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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 215 / Wednesday, November 10, 2021 / Rules and Regulations Commercial harvest for the 2022
fishing year for the Georgia-North Carolina hogfish stock in South Atlantic Federal waters will open at 12:01 a.m., local time, on January 1, 2022.
Classification
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: November 5, 2021.
Ngagne Jafnar Gueye, Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service.
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National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 50 CFR Part 648
Docket No. 2111040225

NMFS issues this action pursuant to section 305d of the Magnuson-Stevens Act. This action is required by 50 CFR
50 CFR 622.193u1iA, which was issued pursuant to section 304b of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, and is exempt from review under Executive Order 12866.
Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 553bB, the NMFS Assistant Administrator AA
finds good cause to waive prior notice and an opportunity for public comment on this action, as notice and comment are unnecessary and contrary to the public interest. Such procedures are unnecessary because the rule that established the commercial ACL and AMs for hogfish has already been subject to notice and comment, and all that remains is to notify the public of the closure. Such procedures are contrary to the public interest because of the need to immediately implement this action to protect the Georgia-North Carolina hogfish stock. The commercial ACL for the Georgia-North Carolina hogfish stock in the South Atlantic has been reached and prior notice and opportunity for public comment would require time, resulting in a harvest well in excess of the established commercial ACL.
For the aforementioned reasons, the AA also finds good cause to waive the 30-day delay in the effectiveness of this action under 5 U.S.C. 553d3.

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Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act Provisions; Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Removal of Prohibitions for Gillnet Gear in Nantucket Lightship and Closed Area I
National Marine Fisheries Service NMFS, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA, Commerce.
ACTION: Final rule.
AGENCY:

This action reopens gillnet fishing in the Nantucket Lightship and Closed Area I Closure Areas previously ordered suspended by a Court decision.
Gillnet fishing will be allowed in the Nantucket Lightship and Closed Area I
Groundfish Closure Areas, as approved in the New England Fishery Management Councils Omnibus Essential Fish Habitat Amendment 2.
This action is necessary to end the suspension of measures from a previously approved and implemented Council action and remove temporary prohibitions that were in place to comply with a Federal court order.
DATES: Effective on November 10, 2021.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Moira Kelly, Senior Fishery Program Specialist, Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office, 9782819218
Moira.Kelly@noaa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On January 3, 2018, NMFS partially approved the New England Fishery Management Councils Omnibus Essential Fish Habitat Amendment 2.
The Omnibus Amendment updated essential fish habitat designations for all Council-managed species and implemented changes to the spatial management of Council-managed fisheries throughout the Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank, and Southern New England. On April 9, 2018, a final rule implemented the approved measures 83 FR 15240. The final rule opened, modified, and maintained various previously closed areas, as well as established new closures to implement approved measures of the Amendment.
The Nantucket Lightship and Closed Area I Groundfish Closure Areas were opened to fishing by gears capable of catching groundfish, including gillnets and bottom-trawls, throughout the areas SUMMARY:

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in this final rule. Note, scallop fishing was prohibited for a brief time, pending a follow-on scallop action that incorporated the newly opened areas into the Scallop Fishery Management Plans rotational management program.
See: 83 FR 17300; April 19, 2018.
Directed groundfish fishing had been prohibited in these general areas consistently since the 1980s and early 1990s.
The Conservation Law Foundation filed suit against NMFS arguing that the rulemaking process that allowed the opening of the Nantucket Lightship and Closed Area I Groundfish Closure Areas to gears capable of catching groundfish, including gillnet gear, was not done in compliance with the Endangered Species Act consultation requirements as it pertains to North Atlantic right whales.
On October 28, 2019, First District Court Judge James E. Boasberg see Conservation Law Found. v. Ross, No.
CV 181087 JEB, 2019 WL 5549814
D.D.C. Oct. 28, 2019 agreed with the Conservation Law Foundation and enjoined NMFS from allowing gillnet fishing in those previously closed areas, until such time that NMFS fully complied with the requirements of the Endangered Species Act and the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act Magnuson-Stevens Act. We implemented that suspension through a final rule on December 17, 2019 84 FR
68798.
Reopening Closure Areas to Gillnet Fishing Recently, NMFS completed the Endangered Species Act Section 7
Consultation on 10 fisheries and the New England Fishery Management Councils Omnibus Essential Fish Habitat Amendment. The consultation concluded that the implementation of the approved portions of the Amendment, including removing the prohibition on gillnet fishing in the Nantucket Lightship and Closed Area I
Groundfish Closure Areas, would not result in large shifts of fishing effort across or within the region. As a result, these shifts are not expected to increase the risk to protected species in the region. The completion of this consultation satisfied the requirements of the court order.
Therefore, this action re-opens the Nantucket Lightship and Closed Area I
Closure Area to gillnet fishing, as approved in the Omnibus Habitat Amendment.

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