2024-28845. Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; 2025 Specifications for the Summer Flounder, Scup, Black Sea Bass, and Bluefish Fisheries

Table 1—Summary of 2025 Summer Flounder Fishery Specifications

Specifications	Million pounds (lb)	Metric ton (mt)
Overfishing Limit (OFL)	24.97	11,325
ABC	19.32	8,761
Commercial ACL = ACT	10.62	4,819
Commercial Quota	8.79	3,987
Recreational ACL = ACT	8.69	3,942
Recreational Harvest Limit	6.35	2,879

The final 2025 state-by-state summer flounder quotas are provided in table 2. As required in Amendment 21 (85 FR 80661), if the commercial quota in any year is higher than 9.55 million lb (4,332 mt), the first 9.55 million lb (4,322 mt) is distributed according to the baseline formula found in the regulations at 50 CFR 648.102(c)(1)(i) (the baseline allocations were established through Amendment 2 (57 FR 57358) and modified by Amendment 4 (58 FR 49937)). Any additional quota is distributed in equal shares to all states except Maine, Delaware, and New Hampshire, which split 1 percent of the additional quota. Because this year's quota is below 9.55 million lb (4,322 mt), the state-by-state allocations are based on the baseline allocations. This final rule includes adjustments for previously unaccounted for 2023 and preliminary 2024 overages to determine the final state quotas.

Table 2—Final 2025 Summer Flounder State-by-State Quotas

State	Percent share up to 9.55 million lb	Final 2025 quotas 1 (lb)	Final 2025 quotas 1 (mt)
ME	0.04756	4,180	1.9
NH	0.00046	40	0.02
MA	6.82046	571,147	259.07
RI	15.68298	1,378,507	625.28
CT 2	2.25708	198,393	89.99
NY	7.64699	672,157	304.89
NJ	16.72499	1,470,098	666.83
DE	0.01779	1,564	0.71
MD	2.0391	179,233	81.3
VA	21.31676	1,873,707	849.9
NC	27.44584	2,412,443	1,094.27
Total	100	8,761,471	3,974.14
1  Totals may differ slightly from the sums of the quotas due to rounding.
2  This table corrects a typographical error from the proposed rule that misstated Connecticut's final quota as 198,394 lb (89.9mt).

( print page 99140)

This action makes no changes to the current commercial management measures, including the minimum fish size (14-inch (36-centimeter (cm)) total length), gear requirements, and possession limits.

Black Sea Bass Specifications

At the August 2024 meeting, the Council and the Commission's Black Sea Bass Board were unable to agree on the 2025 black sea bass specifications. The Black Sea Bass Board adopted a coastwide quota for black sea bass that is the same as the 2024 quota, while the Council adopted a quota that represents a 20-percent reduction from 2024. If implemented, the differing quotas would likely have significant negative socioeconomic impacts on Federal black sea bass permit holders. In the case where the two bodies propose different specifications, the regulations at 50 CFR 648.143(e) require the Regional Administrator to take administrative action to align measures to prevent differential effects on Federal permit holders.

According to the 2024 Black Sea Bass Management Track Assessment, the biomass of the black sea bass stock is more than double the target level with an increasing trend, recent recruitment is high, and recent fishing mortality has been well below the threshold level. Given the current status of the black sea bass stock and the potentially significant social and economic harm to Federal permit holders that would result from divergent state and Federal quotas, we are implementing 2025 black sea bass catch limits consistent with those adopted by the Commission.

The final 2025 black sea bass catch and landings limits are shown in table 3.

Table 3—2025 Black Sea Bass Catch and Landings Limits

Specifications	Million lb	mt
ABC	16.66	7,557
Expected Commercial Discards	1.50	680
Expected Recreational Discards	2.89	1,311
Commercial ACL = ACT	7.50	3,401
Commercial Quota	6.00	2,721
Recreational ACL = ACT	9.16	4,156
RHL	6.27	2,845

No changes are being made to the 2025 commercial management measures for black sea bass, including the commercial minimum fish size (11-inch (27.94-cm) total length) and gear requirements. Any changes to recreational management measures for black sea bass would be considered through a separate action following the joint meeting of the Council and Commission in December 2024.

On October 1, 2024 (89 FR 79778), we implemented the approved measure of Amendment 23 to the Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass FMP. The approved measure changes the Federal coastwide commercial in-season accountability measure such that the black sea bass commercial fishery will now close when the quota plus an additional buffer of up to 5 percent is projected to be landed. The intent of this buffer is to minimize negative economic impacts when the coastwide quota is reached before all states have fully harvested their allocations due to overages in individual states.

Pursuant to the Amendment 23 measure, the Council and Black Sea Bass Board may recommend a buffer from 0 to 5 percent each year through the specification process. This action adopts the Council and Black Sea Bass Board-recommended 5-percent commercial in-season closure buffer. Given recent patterns in the fishery, an in-season closure is not expected for 2025; however, in the unlikely event it is needed, a 5-percent buffer could have socioeconomic benefits with little risk to stock status.

