Quiero saber acerca de...

68457

Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 229 / Thursday, December 2, 2021 / Proposed Rules 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. If you are unable to submit your comment through www.regulations.gov, contact Cynthia Ferrio, Fishery Policy Analyst, Cynthia.Ferrio@noaa.gov.
The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council prepared a draft environmental assessment EA for this action that describes the proposed measures and other considered alternatives. The EA also provides an economic analysis, as well as an analysis of the biological, economic, and social impacts of the proposed measures and other considered alternatives.
Copies of the specifications document, including the EA and information on the economic impacts of the proposed measures, are available on request from Dr. Christopher M. Moore, Executive Director, Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, Suite 201, 800
North State Street, Dover, DE 19901.
These documents are also accessible via the internet at http www.mafmc.org/
supporting-documents.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Cynthia Ferrio, Fishery Policy Analyst, 978 2819180.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the Atlantic
States Marine Fisheries Commission jointly manage the Atlantic Bluefish Fishery Management Plan FMP. The FMP requires the specification of an acceptable biological catch ABC, commercial and recreational annual catch limits ACL, commercial and recreational annual catch targets ACT, a commercial quota, a recreational harvest limit RHL, and any other management measures, for up to three years at a time. This action proposes bluefish catch limit specifications for the 2022 fishing year, and projects specifications for 2023, based on Council and Commission recommendations.
These proposed specifications are based on a 2021 assessment update and the recent Amendment 7 to the Bluefish FMP, as well as recommendations from the Councils Scientific and Statistical Committee SSC and the Bluefish Monitoring Committee. Amendment 7
was adopted by the Council and Commission in early June 2021, and the final rule published on November 24, 2021, 86 FR 66977. This amendment would implement management measures that affect these proposed specifications, including a rebuilding plan and reallocation of annual quotas between fishery sectors and among states. These proposed specifications were developed based on Amendment 7
measures, and these specifications would implement the first year of the rebuilding plan as well as begin the phasing in of the reallocation of commercial quota to the states in 2022.

There was a 3.65 million-lb 1,656-mt overage of the fishery ACL caused by recreational catch in 2020. Because the bluefish fishery is overfished, the accountability measure AM required by the FMP at 50 CFR 648.163d1 is a pound-for-pound payback of the overage against the soonest possible years recreational ACT as a single-year adjustment. The 2020 overage AM
would therefore be applied to the 2022
specifications under this proposed action. No sector transfer is allowed through these specifications because the stock is still overfished and new sector transfer provisions of Amendment 7 do not allow transfer in this situation. No changes are proposed to recreational management measures because the expected recreational landings under the existing measures are very close to fully achieving the proposed RHL.
Proposed Specifications This action proposes the Councils recommendations for 2022 and projected 2023 bluefish catch specifications, which are consistent with the SSC and Monitoring Committee recommendations Table 1.
These proposed specifications would increase the fishery ABC by about 55
percent in 2022, and by 21 percent the following year in 2023. The commercial quota and RHL are also proposed to increase by 28 percent and 67 percent in 2022, respectively, and again by 21
percent and 59 percent in 2023.

TABLE 1COMPARISON OF 2021, PROPOSED 2022, AND PROJECTED 2023 BLUEFISH SPECIFICATIONS
2021
Million lb Overfishing Limit
ABC = Fishery ACL
Commercial ACL = Commercial ACT
Recreational ACL = Recreational ACT
Recreational Accountability Measures
Commercial Total Allowable Landings TAL
Recreational TAL
Sector Transfer
Commercial Quota
RHL

2022
Proposed Metric tons
Million lb
2023
Projected
Metric tons
Million lb
Metric tons
32.98
16.28
2.77
13.51
0

17,228
7,385
1,255
6,130
0

40.56
25.26
3.54
21.73
3.65

18,399
11,460
1,604
9,856
1,656

45.17
30.62
4.29
26.34
0

20,490
13,890
1,945
11,945
0

2.77
8.34
0 2.77
8.34

1,255
3,785
0 1,255
3,785

3.54
13.89
0 3.54
13.89

1,604
6,298
0 1,604
6,298

4.29
22.14
0 4.29
22.14

1,945
10,044
0 1,945
10,044

lotter on DSK11XQN23PROD with PROPOSALS1

Specifications are derived from the ABC in metric tons mt. When values are converted to millions of pounds the numbers may slightly shift due to rounding. The conversion factor used is 1 mt = 2204.6226 lb.

Table 2 provides the proposed commercial state allocations based on the Council-recommended coastwide commercial quotas for 2022 and 2023,
VerDate Sep<11>2014

16:31 Dec 01, 2021

Jkt 256001

and the phased-in changes to the percent share allocations to the states specified in Amendment 7. No states exceeded their allocated quota in 2020,
PO 00000

Frm 00013

Fmt 4702

Sfmt 4702

or are projected to do so in 2021;
therefore, no accountability measures for the commercial fishery are required for the 2022 fishing year at this time.

E:FRFM02DEP1.SGM

02DEP1