Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Atlantic Bluefish Fishery

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 648

[I.D. 041599B]

Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Atlantic Bluefish

Fishery

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

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of availability of Amendment 1 to the Fishery Management

Plan for Atlantic Bluefish (FMP); request for comments.

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SUMMARY: NMFS announces that the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management

Council (Council) has submitted Amendment 1 to the Atlantic Bluefish

FMP for Secretarial review and is requesting comments from the public.

Amendment 1 would establish new management measures to control fishing

mortality on Atlantic bluefish (bluefish) while addressing the new

requirements of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and

Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act), as amended by the Sustainable

Fisheries Act (SFA). The intent of Amendment 1 is to eliminate

overfishing and rebuild the Atlantic bluefish stock.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before June 29, 1999.

ADDRESSES: Send comments to Jon C. Rittgers, Acting Regional

Administrator, National Marine Fisheries Service, Northeast Regional

Office, One Blackburn Drive, Gloucester, Massachusetts 01930-3799. Mark

the outside of the envelope: ``Comments on Amendment 1 to the Atlantic

Bluefish Plan.''

Copies of Amendment 1, including the final environmental impact

statement and regulatory impact review, are available from Daniel

Furlong, Executive Director, Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council,

Room 2115 Federal Building, 300 S. New Street, Dover, DE 19904-6790.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Myles Raizin, Fishery Policy Analyst,

978-281-9104.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Amendment 1 would: revise the overfishing

definition for Atlantic bluefish; implement a 9-year stock rebuilding

schedule based on a staggered reduction of fishing mortality rate (F);

specify a commercial quota with state allocations and a coastwide

recreational harvest limit for the first year of the rebuilding

schedule; implement permit and reporting requirements for commercial

fishermen, dealers, and party/charter boat operators; establish a

Bluefish Monitoring Committee; establish an annual adjustment process

to meet fishing mortality rate objectives of the FMP; establish a

framework adjustment process to change measures such as minimum fish

size, gear restrictions, recreational seasons or bag limits, closed

areas or commercial seasons; specify a de minimus commercial quota for

certain states; and identify and describe essential fish habitat (EFH)

of bluefish.

This amendment is intended to bring the Atlantic Bluefish FMP into

conformance with the Magnuson-Stevens Act as amended by the SFA. The

provisions in section 108(a) of the SFA require that Fishery Management

Councils either add to or revise the required provisions of any fishery

management plan prepared by a Council or the Secretary of Commerce to

include the following provisions on: (1) bycatch reports (standardize

reporting methods to assess the type and amount of bycatch in a

fishery); (2) bycatch measures (develop management measures to minimize

bycatch and mortality of bycatch); (3) commercial, recreational, and

charter fishing sectors (specify data for each sector); (4) EFH

(describe and identify EFH, minimize to the extent practicable adverse

impacts from fishing, and identify other actions to encourage the

conservation of such habitat); (5) fishing communities (assess in a

fishery impact statement the likely effects of measures on fishing

communities); (6) and overfishing (specify objective and measurable

criteria for identifying whether a fishery is overfished, and include

measures to prevent overfishing). Public comment is invited on the

adequacy of Amendment 1 in meeting the requirements of section 108(a)

of the SFA.

Overfishing Definition

Amendment 1 would revise the overfishing definition so that it is

composed of two reference points to bring it into accordance with the

new national standards of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, as amended by the

SFA. The proposed overfishing definition for bluefish is: Overfishing

occurs whenever F is greater than the F threshold = Fmsy =

0.4; bluefish is overfished when biomass is less than 1/

2Bmsy=118.5 mil lb (53,750 mt). The long-term F target is 90

percent of Fmsy and the Btarget is Bmsy. No

change to the regulatory text is necessary to change the overfishing

definition.

