Quiero saber acerca de...

Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 171 / Wednesday, September 8, 2021 / Proposed Rules viewing on www.regulations.gov without change. All personal identifying information e.g., name, address, etc., confidential business information, or otherwise sensitive information submitted voluntarily by the sender will be publicly accessible. NMFS will accept anonymous comments enter N/
A in the required fields if you wish to remain anonymous.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Travis Ford, Fishery Policy Analyst, 978 2819233.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act requires that each Regional Fishery Management Council submit any amendment it prepares to NMFS for review and approval, disapproval, or partial approval. The Magnuson-Stevens Act also requires that NMFS, upon receiving an amendment, immediately publish notification in the Federal Register that the amendment is available for public review and comment. The Council submitted its final version of Amendment 21 to the Atlantic Sea Scallop FMP to NMFS for review on August 13, 2021. NMFS has declared a transmittal date of August 30, 2021. The Council has reviewed the Amendment 21 proposed rule regulations as drafted by NMFS and deemed them to be necessary and appropriate as specified in section 303c of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
Background The Atlantic sea scallop fishery is prosecuted along the East Coast from Maine to Virginia, although most fishing activity takes place between Massachusetts and New Jersey.
Management measures were first adopted in 1982, but there have been several major revisions to the management program over the following decades.

jbell on DSKJLSW7X2PROD with PROPOSALS

Development of the Limited Access General Category LAGC Fishery The Council established the general category component as an open access permit category in 1994 while developing a limited access program for qualifying vessels now the limited access component. Through Amendment 11 to the Scallop FMP 73
FR 20090; April 14, 2008, the Council transitioned the general category component from open access to limited access to limit fishing mortality and control fleet capacity. The Councils vision for the LAGC component was a fleet made up of relatively small vessels, with possession limits to maintain the historical character of this fleet and
VerDate Sep<11>2014

16:57 Sep 07, 2021

Jkt 253001

provide opportunities to various participants, including vessels from smaller coastal communities.
Amendment 11 established three LAGC
permit categories, which allowed for continued participation in the general category fishery at varying levels.
Vessels that met a qualifying criteria were issued an LAGC individual fishing quota IFQ permit and allocated quota based on the contribution factor i.e., if you fished longer and landed more during the qualification period, you received a higher allocation. General category permit holders that did not meet the qualifying criteria for an LAGC
IFQ permit were eligible to receive either an LAGC Northern Gulf of Maine NGOM permit or LAGC incidental permit. Limited access vessels that fished under general category rules and qualified under the same IFQ
qualification criteria were issued LAGC
IFQ permits and allocated a portion of 0.5 percent of the total scallop allocation. Unlike vessels with only LAGC IFQ permits, limited access vessels that also qualified for an LAGC
IFQ permit were not allowed to transfer quota to or from other vessels.
NGOM Management Area The Council also established the NGOM Management Area and permit category through Amendment 11. The area was developed to enable continued fishing and address concerns related to conservation, administrative burden, and enforceability of scallop fishing within the Gulf of Maine. Amendment 11 authorized vessels with either an LAGC NGOM permit or LAGC IFQ
permit to fish within the NGOM
Management Area at a 200 lb per day 91 kg per day trip limit until the annual total allowable catch TAC for the area is caught. The Council did not recommend restrictions on limited access vessels fishing in the NGOM
because the improved management and abundance of scallops in the major resource areas on Georges Bank and in the Mid-Atlantic region made access to Gulf of Maine scallops less important for the limited access boats and general category boats from other regions. From 2008 through 2017, limited access vessels were able to operate in the NGOM management area under days-atsea DAS management as long as the LAGC TAC had not been caught. The initial measures were intended to allow directed scallop fishing in the NGOM, and the Council envisioned that management of this area would be reconsidered if the scallop population and fishery in the NGOM grew in the future.

PO 00000

Frm 00033

Fmt 4702

Sfmt 4702

50321

From 20092015 the NGOM TAC of 70,000 lb 31,751 kg was not caught, and the fishery remained open for the entire year. In fishing years 2016 and 2017, there was a notable increase in effort in the NGOM management area by both LAGC and limited access vessels fishing the large year class of scallops on Stellwagen Bank, located mostly within the NGOM. Monitoring removals by the limited access component in the NGOM was challenging because vessels could fish both inside and outside NGOM management area while fishing DAS on the same trip.
In response to the increase in effort and landings in the NGOM area in 2016
and 2017, the Council developed the following problem statement for the Federal scallop fishery in the NGOM
management area: Recent high landings and unknown biomass in the NGOM
Scallop Management Area underscore the critical need to initiate surveys and develop additional tools to better manage the area and fully understand total removals.
Recent actions have developed measures that allow managers to track fishing effort and landings by all components from the NGOM
management area. The NGOM TAC is now based on recent survey information, with separate TACs for the limited access and LAGC components.
These measures were intended to be a short-term solution to allow controlled fishing in the NGOM management area until a future action this action could be developed to address NGOM issues more holistically.
LAGC IFQ Possession Limits The initial general category possession limit was set at 400 lb 181
kg per trip through Amendment 4 59
FR 2757; January 19, 1994. In 2007, Amendment 11 maintained the general category possession limit of 400 lb 181
kg for qualifying IFQ vessels.
Amendment 15 76 FR 43746; July 21, 2011 increased the LAGC IFQ
possession limit to 600 lb 272 kg following concerns from industry members that the 400-lb 181-kg possession limit was not economically feasible due to increased operating costs. The 200-lb 91-kg trip limit increase was not expected to change the nature of the day boat fishery and would keep the LAGC IFQ component consistent with the vision statement laid out by the Council in Amendment 11.
The Council recently completed a program review of the LAGC IFQ fishery and analyzed the impacts of changes to IFQ trip limits. This review found that increasing the possession limit for IFQ
trips would increase flexibility in
E:FRFM08SEP1.SGM

08SEP1