocks; and Implement a universal exemption for sectors to target redfish.
2. Status Determination Criteria The Northeast Fisheries Science Center conducted management track stock assessment updates in 2020 for nine groundfish stocks. This action revises SDCs for GB and SNE/MA
winter flounder, and provides updated numerical estimates of these criteria, in order to incorporate the results of the 2020 stock assessments and based on the peer review recommendations from the 2020 stock assessments. Table 1
provides the revisions to the SDCs for GB and SNE/MA winter flounder, and Table 2 provides the resulting numerical estimates of the SDCs. While the numeric estimates are updated based on the revision to the SDCs, we are not changing the stock statuses for both stocks as a result of this update. We provided an explanation of the basis for the revision to the SDCs in the proposed rule 86 FR 33191, June 24, 2021, and it is not repeated here.

TABLE 1STATUS DETERMINATION CRITERIA
Biomass target SSBMSY or proxy
Stock GB Winter Flounder:
Previous SDC
Revised SDC
SNE/MA Winter Flounder:
Previous SDC
Revised SDC

Minimum biomass threshold
SSBMSY
SSBMSY: SSB/R 40 percent MSP

12

SSBMSY
SSBMSY: SSB/R 40 percent MSP

12

Maximum fishing mortality threshold FMSY or proxy
Btarget
Btarget

FMSY.
F40 percent of MSP.

Btarget
Btarget

FMSY.
F40 percent of MSP.

12

12

SSB = spawning stock biomass; MSY = maximum sustainable yield; Btarget = target biomass; F = fishing mortality; SSB/R = spawning stock biomass per recruit; MSP = maximum spawning potential.

TABLE 2NUMERICAL ESTIMATES OF STATUS DETERMINATION CRITERIA
BMSY or proxy mt
FMSY or proxy
VPA
VPA

7,394
7,267

0.358
0.358

2,612
2,573

ASAP
ASAP

31,567
12,322

0.260
0.284

9,102
3,906

Stock
Model/approach
GB Winter Flounder:
Using previous SDC
Using revised SDC
SNE/MA Winter Flounder:
Using previous SDC
Using revised SDC

MSY mt
VPA = virtual population analysis; ASAP = age-structured assessment program.

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3. Rebuilding Plan for White Hake Framework 61 revises the rebuilding plan for white hake, which we more fully described in the proposed rule and Appendix III of the Framework 61
Environmental Assessment EA; see ADDRESSES for information on how to get this document. The approved
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rebuilding plan for white hake sets the fishing mortality F rate that is required to rebuild the stock Frebuild at 70
percent of the fishing mortality rate associated with maximum sustainable yield FMSY with an 87-percent probability of achieving the biomass associated with maximum sustainable yield BMSY by 2031, the end of the
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rebuilding plan. As explained in more detail in Appendix III of the EA, the approved rebuilding plan accounts for the white hakes stock status, the needs of fishing communities, and the interaction of white hake with other multispecies in the groundfish fishery.

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