[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 69 (Thursday, April 9, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 19931-19932]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-07473]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
[RTID 0648-XX048]
Magnuson-Stevens Act Provisions; General Provisions for Domestic
Fisheries; Application for Exempted Fishing Permits
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notice; request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The Assistant Regional Administrator for Sustainable
Fisheries, Greater Atlantic Region, NMFS, has made a preliminary
determination that an exempted fishing permit application submitted by
the Gulf of Maine Research Institute contains all of the required
information and warrants further consideration. The exempted fishing
permit would allow the use of electronic monitoring and dockside
monitoring to support testing a maximized retention model in the
groundfish fishery. Vessels would be exempt from minimum fish sizes and
groundfish sector at-sea monitoring requirements. Additionally, vessels
would be authorized to access portions of Closed Area II during certain
times of year, and use trawl gear below the minimum mesh size.
Regulations under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and
Management Act require publication of this notification to provide
interested parties the opportunity to comment on applications for
proposed exempted fishing permits.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before April 24, 2020.
ADDRESSES: You may submit written comments by either of the following
methods:
Email: [email protected]. Include in the subject line
``GMRI MREM EFP.''
Mail: Michael Pentony, Regional Administrator, NMFS,
Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office, 55 Great Republic Drive,
Gloucester, MA 01930. Mark the outside of the envelope ``GMRI MREM
EFP.''
Copies of the supplemental information report (SIR) developed in
support of this project may be obtained by contacting Claire Fitz-
Gerald, Fishery Policy Analyst at the Greater Atlantic Regional
Fisheries Office, 978-281-9255.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Claire Fitz-Gerald, Fishery Policy
Analyst, 978-281-9255.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Groundfish sectors must implement and fund
an at-sea monitoring (ASM) program, and the Northeast Multispecies
Fishery Management Plan allows sectors to use electronic monitoring
(EM) to satisfy this monitoring requirement, provided that NMFS deems
the technology sufficient for catch monitoring. NMFS recently notified
the Council of its intent to allow sectors to submit EM plans instead
of, or in addition to, ASM plans as part of the fishing year 2021 and
2022 sector operations plans approval process. For the 2020 fishing
year, lessons learned through this exempted fishing permit (EFP) will
allow NMFS to continue developing standards and requirements for the
groundfish EM program. Project partners include the Gulf of Maine
Research Institute (GMRI) and fishermen.
GMRI submitted an EFP application to test a maximized retention
electronic monitoring (MREM) model and an accompanying dockside
monitoring (DSM) program to monitor high-volume bottom-trawl vessels in
the groundfish fleet. Vessels would be outfitted with EM systems
(cameras and gear sensors), and the cameras would be on for 100 percent
of groundfish trips. The EFP
[[Page 19932]]
would require participating vessels to retain and land all catch of
allocated groundfish, including undersized fish that they would
normally be required to discard. All other species would be handled per
normal commercial fishing operations. An EM service provider would
review 100 percent of the video footage to verify that the vessels did
not discard allocated groundfish. Northeast Fisheries Science Center
(Center) staff would conduct a secondary review of the video footage on
a subset of trips.
All catch would be assessed shoreside via an accompanying DSM
program. Dockside monitors would: (1) Collect biological information
for undersized catch, including length-frequency data and age
structures on a subset of fish in this market category; (2) verify
dealer-reported weights for all species and market categories; and (3)
inspect fish holds. Vessels would be authorized to sell catch,
including undersized fish, to a limited number of dealers. The vessel
and dealer would work collaboratively with the Center to ensure that a
dockside monitor is present to observe 100 percent of offloads for this
project. Participating dealers would be required to accommodate
monitors' sampling protocols and all totes containing undersized fish
would be accompanied by a tag identifying the program and the vessel
trip report (VTR) number.
Because vessels would be fully monitored, GMRI also requested
exemptions to incentivize participation in the project and increase
fishing opportunities for healthy stocks. The EFP would allow vessels
to use the codend configuration used in the Canadian haddock fishery
(5.1-inch (13.0-cm) square mesh codend with modifier haddock separator
device or Ruhle trawl) and/or the codend configuration tested in the
REDNET project (4.5-inch (11.4-cm) diamond mesh codend). The latter
mesh size would be restricted to the Redfish Exemption Area and all
standard sector exemption requirements would still apply. These
exemptions are intended to improve size selectivity and increase catch
of target species, while avoiding groundfish species of concern.
The applicant also requested access to portions of Closed Area II.
Vessels would be allowed to fish in the non-essential fish habitat
portions of Closed Area II from April 16 through January 31. Vessels
would not be allowed to fish in the area from February 1 through April
15 as fishing activity during this time may negatively affect Georges
Bank cod and haddock spawning. The applicant states that, due to the
distribution and movement of groundfish stocks, this exemption would
improve vessels' ability to selectively target healthy groundfish
stocks.
The applicant also requested an exemption from sector third-party
ASM requirements. Under the current MREM program EFP, ASM data is used
to build discard rates for unallocated groundfish stocks and non-
groundfish species for MREM vessels. ASM data is not used to build
discard rates for allocated groundfish stocks because the vessels are
required to retain and land this catch. Therefore, we intend to reduce
the ASM coverage target under this EFP to the level necessary to meet
the coefficient of variation (CV30) precision standard for the
unallocated groundfish stocks. For fishing year 2020, the ASM coverage
target would be 9 percent, driven by ocean pout. Although the ASM
coverage level should not be based solely on the results of the CV30
standard methodology for the fishery as a whole, we determined that the
CV30 methodology is appropriate for this program because the same
circumstances do not apply. MREM vessels are not allowed to discard
allocated stocks and are fully monitored to ensure compliance. These
vessels would only be discarding unallocated stocks, which do not
present the same potential for bias. Northeast Fishery Observer Program
(NEFOP) observers would not be deployed on these vessels because their
fishing activity is not consistent with the Standardized Bycatch
Reporting Methodology (SBRM) sampling design. Under an operational
program, NMFS would build an SBRM stratum for MREM vessels and these
data would be used to build discard rates for unallocated species.
Participating vessels would use cameras in lieu of ASM and in
additional to NEFOP observers. Because vessels participating in the EFP
are not subject to NEFOP coverage, a limited amount of ASM is
necessary.
This EFP would be effective for the 2020 and 2021 fishing years.
NMFS would authorize a maximum of eight bottom-trawl vessels to
participate. MREM vessels would take roughly 240-315 trips per year and
would land an estimated 1-3 million pounds (454--1,361 mt) of fish
annually. All catch of allocated groundfish stocks would be deducted
from the appropriate sector's allocation. Because this is a maximized
retention program, vessels would not be permitted to discard legal
unmarketable fish for allocated groundfish stocks, regardless of
whether the vessel holds a sector exemption to do so through its
operations plan.
If approved, the applicant may request minor modifications and
extensions to the EFP throughout the year. EFP modifications and
extensions may be granted without further notice if they are deemed
essential to facilitate completion of the proposed research and have
minimal impacts that do not change the scope or impact of the initially
approved EFP request. Any fishing activity conducted outside the scope
of the exempted fishing activity would be prohibited.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: April 6, 2020.
H[eacute]l[egrave]ne M.N. Scalliet,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2020-07473 Filed 4-8-20; 8:45 am]
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