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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 167 / Wednesday, September 1, 2021 / Proposed Rules
SSC, and the biomass estimates and the status of the fisheries are reviewed and discussed. The CPSMT, CPSAS, and SSC then provide recommendations and comments to the Council regarding the calculated OFL, ABC, ACL, HG and ACT. Following Council review and after hearing public comment, the Council adopts biomass estimates and makes its harvest specification recommendations to NMFS. Biennial specifications published in the Federal Register establish these allowable harvest levels i.e., ACT/HG as well as OFL, ABC, and ACL for the upcoming two Pacific mackerel fishing seasons.
The control rules in the CPS FMP
include the HG control rule, which, in conjunction with the OFL and ABC
rules, are used to manage Pacific mackerel. According to the FMP, the quota for the principal commercial fishery, the HG, is determined using the FMP-specified HG formula. The HG is based, in large part, on the estimate of stock biomass for the fishing year. The biomass estimate is an explicit part of the various harvest control rules for Pacific mackerel, and as the estimated biomass decreases or increases from one year to the next, the resulting allowable catch levels similarly trend. The harvest control rule in the CPS FMP is HG =
Biomass-Cutoff Fraction
Distribution with the parameters described as follows:
1. Biomass. The estimated stock biomass of Pacific mackerel for the 20212022 management season is 57,832 metric tons mt. The estimated stock biomass of Pacific mackerel for the 20222023 management season is 45,925 mt.
2. Cutoff. This is the biomass level below which no commercial fishery is allowed. The FMP established this level at 18,200 mt.
3. Fraction. The harvest fraction is the percentage of the biomass above 18,200
mt that may be harvested. This is set in the FMP at 30 percent.
4. Distribution. Pacific mackerel range from Mexico to Alaska and regularly migrate between Mexico and the U.S.
West Coast. Because some of the Pacific mackerel stock exists outside of U.S.
waters, the Distribution parameter is used to estimate the proportion of the total biomass in U.S. waters and to calculate U.S. catch limits. The average portion of the total Pacific mackerel biomass estimated in the West Coast U.S. EEZ is set in the FMP at 70 percent.
The 70 percent distribution estimate is based on the average historical larval distribution obtained from scientific cruises and the distribution of the resource according to the logbooks of aerial fish-spotters.

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The Council has recommended, and NMFS is proposing, Pacific mackerel harvest specifications for both the 2021
2022 and 20222023 fishing seasons.
For the 20212022 Pacific mackerel fishing season these include an OFL of 12,145 mt, an ABC and ACL of 9,446 mt, a HG of 8,323 mt, and an annual ACT
of 7,323 mt. For the 20222023 Pacific mackerel fishing season these include an OFL of 9,644 mt, and ABC and ACL
of 7,501 mt, a HG of 5,822 mt, and an ACT of 4,822 mt. These catch specifications are based on the control rules established in the CPS FMP and biomass estimates of 57,832 mt 2021
2022 and 45,925 mt 20222023. The biomass estimates are the result of a catch-only stock assessment the NMFS
SWFSC completed in June 2021. The Councils SSC and the Council approved this stock assessment and resulting biomass estimates as the best scientific information available for management at the June 2021 Council meeting.
Under this proposed action, in the unlikely event that catch reaches the ACT in either fishing season, directed fishing would close, reserving the difference between the HG and ACT
1,000 mt as a set-aside for incidental landings in other fisheries and other sources of mortality.1 For the remainder of the fishing season, incidental landings in CPS fisheries would be constrained to a 45-percent incidental catch allowance in other words, no more than 45 percent by weight of the CPS landed per trip may be Pacific mackerel; and in non-CPS fisheries, up to 3 mt of Pacific mackerel may be landed incidentally per fishing trip. The incidental set-aside is intended to allow continued operation of fisheries for other stocks, particularly other CPS
stocks that may school with Pacific mackerel.
The NMFS West Coast Regional Administrator will publish a notice in the Federal Register announcing the date of any closure of directed fishing when harvest levels reach or exceed the ACT. Additionally, to ensure the regulated community is informed of any closure, NMFS will also make announcements through other means available, including email to fishermen, processors, and state fishery management agencies.
Classification Pursuant to section 304b1A of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the NMFS
Assistant Administrator has determined 1 Directed fishing for live bait and minor directed fishing is allowed to continue during a closure of the directed fishery.

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that this proposed rule is consistent with the CPS FMP, other provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, and other applicable law, subject to further consideration after public comment.
This proposed rule has been determined to be not significant for purposes of Executive Order 12866.
The Chief Counsel for Regulation of the Department of Commerce certified to the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Business Administration that this proposed rule, if adopted, would not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities, for the following reasons:
For Regulatory Flexibility Act RFA
purposes only, NMFS has established a small business size standard for businesses, including their affiliates, whose primary industry is commercial fishing see 50 CFR 200.2. A business primarily engaged in commercial fishing NAICS code 11411 is classified as a small business if it is independently owned and operated, is not dominant in its field of operation including its affiliates, and has combined annual receipts not in excess of $11 million for all its affiliated operations worldwide.
The small entities that would be affected by the proposed action are those vessels that harvest Pacific mackerel as part of the West Coast Coastal Pelagic Species CPS purse seine fleet and are all considered small businesses under the above size standards.
The CPS Fishery Management Plan FMP and its implementing regulations requires the National Marine Fisheries Service NMFS to set an overfishing limit OFL, acceptable biological catch ABC, annual catch limit ACL, harvest guidelines HG and annual catch target ACT for the Pacific mackerel fishery based on the harvest control rules in the FMP. These specific harvest control rules are applied to the current stock biomass estimate to derive these catch specifications, which are used to manage the commercial take of Pacific mackerel. A component of these control rules is that as the estimated biomass decreases or increases from one year to the next, so do the applicable quotas.
Pacific mackerel harvest is one component of CPS fisheries off the U.S.
West Coast, which also includes the fisheries for Pacific sardine, northern anchovy and market squid. Pacific mackerel are principally caught off southern California within the limited entry portion south of 39 degrees N
latitude; Point Arena, California of the fishery. Currently there are 53 vessels permitted in the Federal CPS limited entry fishery off California. The average annual per vessel revenue in 2020 for
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