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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 171 / Wednesday, September 8, 2021 / Notices
Electronic Submission: Submit all electronic public comments via the Federal eRulemaking Portal. Go to https www.regulations.gov and enter NOAANMFS20210074 in the Search box. Click the Comment icon, complete the required fields, and enter or attach your comments.
Mail: Submit written comments to Glenn Merrill, Assistant Regional Administrator, Sustainable Fisheries Division, Alaska Region NMFS, Attn:
Records Office. Mail comments to P.O.
Box 21668, Juneau, AK 998021668.
Instructions: Comments sent by any other method, to any other address or individual, or received after the end of the comment period, may not be considered by NMFS. All comments received are a part of the public record and will generally be posted for public viewing on www.regulations.gov without change. All personal identifying information e.g., name, address, 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.
Electronic copies of the DEIS may be obtained from http
www.regulations.gov or from the NMFS
Alaska Region website at https
www.fisheries.noaa.gov/alaska/bycatch/
bering-sea-and-aleutian-islands-bsaihalibut-abundance-based-management.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Joseph Krieger, telephone: 907586
7221.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The International Pacific Halibut Commission IPHC and NMFS manage Pacific halibut fisheries through regulations established under the authority of the Northern Pacific Halibut Act of 1982 Halibut Act 16 U.S.C.
773773k. The IPHC adopts regulations governing the target fishery for Pacific halibut under the Convention between the United States of America and Canada for the Preservation of the Halibut Fishery of the Northern Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea Convention, signed at Ottawa, Ontario, on March 2, 1953, as amended by a Protocol Amending the Convention signed at Washington, DC, on March 29, 1979.
For the United States, regulations governing the fishery for Pacific halibut developed by the IPHC are subject to acceptance by the Secretary of State with concurrence from the Secretary of Commerce. After acceptance by the Secretary of State with the concurrence of the Secretary of Commerce, NMFS
publishes the IPHC regulations in the
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Federal Register as annual management measures pursuant to 50 CFR 300.62.
IPHC and NMFS regulations authorize the harvest of halibut in commercial, personal use, sport and subsistence fisheries by hook-and-line gear and pot gear. In the BSAI, which largely coincides with IPHC Regulatory Area 4
hereafter referred to as Area 4 and its five subsareas ABCDE, halibut is harvested in all of these fisheries.
Section 5c of the Halibut Act also provides the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council Council with authority to develop regulations that are in addition to, and not in conflict with, approved IPHC regulations. The Council has exercised this authority in the development of Federal regulations for the halibut fishery such as 1
subsistence halibut fishery management measures, codified at 50 CFR 300.65; 2
the limited access program for charter vessels in the guided sport fishery, codified at 300.67; and 3 the Individual Fishing Quota IFQ Program for the commercial halibut and sablefish fisheries, codified at 50 CFR part 679, under the authority of Section 5 of the Halibut Act and Section 303b of the MSA.
The Council manages the groundfish fisheries of the BSAI under the authority of the MSA and the Fishery Management Plan for the Groundfish for the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands BSAI FMP. National Standard 9 of the MSA requires that fishery conservation and management measures shall, to the extent practicable: 1 Minimize bycatch; and 2 to the extent bycatch cannot be avoided, minimize the mortality of such bycatch.
In the BSAI FMP, the Council has designated Pacific halibut, along with several other fully utilized species such as salmon, herring, and crab species, as prohibited species in the groundfish fisheries Section 3.6.1 of the BSAI
FMP. By regulation, the operator of any vessel fishing for groundfish in the BSAI
must minimize the catch of prohibited species 679.21a2i. The Council has also set catch limits for individual PSC species, which are defined in BSAI
FMP Section 3.6.2.1. Under the designation as a PSC species; their capture is required to be avoided; and their retention is prohibited except when retention is required or authorized by other applicable law. Unintended removals of prohibited species are separately monitored and controlled under the BSAI FMP.
The Council does not have authority to set catch limits for the commercial halibut fisheries, and halibut PSC in the groundfish fisheries is only one of the factors that affects harvest limits for the
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commercial halibut fisheries.
Nonetheless, halibut PSC in the groundfish fisheries is a significant portion of total mortality in BSAI IPHC
areas and has the potential to affect catch limits for the commercial halibut fisheries in Area 4 under the current IPHC harvest policy. While the impact of halibut PSC reductions on catch limits for commercial halibut fisheries is dependent on IPHC policy and management decisions, reductions to the current Amendment 80 halibut PSC
limit in the BSAI could provide additional harvest opportunities in the BSAI commercial halibut fishery.
A Notice of Intent to prepare this DEIS was published in the Federal Register on December 12, 2017 82 FR
58374. This DEIS analyzes alternative management measures to link the Pacific halibut PSC limit for the Amendment 80 commercial groundfish trawl fleet in the BSAI groundfish fisheries to halibut abundance. The Council is considering a program that provides incentives for the fleet to minimize halibut mortality at all times, that could promote conservation of the halibut stock, and may provide additional opportunities for the directed halibut fishery.
Pacific halibut is targeted in Alaska in commercial, personal use, recreational sport, and subsistence halibut fisheries. Halibut has significant social, cultural, and economic importance to fishery participants and communities throughout the geographic range of the resource. Halibut is also incidentally taken as bycatch in commercial groundfish fisheries.
The Council is examining abundancebased approaches to set the halibut PSC
limit for the Amendment 80 sector in the BSAI. Currently halibut PSC limits for groundfish fishery sectors are set in the BSAI FMP at a fixed amount of halibut mortality in metric tons. When halibut abundance declines, halibut PSC
becomes a larger proportion of total halibut removals and can result in lower catch limits for directed halibut fisheries. This action is limited to the Amendment 80 sector because that sector is responsible for the majority of BSAI halibut mortality in the groundfish fisheries. In light of the continued decline of the halibut stock, both the Council and the IPHC have expressed concern about impacts on directed halibut fisheries under the status quo and identified abundance-based halibut PSC limits as a potential management approach to address these concerns.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.

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