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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 60 / Wednesday, March 31, 2021 / Proposed Rules
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Announcement of our Electronic Monitoring Determination Using the process and authority granted to us in Amendment 16 to the Northeast Multispecies FMP, and as described in regulations at 648.87b1vB, we have determined that the EM audit model is sufficient for use instead of ASM. In December 2019, we notified the New England Fishery Management Council of our intent to expand EM and allow sectors to submit an EM plan as part of the fishing years 20212022 sector operations plan approval process. Since 2016, we have worked with members of industry and other stakeholders to develop EM as a tool to meet sector monitoring requirements. We evaluated two models using exempted fishing permits EFP:
The audit model and maximized retention. Under the audit model, the captain records an estimated weight for all groundfish discards on an electronic vessel trip report eVTR and adheres to catch handling protocols at sea to ensure collection e.g., groundfish discard measurements of discard information from the EM data. EM data are the data created in the collection of fishery-dependent data by EM systems, including the video, images, sensor data, and metadata for a trip. Under maximized retention, vessels retain and land all allocated groundfish catch, including fish below the minimum size.
EM data is used to confirm the vessels adherence to the catch retention requirements, and a dockside monitor meets the vessel at the dock to collect catch data shoreside. Based on the data collected under the EFPs, we have determined that the EM audit model is sufficient to verify a vessels submission of information on groundfish discards and other relevant information e.g., date and time, gear category, location for the purpose of ACE accounting, provided that the vessels captain and crew adhere to catch handling and reporting requirements as described in the vessel-specific monitoring plan VMP. VMPs detail specific fish handling protocols, policies and procedures, as well as the number and location of cameras. VMPs are reviewed and approved by NMFS prior to a vessel enrolling in EM to ensure the set-up is adequate to support data collection needs and requirements. NMFS will provide a template to assist providers in developing VMPs that include the required components. Vessels may use the EM audit model to meet monitoring and reporting requirements while fishing with hook, gillnet, or trawl gear in any of the four broad stock areas. The
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maximized retention program will continue to operate under an EFP for fishing year 2021. This will allow us to further evaluate the sufficiency of the program for catch accounting.
In order to facilitate the adoption of the EM audit model by sector vessels, we offered a NMFS-designed audit model program for sectors to include in their proposed operations plans. Under the NMFS-designed audit model program, vessels would be required to measure groundfish discards in view of cameras and use designated discard control points for all discards. The captain and crew would have the option to use subsampling protocols for high volumes of discards if included in the vessels NMFS-approved VMP.
Participating vessels would submit EM
data from all trips to their sectors contracted third-party service provider in accordance with the timeline specified by NMFS currently 7 days. A
subset of trips would be selected for review. Third-party service provider staff would review and annotate EM
data for selected trips, and submit a report detailing the results to NMFS, in accordance with program requirements.
NMFS would compare the third-party service providers report to the eVTR
submitted by the captain to understand the accuracy of self-reporting by EM
vessels. Estimates of groundfish discards reported by the captain on the eVTR and EM data collected by the third-party service provider would serve as the basis for catch accounting .
We are announcing our determination and supporting rationale in this proposed rule to facilitate public review of, and comment on, the monitoring plans included in the sector operations plans and contracts proposed in the following section. We will approve or disapprove each plan based on its sufficiency for sector catch accounting.
Any EM program employed by a sector to meet monitoring and reporting requirements must adhere to the EM
program standards described in the Fishing Years 202122 Sector Operations Plan, Contract, and EA
Requirements guidance document located on our website: https
www.fisheries.noaa.gov/new-englandmid-atlantic/commercial-fishing/
fishing-year-2020-sectors.
We are also making regulatory adjustments, implemented under our section 305d authority in the Magnuson-Stevens Act to make changes necessary to carry out the FMP. We are making these adjustments to clarify the use of EM for sector monitoring as described in the regulations at 648.87
and to ensure the FMP is implemented
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in accordance with the MagnusonStevens Act.
Sector Operations Plans and Contracts There were 16 active groundfish sectors in fishing year 2020. All 16
active sectors submitted operations plans and contracts for approval for fishing years 2021 and 2022. We are proposing to approve 16 sector operations plans and contracts for fishing years 2021 and 2022. In order to approve a sectors operations plan for fishing years 2021 and 2022, we consider whether a sectors plan is consistent with regulatory requirements and FMP objectives, and whether it has been compliant with reporting requirements from previous years, including the year-end reporting requirements found at 648.87b1viC. Approved operations plans, provided on our website as a single document for each sector, not only contain the rules under which each sector would fish, but also provide the legal contract that binds each member to the sector for the length of the sectors operations plan. Each sectors operations plan, and each sectors members, must comply with the regulations governing sectors, found at 648.87. In addition, each sector must conduct fishing activities as detailed in its approved operations plan.
Participating vessels are required to comply with all pertinent Federal fishing regulations, except as specifically exempted in the letter of authorization LOA issued by the Regional Administrator, which details any approved sector exemptions from the regulations. If, during a fishing year, or between fishing years 2021 and 2022, a sector requests an exemption that we have already granted, or proposes a change to administrative provisions, we may amend the sector operations plans.
Should any such amendments require modifications to LOAs, we would include these changes in updated LOAs and provide them to the appropriate sectors.
As in previous years, we retain the right to revoke exemptions in-season if:
We determine that the exemption jeopardizes management measures, FMP
objectives, or rebuilding efforts; the exemption results in unforeseen negative impacts on other managed fish stocks, habitat, or protected resources;
the exemption causes enforcement concerns; catch from trips using the exemption cannot be adequately monitored; or a sector is not meeting certain administrative or operational requirements. If it becomes necessary to revoke an exemption, we will do so
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