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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 174 / Monday, September 13, 2021 / Proposed Rules points to the recreational sector, with the preferred alternative being the 3point shift. None of these alternatives affect the total ABC or ACL available to harvest each year, rather how opportunity to do so is distributed between commercial and recreational entities. The 3-point shift to the recreational sector is better representative of how the overall fishery operates, and while it may have a slight negative impact on commercial businesses, it would comparably benefit recreational businesses.
Some potential negative impact sector allocation from the prior proposed measure may be mitigated further by the proposed alternative to revise the sector transfer. The proposed sector transfer provisions would allow quota in an amount up to 10-percent of the ABC to be transferred from either sector to the other from commercial to recreational or vice versa. This management tool would allow for supplementation of quota to either sector in a year when the assigned allocations may not support the business needs of the sector.
Similar to the sector reallocations, several alternatives were considered for the reallocation of commercial quota to the states, based on different time series of landings data. Because these alternatives do not affect the total amount of quota available in the fishery, but rather how it is distributed geographically, it is unlikely that they would have a direct economic impact on commercial businesses as a whole;
however, they may have a disproportionate, indirect impact on some businesses more than others. To mitigate potential negative effects on entities in states that would experience the largest degree of change in commercial allocation, the Council and Board proposed to phase in the allocation changes equally over seven years. This would make the difference in quota allocation that each state would experience each year much smaller, and thus minimize the magnitude of any potential negative effects as a result.
There were three main rebuilding plan strategies considered in this amendment: 1 A plan using constant harvest model to rebuild the stock in four years; 2 a plan based on the Councils risk policy to rebuild the stock in five years; and 3 a plan using a constant fishing mortality model to rebuild the stock in seven years. A No Action alternative was not possible because of the Magnuson-Stevens Act requirement to rebuild an overfished stock. Even though the constant harvest and risk policy plans would rebuild the stock more quickly, the constant fishing mortality rebuilding plan was preferred
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because the more gradual changes it proposes provides the most economic stability and least disruption of business operations while still rebuilding the stock within 10 years.
All alternatives have the potential to impact businesses in the commercial sector; whereas all alternatives except the commercial quota allocation to the states may affect recreational businesses, which comprise the majority of the fishery overall. However, most of the alternatives in this action affect small businesses indirectly and have minimal direct economic impacts. For example, they dictate the process for developing future landings limits, or shift the distribution of quota/effort, but do not change the overall annual amount. That being said, public input was solicited and considered throughout the development of this amendment, and the economic impact on small businesses was minimized wherever possible. Section 7.4 of the EA
contains a more detailed discussion on the economic impacts of each of the alternatives considered in this amendment, and the full RFA analysis can be found in section 8.10.
List of Subjects in 50 CFR Part 648
Fisheries, Fishing, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.
Dated: September 7, 2021.
Samuel D. Rauch III, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Programs, National Marine Fisheries Service.

For the reasons set out in the preamble, 50 CFR part 648 is proposed to be amended as follows:
PART 648FISHERIES OF THE
NORTHEASTERN UNITED STATES
1. The authority citation for part 648
continues to read as follows:

Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.

2. In 648.21, revise paragraph c1
and add paragraph c3 to read as follows:

648.21 Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council risk policy.

c
1 Unless otherwise allowed in paragraph c2 or 3 of this section, for instances in which the application of the risk policy approaches in paragraph b of this section using OFL
distribution results in a more restrictive ABC recommendation than the calculation of ABC derived from the use of FREBUILD at the MAFMC-specified overfishing risk level as outlined in paragraph a of this section, the
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Scientific and Statistical Committee SSC shall recommend to the MAFMC
the lower of the ABC values.

3 The SSC may specify higher ABCs for bluefish based on FREBUILD, as outlined in paragraph a of this section, instead of the risk policy approaches in paragraph b of this section in order to implement a rebuilding program that would rebuild this stock by 2028.

3. In 648.161, revise the section heading and paragraph a to read as follows:
648.161 Bluefish Sector ACLs and Annual Catch Targets ACTs.

a Sector ACLs and ACTs. As a part of the bluefish specifications process, the Bluefish Monitoring Committee shall allocate a specified percentage of the fishery-level ACL to the commercial and recreational fishery sectors, and identify and review the relevant sources of sector-specific management uncertainty to recommend ACTs for each sector.
1 Sectors. The sum of the commercial and recreational sectorspecific ACLs shall be less than or equal to the fishery level ACL. A total of 86
percent of the fishery-level ACL will be allocated to the recreational fishery. A
total of 14 percent of the fishery-level ACL will be allocated to the commercial fishery.
2 Management uncertainty. The Bluefish Monitoring Committee shall recommend any reduction in catch necessary to address management uncertainty and recommend ACTs for each sector, consistent with paragraph a of this section, after the sector allocation described in paragraph a1
of this section. The Bluefish Monitoring Committee recommendations shall identify any sector-specific sources of management uncertainty affecting the fishery, technical approaches to mitigating these sources of uncertainty, and any additional relevant information considered in the ACT recommendation and adjustment process.
3 Periodicity. ACTs may be established on an annual basis for up to 3 years at a time, dependent on whether the SSC provides single or multiple-year ABC recommendations.

4. In 648.162, revise paragraphs b, d, f, and g to read as follows:
648.162

Bluefish specifications.

b TAL. The Bluefish Monitoring Committee shall recommend sectorspecific TALs less than or equal to the
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