Rebuilding Strategy

An additional requirement of the SFA is that stocks identified as

overfished (i.e., stock biomass is less than minimum biomass threshold)

must be rebuilt to the level that will produce BMSY in as

short a period as possible. The Council and Commission propose to

rebuild the bluefish stock to the BMSY level over a 9-year

rebuilding period. The 9-year rebuilding schedule would eliminate

overfishing and rebuild the stock through a graduated reduction in the

F. The current F associated with MSY is FMSY=0.4. In 1997,

the F was estimated at F=0.51, so that overfishing was occurring.

For the first 2 years of the rebuilding plan (1999-2000), F would

remain at the current level, F=0.51 and then would be reduced to F=0.41

in years 3-5 (2001-2003), and finally to F=0.31 in years 6-9 (2004-

2007). During the rebuilding period, the target F for the next fishing

year would be set at the level specified in the rate reduction schedule

or the level estimated for the most recent year, whichever is less.

Based on the overfishing definition, target F would continue to be at

90% FMSY (F=0.36), once rebuilding is achieved. Amendment 1

proposes that commercial landings quotas and a recreational harvest

limit are the chief measures to achieve these goals.

Essential Fish Habitat Designation

The Council identified and described EFH for various stages of the

life cycle of bluefish, fishing impacts on EFH, non-fishing threats on

EFH, and research recommendations relevant to a better understanding of

EFH. The Council intends that the EFH designations for bluefish under

this Amendment be reviewed and, if needed, updated at least every 5

years. Amendment 1 would authorize the revision of EFH components of

the FMP through the FMP's framework process.

Management Measure Considered for Disapproval

De minimus Status

De minimus has been defined as a situation in which, under existing

conditions of the stock and scope of the fishery, conservation and

enforcement actions taken by an individual state

[[Page 23261]]

would be expected to contribute insignificantly to a coastwide

conservation program required by a FMP or amendment. Amendment 1

proposes that any state that has commercial landings less than 0.1

percent of the total coastwide commercial landings in the last

preceding year for which data are available would be eligible for de

minimus status. The de minimus status would only apply to the

commercial fishery, and any state granted de minimus status would be

allocated 0.1 percent of the coastwide commercial quota. Further,

Amendment 1 proposes that the sum of the allocation to de minimus

states would be deducted from the coastwide commercial quota before the

remainder of the quota is allocated to other states. The proposed

measure to establish de minimus quota specifications is identical to

the measure that NMFS disapproved in Amendment 8 and Amendment 10 to

the Fishery Management Plan for Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea

Bass.

This measure would require an annual examination of state landings

to determine if landings in that state during the preceding year for

which data are available were less than 0.1 percent of the overall

annual quota. If a state met this criterion, it would be granted de

minimus status. This provision raises a number of concerns: the burdens

of administering this provision could well outweigh its benefits; and

lack of any clear obligation on the part of a de minimus state to close

its fishery (i.e., prohibit landings) once its quota is harvested,

could result in overfishing. These concerns will be considered in

determining the approvability of this provision.

If de minimus status does not, at the very least, require a state

to impose landing constraints, the provision may encourage owners of

vessels that have not traditionally landed in that state to land

amounts of bluefish much greater than they could land in their home

port states. This could result in the state's de minimus quota being

rapidly exceeded and compound the overfishing situation if a de minimus

state is not required to close its fishery when its de minimus quota is

harvested.

A proposed rule that would implement Amendment 1 may be published

in the Federal Register for public comment, following an evaluation of

the proposed rule by NMFS under the procedures of the Magnuson-Stevens

Act. Public comments on the proposed rule must be received by the end

of the comment period on Amendment 1 (see DATES) in order to be

considered in the decision concerning approval or disapproval of the

Amendment. All comments received by June 29, 1999, whether specifically

directed to Amendment 1 or the proposed rule, will be considered in the

approval/disapproval decision on Amendment 1. Comments received after

that date will not be considered in the approval/disapproval decision

on Amendment 1.

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

Dated: April 26, 1999.

Bruce Morehead,

Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine

Fisheries Service.

[FR Doc. 99-10903 Filed 4-29-99; 8:45 am]

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