Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Stand Down Requirements for Trawl Catcher Vessels Transiting Between the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 679

[Docket No. 980702167-8167-01; I.D. 051898A]

RIN 0648-AK73

Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Stand Down

Requirements for Trawl Catcher Vessels Transiting Between the Bering

Sea and Gulf of Alaska

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

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.

ACTION: Proposed rule; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: NMFS proposes regulations to implement a stand down

requirement for trawl catcher vessels transiting between the Bering Sea

and Aleutian Islands Management Area (BSAI) and Gulf of Alaska (GOA).

This action is necessary to prevent unexpected shifts of fishing effort

between BSAI and GOA fisheries that cause management problems and can

lead to overharvests of total allowable catch (TAC) in the Western and

Central (W/C) Regulatory Areas of the GOA. This action is intended to

further the goals and objectives of the Fishery Management Plan for

Groundfish of the Gulf of Alaska and the Fishery Management Plan for

the Groundfish Fishery of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Area

(FMPs).

DATES: Comments on the proposed rule must be received no later than

August 20, 1998.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be sent to Sue Salveson, Assistant Regional

Administrator for Sustainable Fisheries, Alaska Region, NMFS, P.O. Box

21668, Juneau, AK 99802, Attn: Lori J. Gravel, or delivered to the

Federal Building, 709 West 9th Street, Juneau, AK. Copies of the

Environmental Assessment/Regulatory Impact Review/Initial Regulatory

Flexibility Analysis (EA/RIR/IRFA) prepared for this action are

available from NMFS at the same address, or by calling the Alaska

Region, NMFS, at 907-586-7228.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kent Lind, 907-586-7228 or

[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The groundfish fisheries off Alaska are

managed by NMFS under the FMPs. The FMPs were prepared by the North

Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) under the Magnuson-Stevens

Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act). Federal

regulations governing the groundfish fisheries appear at 50 CFR parts

600 and 679.

Background and Need for Action

In recent years, management of the inshore pollock and Pacific cod

fisheries of the W/C Regulatory Areas of the GOA has become

increasingly difficult and the risk of harvest overruns has grown due

to TAC amounts that are small relative to the potential fishing effort.

The problem has been most acute in the Western Regulatory Area of the

GOA due to the constant potential that numerous large catcher vessels

based in the Bering Sea could cross into the GOA

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to participate in pollock and Pacific cod openings that have relatively

small TACs. NMFS currently lacks a preseason vessel registration

program that could gauge potential effort in these fisheries prior to

openings, and inseason catch information in these fisheries is neither

timely nor accurate enough to allow adequate management.

The difficulty of managing the pollock fishery in the Western

Regulatory Area was demonstrated in 1997 during the September 1 third

season opening. On September 4, 1997, NMFS announced a closure of the

fishery effective September 7, 1997, based on the observed level of

effort in the Western Regulatory Area. Once the closure date was

announced, a large number of Bering Sea-based vessels entered the GOA

to participate in the final 2 days of the fishery. NMFS inseason

managers did not anticipate this increase in effort because the Bering

Sea pollock fishery was still open at that time and NMFS expected that

Bering Sea-based vessels would continue to fish in the Bering Sea.

Nevertheless, these Bering Sea-based vessels harvested approximately

7,000 mt of pollock from the Western Regulatory Area in the final 2

days of the fishery. As a consequence of this unanticipated effort, the

1997 annual TAC of 18,600 mt for this area was exceeded by 8,017 mt or

43 percent of the total.

In response to the difficulties associated with managing the

pollock and Pacific cod fisheries of the W/C Regulatory Areas, the

Council has developed two distinct management solutions. The first

program, adopted by the Council at its February 1998 meeting and

contained in this proposed rule, is a stand down requirement for

inshore trawl catcher vessels transiting between the BSAI and GOA. The

second management program, currently under development by NMFS and the

Council, is a vessel registration program that would require vessels to

register with NMFS in advance of entering certain critical fisheries.

Both of these programs are described in detail in the EA/RIR prepared

for this action.

Elements of the Proposed Rule

This proposed rule would impose a stand down requirement for all

trawl catcher vessels transiting between the BSAI and GOA FMP

management areas that would be in effect when the pollock or Pacific

cod fisheries are open in the BSAI or GOA. Vessels leaving the BSAI

would be required to offload all fish caught in the BSAI and would be

prohibited from deploying trawl gear in the W/C Regulatory Areas of the

GOA until 1200 hours A.l.t. on the third day after the date that

offloading was completed. Vessels transiting from the Western

Regulatory Area to the BSAI would be subject to the same 3-day stand

down requirement. However, vessels transiting between the Central

Regulatory Area and the BSAI would face a 2-day stand down period. The

Council believed that a shorter stand down period for vessels

transiting between the Central Regulatory Area and the BSAI was

warranted because the Central Regulatory Area is farther from the BSAI

and less subject to rapid shifts of effort back and forth from BSAI

fisheries.

The purpose of requiring vessels to offload all fish caught in one

area before deploying gear in the new area is to aid enforcement

officers in determining whether a violation of the stand down

requirement has occurred. If vessels were allowed to retain fish on

board the vessel while transiting to a new area, enforcement officers

boarding a vessel would have no means of determining whether the fish

on board the vessel were caught in the previous area, or caught in the

new area in violation of the stand down requirement. Requiring vessels

to empty their holds before beginning the stand down period would

eliminate this enforcement difficulty.

Classification

This proposed rule has been determined to be not significant for

the purposes of E.O. 12866.

NMFS has prepared an initial regulatory flexibility analysis that

consists of the EA/RIR and the preamble to this proposed rule. A copy

of the EA/RIR is available from NMFS (see ADDRESSES).

