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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 150 / Monday, August 9, 2021 / Rules and Regulations increased substantially from 20 to 173
BFT and 3.8 to 31.4 mt between 2019
and 2020.

TABLE 1THE NUMBER COUNT AND
WEIGHT mt OF BFT THAT WERE
LANDED BUT UNSOLD BY GENERAL
CATEGORY PARTICIPANTS BY YEAR
Year 2017
2018
2019
2020

Count
Weight mt

0
14
20
173

0
2.6
3.8
31.4

Total

207

37.8

In addition to reviewing the data regarding the amount of unsold BFT, NMFS also reviewed the average exvessel price. Table 2 shows the average ex-vessel price per pound of BFT during each General category subquota timeperiod for the years 2017 through 2020.
On an annual basis, the ex-vessel price tends to be lower for the June through August subquota time-period, with an average 2017 through 2020 price of $6.04, and increases over the summer and fall period $6.30 for September period and $6.49 for the October through November period. NMFS
understands that several factors influenced dealers decisions to not
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purchase BFT in 2019 e.g., fish conditions, daily retention limits, and market conditions and that in 2020, the worsening of global market conditions was an additional factor impacting the number of BFT unsold. These conditions generally occurred in June through August 2019, and were repeated in June through August 2020, with conditions and prices improving by the fall. However, in 2020, the average price per pound was lower for the June through December subquota timeperiods than in any of the three previous years.

TABLE 2AVERAGE EX-VESSEL PRICE PER POUND $ OF BFT BY GENERAL CATEGORY SUBQUOTA TIME-PERIOD
20172020
Subquota time-period Year
lotter on DSK11XQN23PROD with RULES1

2017
2018
2019
2020

January through March
June through August
September
October through November
December

$7.37
7.43
6.06
6.13

$6.72
6.92
5.61
4.91

$7.08
6.55
6.36
5.21

$7.56
7.58
5.53
5.30

$9.83
9.56
12.25
5.76

2017 through 2020 average

6.75

6.04

6.30

6.49

9.35

To help address these issues, NMFS is establishing a schedule of RFDs for the 2021 fishing year that will regulate specific days on which fishing and sales will not occur. Specifically, the schedule allows for two-consecutiveday periods twice each week for BFT
products to move through the market while also allowing some commercial fishing activity to occur each weekend i.e., Sundays, thus providing opportunities for participants who may only fish on the weekend. Because this schedule of RFDs will apply to all participants equally, NMFS anticipates that this schedule will extend fishing opportunities through a greater proportion of the subquota time-periods in which they apply by spreading fishing effort out over time.
Furthermore, to the extent that the exvessel revenue for a BFT sold by a General or HMS Charter/Headboat permitted vessel with a commercial endorsement may be higher when a lower volume of domestically-caught BFT is on the market at one time, the use of RFDs may result in some increase in BFT price, and the revenue generated by the General category subquotas could increase. Thus, although NMFS
anticipates that the same overall amount of the General category quota would be landed and the same amount of BFT

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would be landed per vessel, there may be some positive impacts to the General category and Charter/Headboat commercial BFT fishery. Using RFDs may more equitably distribute fishing opportunities for longer durations within the subquota time-periods.
However, the RFD schedule may have a negative impact to some General category fishermen who might only be able to fish on weekends, as Saturdays would be RFDs through November 30, 2021. To mitigate the loss of fishing days, NMFS is allowing fishing opportunities to occur on Sundays.
Thus, if NMFS does not implement a schedule of RFDs, as in this final rule, it is possible that the trends of increasing numbers of unsold BFT
Table 1 and decreasing ex-vessel prices Table 2 would continue. If these trends continue, many participants could continue to experience negative economic impacts.
This final rule contains no information collection requirements under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.
Small Entity Compliance Guide Section 212 of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996 states that, for each rule or group of related rules for which an agency is
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required to prepare a FRFA, the agency shall publish one or more guides to assist small entities in complying with the rule and shall designate such publications as small entity compliance guides. The agency shall explain the actions a small entity is required to take to comply with a rule or group of rule. As part of this rulemaking process, NMFS has prepared a booklet summarizing fishery information and regulations for Atlantic BFT General category RFDs for the 2021
fishing year. That booklet notice serves as the small entity compliance guide.
Copies of the compliance guide are available from NMFS see ADDRESSES.
List of Subjects in 50 CFR Part 635
Fisheries, Fishing, Fishing vessels, Foreign relations, Imports, Penalties, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements, Statistics, Treaties.
Dated: July 30, 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 635 is amended as follows:

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