Je veux savoir à propos de…

jbell on DSKJLSW7X2PROD with NOTICES

Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 152 / Wednesday, August 11, 2021 / Notices Purpose and Need for Proposed Action The proposed action for analysis in the EIS would be NMFS rulemaking to modify the Plan to reduce mortalities and serious injuries from incidental commercial fishing gear entanglements in U.S. East Coast gillnet fisheries as well as trap/pot fisheries, including the Atlantic mixed species and MidAtlantic lobster and Jonah crab fisheries.
NMFS purpose for the proposed action is to fulfill the mandates of the MMPA
to reduce incidental mortalities and serious injuries of large whales to below each stocks potential biological removal PBR level.
North Atlantic right whales are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act ESA and considered depleted under the Marine Mammal Protection Act MMPA. After more than two decades of an increasing trend, the right whale population has been declining since 2010, and the most recent estimate of 368 whales in 2019
Pace 2021 is well below the optimum sustainable population. This estimate represents a minimum population number and reflects new research suggesting that many mortalities occur undetected Pace et al. 2021. The decline was exacerbated by an Unusual Mortality Event UME that began in 2017, when a total of 17 confirmed dead right whales were documented. As of July 2021, the UME totals 50
individuals, comprising 34 right whale mortalities and an additional 16
seriously injured right whales. Of these 50 individuals, 18 definitively involved entanglement and another 5 were probable entanglements. During this period 20172021, only 40 calves have been born.
One of the primary causes of mortality and serious injury of North Atlantic right whales is entanglement in fishing gear. Climate change and associated changes in prey abundance and distribution are exacerbating the population decline by shifting the overlap between right whales and fisheries and reducing the populations resilience to stressors. With mortalities continuing to outpace births, the population decline continues and further mitigation of entanglements that cause mortality or serious injury is necessary for population recovery.
The MMPA mandates that NMFS
develop and implement Take Reduction Plans for preventing the depletion and assisting in the recovery of certain marine mammal stocks that are killed or seriously injured incidental to commercial fisheries. Pursuant to the MMPA, NMFS convenes Take Reduction Teams composed of
VerDate Sep<11>2014

23:05 Aug 10, 2021

Jkt 253001

stakeholders to develop recommendations that achieve a shortterm goal of reducing mortalities and serious injuries of marine mammals covered by the plan to a rate below each stocks PBR level. NMFS considers those recommendations when implementing Take Reduction Plans through the rulemaking process.
The Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team Team was first convened in 1996 to recommend measures to reduce mortalities and serious injuries of right, humpback, and fin whales incidental to certain commercial fisheries. NMFS
implements measures under the Plan.
Since 1997, the Plan has been amended several times to reduce the impacts of fishing gear on large whales in the region through measures that include area closures, gear configuration requirements, and gear marking rules. A
final rule implementing new modifications to reduce mortalities and serious injuries caused by entanglement in the northeast American lobster and Jonah crab trap/pot fishery is anticipated shortly, and was analyzed in a FEIS released on July 2, 2021 86 FR
35288.
In 2021, the Team convened to address large whale mortalities and serious injuries caused by entanglements in the U.S. East Coast gillnet, Atlantic mixed species trap/pot, and mid-Atlantic lobster and Jonah crab trap/pot fisheries. Specifically, these fisheries include: 1 Mid-Atlantic gillnet fisheries for monkfish, spiny dogfish, smooth dogfish, bluefish, weakfish, menhaden, spot, croaker, striped bass, large and small coastal sharks, Spanish mackerel, king mackerel, American shad, black drum, skate species, yellow perch, white perch, herring, scup, kingfish, spotted seatrout, and butterfish; 2 Northeast sink gillnet fisheries for Atlantic cod, haddock, pollock, yellowtail flounder, winter flounder, witch flounder, American plaice, windowpane flounder, spiny dogfish, monkfish, silver hake, red hake, white hake, ocean pout, skate spp, mackerel, redfish, and shad; 3
Northeast drift gillnet fisheries for shad, herring, mackerel, and menhaden and any residual large pelagic driftnet effort in New England; 4 Southeast Atlantic gillnet fisheries for finfish, including, but not limited to: King mackerel, Spanish mackerel, whiting, bluefish, pompano, spot, croaker, little tunny, bonita, jack crevalle, cobia, and striped mullet; 5 Southeast Atlantic shark gillnet fisheries for large and small coastal sharks, including but not limited to blacktip, blacknose, finetooth, bonnethead, and sharpnose sharks; 6

PO 00000

Frm 00010

Fmt 4703

Sfmt 4703

43997

Northeast anchored float gillnet fishery for mackerel, herring particularly for bait, shad, and menhaden; and 7
Atlantic mixed species trap/pot fisheries for hagfish, shrimp, conch/whelk, red crab, Jonah crab, rock crab, black sea bass, scup, tautog, cod, haddock, Pollock, redfish ocean perch, white hake, spot, skate, catfish, stone crab, and cunner; 8 Mid-Atlantic trap/pot fisheries for lobster and Jonah crab, and 9 Atlantic trap/pot fishery for Atlantic blue crab.
The Team met most recently on June 28 and July 1, 2021, to discuss the types of management actions that should be included in scoping to decrease the risk and severity of right whale and other large whale entanglements in the abovelisted fisheries. Further information about the Plan and the 2021 Team meetings where potential management measures were discussed, including recordings of all the meetings, can be found at the Teams website: https
www.fisheries.noaa.gov/alwtrp.
Preliminary Description of Proposed Action and Alternatives NMFS will consider suites of regulatory measures that would modify existing Plan requirements to address ongoing large whale entanglements. The primary purpose of the Plan modifications is to reduce the mortality and serious injury of right whales in U.S. East Coast gillnet, Atlantic mixed species trap/pot, and Mid-Atlantic lobster and Jonah crab trap/pot fisheries.
In addition to the proposed action and the no action alternative, potential alternatives that the draft EIS may analyze include measures that would reduce or weaken line in gear associated with these fisheries, to reduce cooccurrence of this gear and right whales, and to improve identification of entangling gear. For gillnet fisheries, possible management options include changing configurations such as increasing the minimum number of net panels per set to reduce endline numbers, gear tending or daytime-only sets for gillnets, installation of weak links at panels and weak rope that breaks at forces of less than 1,700 lb, establishing seasonal restricted areas, and expanding gear marking requirements. For trap/pot fisheries, possible management options include changing configurations such as traps per trawl to reduce endline numbers and installation of weak inserts or ropes that break at forces of less than 1,700 lb, establishment of seasonal restricted areas, and expansion of gear marking requirements.
NEPA 42 U.S.C. 4321 et al. requires that Federal agencies conduct an
E:FRFM11AUN1.SGM

11AUN1