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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 38 / Monday, March 1, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
Unless otherwise noted, the reauthorized Rockfish Program includes all regulatory provisions established under the Rockfish Program implemented by Amendment 88. These provisions include the existing allocation of QS among the fishery participants, the process and requirements to fish in a cooperative, sideboard limitations, and monitoring and reporting requirements. Section 1.7
of the Analysis describes the alternatives considered and Section 1.10.2 provides the rationale for the reauthorized Rockfish Program. The reader is referred to those sections of the Analysis See ADDRESSES for additional details.
Amendment 111 to the GOA FMP and this final rule reauthorize the Rockfish Program and address a variety of administrative and management issues of the Rockfish Program. The specific regulatory changes recommended by the Council and included in this final rule are discussed in Section 1.6.2 of the Analysis See ADDRESSES and include:
Removing the Rockfish Program sunset date of December 31, 2021, with the effect of allowing the Rockfish Program to continue indefinitely;
Specifying that only shoreside processors receiving Rockfish Program CQ must submit the Rockfish Ex-vessel Volume and Value Report, rather than catcher/processors;
Modifying cooperative check-in notice timing into the Rockfish Program from 48 to 24 hours;
Removing requirements that an annual Rockfish Program cooperative report be submitted to NMFS. The Council requested that the Rockfish Program cooperatives continue to voluntarily provide annual reports to the Council;
Removing requirements for a fishing plan to be submitted with a cooperative application for CQ;
Requiring annual NMFS cost recovery reports in regulation;
Allowing NMFS to reallocate unharvested Pacific cod allocated to Rockfish Program cooperatives to other non-Rockfish Program sectors after the Rockfish Program fisheries close on November 15, consistent with existing inseason management regulatory authorities;
Allowing NMFS to reallocate unused rockfish incidental catch allowances ICA to Rockfish Program cooperatives;
Clarifying regulations regarding accounting for inseason use caps to specify that any transfer of unused rockfish ICAs or catcher/processor CQ
to catcher vessel cooperatives does not apply to catcher vessel ownership,
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cooperative, harvester CQ, or shoreside processor CQ use caps;
Exempting vessels from Crab Rationalization Program sideboard limits when fishing in the Rockfish Program;
Removing catcher/processor rockfish program sideboard limits in the Western GOA rockfish fisheries;
Removing the requirement for a trawl catcher vessel that has checked into and is participating in the Rockfish Program fishery to stand down for three days when transiting from the BSAI to the GOA while Pacific cod or pollock is open to directed fishing in the BSAI;
Removing requirements for shoreside processors under the Rockfish Program to provide an observer work station and observer communication requirements; and Making minor technical corrections to clarify the season dates for directed fishing for Pacific cod under the Rockfish Program, and updating references to dusky rockfish Sebastes variabilis throughout regulations in 50
CFR part 679.
The following section describes the regulatory changes in greater detail.
This Final Rule This section describes the changes to current regulations included in this final rule. This final rule will modify regulations at 679.80a2 to remove the expiration date of the Rockfish Program. The Rockfish Program had a 10-year authorization that required the Council to review the Rockfish Program and make any necessary changes to management based on that review, or allow the Rockfish Program to expire.
This action responds to the Councils review.
This final rule modifies Rockfish Program recordkeeping and reporting requirements to: 1 Amend regulations at 679.5r10i to clearly state that only shoreside processors taking deliveries of species harvested using Rockfish Program CQ must submit the Rockfish Ex-Vessel Volume and Value Report; 2 modify cooperative check-in times from 48 to 24 hours at 679.5r8iA1; 3 remove the requirement for an annual Rockfish Program cooperative report to be submitted to NMFS at 679.5r6, and 679.81i3xxv and xxvi; 4
remove the requirement for rockfish cooperatives to submit a fishing plan with annual applications for CQ at 679.81f4iD3; and 5 add a regulation at 679.85g that states NMFS will annually publish a mandatory rather than voluntary Rockfish Program cost recovery report.

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Additional detail describing the impact of these recordkeeping and reporting changes is included in the preamble of the proposed rule and in Section 3.7 of the Analysis See ADDRESSES.
This final rule adds regulations at 679.81j to authorize NMFS to reallocate unharvested Pacific cod after directed fishing under the Rockfish Program closes on November 15, consistent with existing reallocation procedures for Pacific cod in the Gulf of Alaska. Regulations at 679.20a12ii allow NMFS to reallocate unused Rockfish Program Pacific cod. Under this provision, and taking into account the capability of a sector to harvest the reallocation, NMFS will allocate unused Rockfish Program Pacific cod first to catcher vessels, then to the combined catcher vessel and catcher/processor pot sector, and then to all other catcher/
processor sectors.
This final rule adds regulations at 679.81j2, that authorize NMFS to reallocate unharvested rockfish species Incidental Catch Allowances ICAs to rockfish cooperatives. ICAs are set in the annual harvest specifications to account for incidental catch in other fisheries so that the TAC will not be exceeded. Section 3.7.10 of the Analysis and the preamble of the proposed rule details the process of determining reallocations of ICAs. If NMFS
determines there is not sufficient ICA to reallocate, then no reallocation would occur.
This final rule adds regulations at 679.82a1vi to clarify that any transfer of reallocated Rockfish Program ICAs or catcher/processor CQ to a catcher vessel cooperative does not apply when calculating catcher vessel use caps, including CV ownership, cooperative CQ, harvester QS, or shoreside processor caps. Use caps are established to limit consolidation.
Please see the preamble of the proposed rule and Section 3.7.11 of the Analysis for additional detail on use cap provisions.
This final rule makes several changes to regulations governing the sideboards and other tools designed to protect other Gulf of Alaska fishery participants outside of the Rockfish Program.
Sideboards are limitations on the ability of harvesters to harvest in fisheries other than the CGOA rockfish fisheries. The changes include: 1 Exempting Rockfish Program vessels from sideboard limits implemented under the Crab Rationalization Program at 680.22a1; 2 removing the Western GOA directed fishing prohibition and rockfish sideboard ratios at 679.82e4 for Rockfish Program
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