Scup Specifications

This action adopts the Council and Scup Board-recommended 2025 scup catch and landings limits shown in table 4.

Table 4—2025 Scup Catch and Landing Limits

Specifications	Million lb	mt
OFL	42.19	19,135
ABC	41.31	18,740
Expected Commercial Discards	7.38	3,318
Expected Recreational Discards	2.08	944
Commercial ACL = ACT	26.85	12,181
Commercial Quota	19.54	8,863
Recreational ACL = ACT	14.46	6,559
RHL	12.31	5,585

The commercial scup quota is divided into three commercial fishery quota periods, as outlined in table 5.

Table 5—Commercial Scup Quota Allocations for 2025 by Quota Period

Quota period	Percent share	lb	mt
Winter I	45.11	8,814,300	3,998
Summer	38.95	7,610,663	3,452
( print page 99141)
Winter II	15.94	3,114,608	1,413
Total	100.00	19,539,570	8,863

The current quota period possession limits are not changed by this action and are outlined in table 6.

Table 6—Commercial Scup Possession Limits by Quota Period

Quota period	Federal possession limits (per trip)
	lb	kg
Winter I	50,000	22,680
Summer	N/A	N/A
Winter II	12,000	5,443

The Winter I scup commercial possession limit will drop to 1,000 lb (454 kg) when 80 percent of that period's allocation is landed. If the Winter I quota is not fully harvested, the remaining quota is transferred to the Winter II period. The Winter II possession limit may be adjusted in association with a transfer of unused Winter I quota to the Winter II period via announcement in the Federal Register . The regulations specify that the Winter II possession limit increases to different levels consistent with the increase in the quota, as described in table 7.

Table 7—Potential Increase in Winter II Possession Limits Based on the Amount of Unused Scup Rolled Over From Winter I to Winter II

Initial Winter II possession limit		Rollover from Winter I to Winter II		Increase in initial Winter II possession limit		Final Winter II possession limit after rollover from Winter I to Winter II
lb	kg	lb	kg	lb	kg	lb	kg
12,000	5,443	0-499,999	0-226,796	0	0	12,000	5,443
12,000	5,443	500,000-999,999	226,796-453,592	1,500	680	13,500	6,123
12,000	5,443	1,000,000-1,499,999	453,592-680,388	3,000	1,361	15,000	6,804
12,000	5,443	1,500,000-1,999,999	680,389-907,184	4,500	2,041	16,500	7,484
12,000	5,443	2,000,000-* 2,500,000	907,185-1,133,981	6,000	2,722	18,000	8,165
* This process of increasing the possession limit in 1,500 lb (680 kg) increments would continue past 2,500,000 lb (1,122,981 kg), but ends here for the purpose of this example.

This action makes no changes to the 2025 commercial management measures for scup, including the minimum fish size (9-inch (22.9-cm) total length), gear requirements, and quota period possession limits.

Bluefish Specifications

This action approves the Council- and the Commission's Bluefish Board-recommended 2025 bluefish catch and landings limits as shown in table 8.

Table 8—Summary of 2025 Bluefish Fishery Specifications

Specifications	Million lb	mt
OFL	27.49	12,467
ABC	21.83	9,903
Commercial ACL = ACT	3.06	1,386
Commercial Quota	3.03	1,375
Recreational ACL = ACT	18.78	8,517
Recreational Harvest Limit	15.70	7,121

The coastwide commercial quota is allocated to coastal states from Maine to Florida based on percent shares specified in the Bluefish FMP and regulations at § 648.162(d). Table 9 provides the final commercial state allocations based on the Council-recommended coastwide commercial quota for 2025 and the phased-in changes to the percent share allocations to the states specified in Amendment 7. No states exceeded their allocated quota ( print page 99142) in 2023 or are projected to do so in 2024; therefore, no accountability measures for the commercial fishery are required for the 2025 fishing year based on the data available at this time.

Table 9—2025 Final Bluefish State Commercial Quota Allocations

State	Percent share	Quota (lb)	Quota (kg)
Maine	0.35	10,582	4,800
New Hampshire	0.30	9,123	4,138
Massachusetts	8.66	262,663	119,142
Rhode Island	8.41	255,061	115,694
Connecticut	1.16	35,309	16,016
New York	15.74	477,518	216,598
New Jersey	14.26	432,630	196,238
Delaware	1.09	32,990	14,964
Maryland	2.38	72,265	32,779
Virginia	8.44	256,125	116,176
North Carolina	32.04	972,012	440,897
South Carolina	0.07	2,250	1,021
Georgia	0.06	1,897	860
Florida	7.04	213,625	96,899
Total	100	3,033,561	1,376,000