Reef Fish Fishery of the Gulf of Mexico; Amendment 11

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 641

[I.D. 082395A]

Reef Fish Fishery of the Gulf of Mexico; Amendment 11

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of availability of an amendment to a fishery management

plan; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: NMFS announces that the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management

Council (Council) has submitted Amendment 11 to the Fishery Management

Plan for the Reef Fish Resources of the Gulf of Mexico (FMP) for

review, approval, and implementation by NMFS. Written comments are

requested from the public.

DATES: Written comments must be received on or before October 24, 1995.

ADDRESSES: Comments must be mailed to the Southeast Regional Office,

NMFS, 9721 Executive Center Drive N., St. Petersburg, FL 33702.

Requests for copies of Amendment 11, which includes an

environmental assessment, a regulatory impact review, and an initial

regulatory flexibility analysis should be sent to the Gulf of Mexico

Fishery Management Council, 5401 W. Kennedy Boulevard, Suite 331,

Tampa, FL 33609-2486; fax: 813-225-7015.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael E. Justen or Robert Sadler,

813-570-5305.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Magnuson Fishery Conservation and

Management Act (Magnuson Act), requires that a council-prepared

amendment to a fishery management plan be submitted to NMFS for review

and approval, disapproval, or partial disapproval. The Magnuson Act

also requires that NMFS, upon receiving an amendment, immediately

publish a document that the amendment is available for public review

and comment.

Amendment 11 proposes to: (1) Revise the annual framework procedure

for modifying management measures; (2) specify in the framework

procedure that the recovery period will be set by the Council, not its

Stock Assessment Panel; (3) change the definition of optimum yield; (4)

allow total allowable catch (TAC) to exceed the allowable biological

catch (ABC) level specified for stocks assessed as not overfished; (5)

increase the upper limit for framework adjustments of the red snapper

recovery schedule from 1.5 to 2.0 times the biological generation time,

or other period to be approved by the Council; (6) limit sale of reef

fish by permitted vessels to permitted reef fish dealers; (7) require

that permitted reef fish dealers purchase reef fish caught in the

exclusive economic zone only from permitted vessels; (8) allow transfer

of fish trap endorsements in the event of death or disability; (9)

allow a one-time transfer of certain fish trap endorsements; (10)

implement a new reef fish permit moratorium for no more than 5 years or

until December 31, 2000, while the Council considers limited access for

the reef fish fishery; (11) allow permit transfers to other persons

with vessels by vessel owners who qualified for their reef fish permit;

and (12) require charter vessel and headboat permits.

The Director, Southeast Region, NMFS, based on a preliminary

evaluation of Amendment 11, has disapproved three amendment measures,

because these measures were determined to be inconsistent with the

Magnuson Act. The disapproved measures included the following sections

of Amendment 11: (1) Section 8.3, Optimum Yield Definition; (2) section

8.5, Use of ABC Range for Specification of TAC, setting TAC above ABC

for non overfished resources; and (3) section 8.7, Respecify the

Generation Time Multiplier for Recovery Periods.

Proposed regulations to implement those measures of Amendment 11

that were not disapproved based on the preliminary evaluation are

scheduled for publication within 15 days.

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

Dated: August 25, 1995.

Richard H. Schaefer,

Director, Office of Fisheries Conservation and Management, National

Marine Fisheries Service.

[FR Doc. 95-21576 Filed 8-25-95; 3:49 pm]

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