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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 44 / Tuesday, March 9, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
The IPHCs 2021 annual management measures took effect February 18, 2021. The 2021
management measures are effective until superseded.
ADDRESSES: Additional requests for information regarding this action may be obtained by contacting the International Pacific Halibut Commission, 2320 W. Commodore Way, Suite 300, Seattle, WA 981991287; or Sustainable Fisheries Division, NMFS
Alaska Region, P.O. Box 21668, Juneau, AK 99802; or Sustainable Fisheries Division, NMFS West Coast Region, 1201 NE Lloyd Blvd., Suite 1100, Portland, OR 97232. This final rule also is accessible via the internet at the Federal eRulemaking portal at http
www.regulations.gov, identified by docket number NOAANMFS2021
0017.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For waters off Alaska, Kurt Iverson, 907
5867210; or, for waters off the U.S.
West Coast, Kathryn Blair, 503231
6858.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

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Background The IPHC has recommended regulations that would govern the Pacific halibut fishery in 2021, pursuant to the Convention between Canada and the United States for the Preservation of the Halibut Fishery of the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea Convention, signed at Ottawa, Ontario, on March 2, 1953, as amended by a Protocol Amending the Convention signed at Washington, DC, on March 29, 1979.
As provided by the Northern Pacific Halibut Act of 1982 Halibut Act at 16
U.S.C. 773b, the Secretary of State, with the concurrence of the Secretary of Commerce, may accept or reject, on behalf of the United States, regulations recommended by the IPHC in accordance with the Convention Halibut Act, Sections 773773k. The Secretary of State, with the concurrence of the Secretary of Commerce, accepted the 2021 IPHC regulations as provided by the Halibut Act.
The Halibut Act provides the Secretary of Commerce with the authority and general responsibility to carry out the requirements of the Convention and the Halibut Act. The Regional Fishery Management Councils may develop, and the Secretary of Commerce may implement, regulations governing harvesting privileges among U.S. fishermen in U.S. waters that are in addition to, and not in conflict with, approved IPHC regulations. The NPFMC
has exercised this authority in developing halibut management
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programs for three fisheries that harvest halibut in Alaska: the subsistence, sport, and commercial fisheries. The PFMC
has exercised this authority by developing a catch sharing plan governing the allocation of halibut and management of sport fisheries on the U.S. West Coast.
The IPHC apportions catch limits for the Pacific halibut fishery among regulatory areas Figure 1: Area 2A
Oregon, Washington, and California, Area 2B British Columbia, Area 2C
Southeast Alaska, Area 3A Central Gulf of Alaska, Area 3B Western Gulf of Alaska, and Area 4 subdivided into 5 areas, 4A through 4E, in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands of Western Alaska.
Subsistence and sport halibut fishery regulations for Alaska are codified at 50
CFR part 300. Commercial halibut fisheries off Alaska are subject to the Individual Fishing Quota IFQ Program and Community Development Quota CDQ Program 50 CFR part 679
regulations, and the area-specific catch sharing plans CSPs for Areas 2C, 3A, and Areas 4C, 4D, and 4E.
The NPFMC implemented a CSP
among commercial IFQ and CDQ
halibut fisheries in IPHC Regulatory Areas 4C, 4D, and 4E Area 4, Western Alaska through rulemaking, and the Secretary of Commerce approved the plan on March 20, 1996 61 FR 11337.
The Area 4 CSP regulations were codified at 50 CFR 300.65, and were amended on March 17, 1998 63 FR
13000. New annual regulations pertaining to the Area 4 CSP also may be implemented through IPHC action, subject to acceptance by the Secretary of State.
The NPFMC recommended and NMFS implemented through rulemaking a CSP for guided sport charter and commercial IFQ halibut fisheries in IPHC Regulatory Area 2C
and Area 3A on January 13, 2014 78 FR
75844, December 12, 2013. The Area 2C
and 3A CSP regulations are codified at 50 CFR 300.65. The CSP defines an annual process for allocating halibut between the commercial and charter fisheries so that each sectors allocation varies in proportion to halibut abundance, specifies a public process for setting annual management measures, and authorizes limited annual leases of commercial IFQ for use in the charter fishery as guided angler fish GAF.
The IPHC held its annual meeting remotely by video conference on January 25 through 29, 2021, and recommended a number of changes to the previous IPHC regulations 85 FR
14586, March 13, 2020, and revisions at
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85 FR 37024, June 19, 2020. The Secretary of State accepted the annual management measures, including the following changes to sections of the 2021 IPHC regulations:
1. New commercial halibut fishery opening and closing dates in Section 9;
2. Minor changes to Section 12 to ensure the regulatory text of that section aligns with the fishing season dates established in Section 9;
3. New halibut catch limits in all regulatory areas. The catch limits are presented in two tables in Section 5 that distinguish between limits resulting from Commission decisions and those that are from catch limits that are the responsibility of the respective United States and Canada governments;
4. New management measures for Area 2C and Area 3A guided sport fisheries in Section 29; and 5. An addition to regulatory language in Section 22 to clarify that authorized representatives of the IPHC may sample halibut that are being unloaded and weighed.
Pursuant to regulations at 50 CFR
300.62, the 2021 IPHC annual management measures are published in the Federal Register to provide notice of their regulatory effectiveness and to inform persons subject to the regulations of their restrictions and requirements. Because NMFS publishes the regulations applicable to the entire Convention area, these regulations include some provisions relating to and affecting Canadian fishing and fisheries.
NMFS may implement more restrictive regulations for the fishery for halibut or components of it; therefore, anglers are advised to check the current Federal and IPHC regulations prior to fishing.
Catch Limits The IPHC recommended to the governments of Canada and the United States fishery catch limits FCEY for 2021 totaling 30,340,000 lb 17,661.99
mt. Overall, this represents a 10.4
percent increase over catch limits implemented in 2020. The catch limits in most regulatory areas increased, with the exception of the combined Areas 4CDE, which decreased slightly relative to the 2020 catch limits. A description of the process the IPHC used to set these catch limits follows.
In 2020, the IPHC conducted its annual stock assessment using a range of updated data sources as described in detail in the IPHC overview of data sources for the Pacific halibut stock assessment, harvest policy, and related analyses IPHC2021AM09706;
available at www.iphc.int. To evaluate the Pacific halibut stock, the IPHC used an ensemble of four equally weighted
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