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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 127 / Wednesday, July 7, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
intimidation, threats, interference or harassment of a WCPFC observer, and the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement in the event of serious illness. Any changes or updates to these contacts will be posted on the website. Owners and operators are required to immediately notify the contacts of the situation and the status and location of the observer.
NMFS does not maintain a 24-hour hotline to handle search and rescue or urgent law enforcement response. Thus, in emergency situations that need an immediate response, vessel owners and operators are encouraged to contact the nearest U.S. Coast Guard Rescue Coordination Center RCC that can help coordinate with the closest Search and Rescue SAR facility in the area of the vessel: https www.dco.uscg.mil/OurOrganization/Assistant-Commandantfor-Response-Policy-CG-5R/Office-ofIncident-Management-Preparedness-CG5RI/US-Coast-Guard-Office-of-Searchand-Rescue-CG-SAR/RCC-Numbers/.
In addition, under the final rule, the vessel owner or operator would be required to follow certain procedures in the event of serious illness, assault, intimidation, threats, interference or harassment of a WCPFC observer. The rule would require that, in these cases, the owner or operator of the fishing vessel must: 1 Immediately cease fishing operations; 2 take all reasonable actions to care for the observer and provide any medical treatment available and possible on board the vessel; 3 where directed by the observer provider, if not already directed by the appropriate U.S.
Government contact, facilitate the disembarkation and transport of the observer to a medical facility equipped to provide the required care, as soon as practicable; and 4 cooperate fully in any official investigations into the cause of the illness or incident.
As stated above, the final rule specifies that the owner or operator of the fishing vessel must immediately cease fishing operations in the event of serious illness, assault, intimidation, threats, interference or harassment of a WCPFC observer. NMFS anticipates that there may be circumstances where immediately cease could allow for gear to be retrieved and NMFS does not encourage abandoning fishing gear.
Although the owner or operator of a vessel is required to immediately cease fishing operations, this rule would not prohibit reasonable steps to recover gear and catch, if appropriate under the circumstances.

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2. Pre-Trip Notification Procedures for Vessels Requiring a WCPFC Observer To facilitate the placement of WCPFC
observers on U.S. purse seine vessels when departing from American Samoa, this final rule requires U.S. purse seine vessel owners and operators to submit notifications to NMFS at least five business days before expected departure. The notification must include the name of the vessel, name of the operator of the vessel, telephone number or email at which the owner or operator may be contacted, and intended departure date.
As stated in the preamble to the proposed rule, after reviewing the current administrative process for observer placements, NMFS believes such notifications are needed to facilitate observer placement for trips departing from American Samoa.
NMFS notes that a variety of factors may influence a vessels departure date, including the availability of an observer.
Pursuant to the South Pacific Tuna Treaty SPTT and through a separate contractual agreement between the American Tunaboat Association ATA
and the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency FFA, U.S. purse seine vessels carry observers deployed by the FFA
Observer Program. FFA observers are authorized WCPFC observers and are nationals of Pacific Island countries.
Currently, NMFS coordinates with FFA
and places WCPFC observers on U.S.
purse seine vessels departing from American Samoa. As such, NMFS
cannot guarantee that an observer will be placed within five business days of a request. Similarly, an observer may be placed earlier than five business days from intended departure e.g., an observer on board the vessel decides to continue on board for another trip, in which case the vessel may leave port earlier than the intended departure date specified in the notification. NMFS is clarifying in this final rule that the departure date submitted in the notification is the vessel owner or operators intended departure date and not necessarily the date the vessel actually leaves port.
In the proposed rule, NMFS also proposed a pre-trip notification requirement of five business days prior to expected departure for vessels requesting a cross-endorsed observer.2
This requirement would have applied to vessels of any gear type requesting a 2 A cross-endorsed observer is an observer that is cross-endorsed pursuant to a Memorandum of Cooperation between the Commission and the InterAmerican Tropical Tuna Commission IATTC that specifies a process to allow the observer to meet the observer requirements of both organizations.

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cross-endorsed observer though to-date only U.S. purse seine vessels have used cross-endorsed observers. NMFS has reviewed its existing processes for crossendorsed observer requests, including a pre-trip notification requirement of at least five days prior to vessel departure at 50 CFR 216.24b8ivA for requests for cross-endorsed observers in the eastern Pacific Ocean EPO, which became effective on September 18, 2020
85 FR 58297; September 18, 2020. As the requirements for the EPO for requesting a cross-endorsed observer also apply to those purse seine vessels in the WCPO requesting a crossendorsed observer, NMFS has decided not to implement the cross-endorsed observer notification requirements specified in the proposed rule.
Public Comments and Responses NMFS received two comment letters on the proposed rule. Below, NMFS
summarizes the matters raised in each of the individual comment letters, grouping similar comments together, and provides a response to each of these matters.
Comment 1: One commenter provided a general statement of support for the proposed rule so that observers would be protected when carrying out their duties. Another commenter provided a statement of support for NMFS to implement CMM 201703 and to protect observer health and safety.
Response: NMFS acknowledges the comments.
Comment 2: One commenter noted that CMM 201703 and the proposed regulatory language outline requirements for vessel owners or operators to follow in the event that an observer is seriously ill and requirements for vessel owners and operators to follow in the event of assault, intimidation, threats or harassment, but that the proposed rules preamble erroneously characterized the requirements as being the same for the two types of events. The commenter requested that the final rule correct this misstatement and clarify that the regulatory language of the proposed rule and the provisions of CMM 201703 are what NMFS is promulgating.
Response: NMFS agrees that CMM
201703 describes specific requirements in the event that an observer is seriously ill and specific requirements in the event that an observer has been assaulted, intimidated, threatened or harassed. Although NMFS described the processes as similar in the proposed rules preamble, the proposed regulatory text clearly differentiated between the events, in accordance with the language in CMM 201703. NMFS clarifies here
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