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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 60 / Wednesday, March 31, 2021 / Proposed Rules Sector Allocations
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The sector allocations proposed in this rule are based on the 2021 catch limits established in Framework 59 and final fishing year 2020 sector rosters.
Regulations require that sectors submit membership information to us on December 1 prior to the start of the fishing year, unless instructed otherwise. The Regional Administrator has determined that the December 1
enrollment deadline is not possible because we had yet to distribute the annual letter describing each vessels potential contribution to a sectors quota for the upcoming fishing year. We distributed the letters in early February 2021. The deadline to enroll in a sector is approximately 4 weeks later, on March 8, 2021, although sectors may set a more restrictive deadline for their members. Because sector enrollment has been stable and consistent since the sector program was enacted, we are using fishing year 2020 rosters as a proxy for fishing year 2021 sector membership to calculate fishing year 2021 projected allocations in this proposed rule.
Any permits that change ownership after the enrollment deadline determined by the Regional Administrator as described above retain the ability to join a sector through April 30, 2021. All permits enrolled in a sector, and the vessels associated with those permits, have until April 30, 2021, to withdraw from a sector and fish in the common pool for fishing year 2021.
For fishing year 2022, we will set similar roster deadlines, notify permit holders of the fishing year 2022

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deadlines, and allow permit holders to change sectors separate from the annual sector operations plans approval process.
We calculate the sectors allocation for each stock by summing its members potential sector contributions PSC for a stock and then multiplying that total percentage by the available commercial sub-ACL for that stock. Table 2 shows the projected total fishing year 2021 PSC
by stock for the 16 sectors approved to operate in fishing year 2020 that submitted operations plans for 2021.
Tables 3 and 4 show the initial allocations that each sector would be allocated for fishing year 2021 based on their final fishing year 2020 rosters and the fishing year 2021 Framework 59 and default specifications. At the start of the 2021 fishing year, we provide final allocations, to the nearest pound, to each sector based on their final May 1
rosters. We use these final allocations, along with later adjustments for ACE
transfers, reductions for overages, or increases for carryover from fishing year 2020, to monitor sector catch. We have included the preliminary common pool sub-ACLs in tables 2 through 4 for comparison. These tables do not represent the final allocations for the 2021 fishing year.
We do not assign a permit separate PSCs for Eastern GB cod or Eastern GB
haddock; instead, we assign each permit a PSC for the GB cod stock and GB
haddock stock. Each sectors GB cod and GB haddock allocations are then divided into an Eastern ACE and a Western ACE, based on each sectors percentage of the GB cod and GB
haddock ACLs. For example, if a sector
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is allocated 4 percent of the GB cod ACL
and 6 percent of the GB haddock ACL, the sector is allocated 4 percent of the commercial Eastern U.S./Canada Area GB cod total allowable catch TAC and 6 percent of the commercial Eastern U.S./Canada Area GB haddock TAC as its Eastern GB cod and haddock ACEs.
These amounts are then subtracted from the sectors overall GB cod and haddock allocations to determine its Western GB
cod and haddock ACEs. A sector may only harvest its Eastern GB cod and haddock ACEs in the Eastern U.S./
Canada Area, but may convert, or transfer, its Eastern GB cod or haddock allocation into Western GB allocation and fish that converted ACE outside the Eastern GB area.
At the start of fishing year 2021, we may withhold 20 percent of each sectors fishing year 2021 allocation until we finalize fishing year 2020 catch information. We expect to finalize 2020
catch information in summer 2021. We allow sectors to transfer fishing year 2020 ACE for 2 weeks upon our completion of year-end catch accounting to reduce or eliminate any fishing year 2020 overages. If necessary, we reduce any sectors fishing year 2021
allocation to account for a remaining overage in fishing year 2020. Each year of the operations plans, we notify the Council and sector managers of this deadline in writing and announce our final ACE determination on our website at: https
www.greateratlantic.fisheries.noaa.gov/
ro/fso/reports/h/groundfish_catch_
accounting.
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