The proposed stand down requirement would affect an estimated 275

trawl catcher vessels fishing for groundfish in the GOA and BSAI, all

of which are considered small entities, because it would restrict their

ability to make rapid transits between the BSAI and GOA groundfish

fisheries. Managing pollock and Pacific cod fisheries in the GOA has

been increasingly difficult because of the potential for large catcher

vessels based in the BSAI to participate in pollock and Pacific cod

openings in the GOA that have relatively small TACs and risk harvest

overruns. Ten to 15 catcher vessels, believed to be based in the BSAI,

made rapid transits from one area to another in 1997. NMFS cannot

calculate how many such vessels might transit in 1998 but it is

possible that more than 10-15 catcher vessels could participate in GOA

pollock and Pacific cod fisheries and risk harvest overruns. NMFS

projects that the proposed restriction could result in the foregone

harvest of pollock to BSAI-based catcher vessels, which could exceed

the estimated 7,663 mt of pollock harvested in 1997 by these vessels.

NMFS cannot calculate this proposed rule's effect on the affected

vessels, but it is possible that it could result in losses of 5 percent

or more of these vessels' gross revenues and/or increase the costs of

production by more than 5 percent. No entities are expected to be

forced out of business as a result of this action. As such, based on

NMFS threshold guidelines, this action could result in a significant

economic impact on a substantial number of small entities.

This proposed rule would not result in any new reporting

requirements and does not duplicate, overlap with, or conflict with any

other Federal rules.

Alternatives to the proposed stand down requirement include no

action, variations on the length or applicability of the stand down

requirement, or establishing a vessel registration program. The no

action alternative would preserve the possibility of distributional

impacts resulting from the BSAI-based fleet taking some of the TAC that

would otherwise be harvested by the GOA-based fleet. This alternative's

risks to the long-term health of the stock, due to the potential for

continued overharvests, could lead to negative economic impacts in

future years.

The Council considered a range of variations on the length and

applicability of the stand down requirement. The options that would

have applied the requirements either to all groundfish vessels, or all

trawl vessels were rejected because the objective of preventing

overharvests could be achieved through a less restrictive option that

applied the stand down requirement only to trawl catcher vessels. The

options that would have applied the stand down requirements to all

target fisheries was selected over the option that would have applied

only to the pollock and Pacific cod fisheries due to potential

conflicts with the increased retention/improved utilization program and

the difficulties of enforcing a more narrowly tailored rule. Reducing

the length of the stand down period for the Western Regulatory Area

from 72 to 48 hours may have marginally reduced some of the impacts on

small entities and still reduced the number of rapid transits. However,

this alternative would not have alleviated the impacts of the

offloading requirement and could have resulted in enforcement

difficulties. There were also several options concerning when the stand

down period should begin: from the time of gear retrieval in one area,

from

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noon on the date of landing fish, or from the actual time and date of

the delivery of fish. Beginning the period at the time of retrieval of

gear could have reduced impacts associated with delay on small

entities. This approach would have relied on log book data, and vessels

under 60 feet LOA are not required to maintain logbooks. However, NMFS

does not believe that many of these small catcher vessels make rapid

transits. Beginning the period at the time of actual delivery would

have imposed a new record keeping and reporting requirement, and would

have entailed a Paperwork Reduction Act clearance process that would

have precluded implementing this action prior to 1999.

A vessel registration system, which would require vessels to pre-

register for the areas in which they would be fishing, would resolve

NMFS's management problems with the relatively minor impact of reduced

flexibility for the fishing fleets. In some cases this option would

impose costs on vessels that realize mid-course they would prefer to

fish in another area, but it would improve the predictability of the

fishing season and allow fishers to plan more effectively. The council

has recommended developing this alternative and implementing it at a

later date.

List of Subjects in 50 CFR Part 679

Alaska, Fisheries, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.

Dated: July 14, 1998.

David L. Evans,

Deputy Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries

Service.

For the reasons set out in the preamble, 50 CFR part 679 is

proposed to be amended as follows:

PART 679--FISHERIES OF THE EXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONE OFF ALASKA

1. The authority citation for part 679 continues to read as

follows:

Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq., 773 et seq., and 3631 et seq.

2. In Sec. 679.23 a new paragraph (h) is added to read as follows:

Sec. 679.23 Seasons.

* * * * *

(h) Stand down requirements for catcher vessels transiting between

the BSAI and GOA.

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If you own or operate a catcher vesssel You are prohibited from

and fish for groundfish with trawl gear subsequently deploying trawl Until * * *

in the * * * gear in the * * *

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(1) BSAI while pollock or Pacific cod is Western and Central 1200 hours A.l.t. on the third day

open to directed fishing in the BSAI. Regulatory Areas of the GOA. after the date of landing or transfer

of all groundfish on board the vessel

harvested in the BSAI, unless you are

engaged in directed fishing for

Pacific cod in the GOA for processing

by the offshore component.

(2) Western Regulatory Area of the GOA BSAI......................... 1200 hours A.l.t. on the third day

while pollock or inshore Pacific cod is after the date of landing or transfer

open to directed fishing in the Western of all groundfish on board the vessel

Regulatory Area of the GOA. harvested in the Western Regulatory

Area of the GOA.

(3) Central Regulatory Area of the GOA BSAI......................... 1200 hours A.l.t. on the second day

while pollock or inshore Pacific cod is after the date of landing or transfer

open to directed fishing in the Central of all groundfish on board the vessel

Regulatory Area of the GOA. harvested in the Central Regulatory

Area of the GOA.

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[FR Doc. 98-19334 Filed 7-20-98; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3510-22-P