[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 249 (Tuesday, December 30, 1997)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Page 67754]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-33889]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
50 CFR Part 648
[Docket No. 961210346-7035-02; I.D. 122297F]
Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Summer Flounder
Fishery; Commercial Quota Harvested for Virginia
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Commercial quota harvest.
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SUMMARY: NMFS announces that the summer flounder commercial quota
available to the Commonwealth of Virginia has been harvested. Vessels
issued a commercial Federal fisheries permit for the summer flounder
fishery may not land summer flounder in Virginia for the remainder of
calendar year 1997, unless additional quota becomes available through a
transfer. Regulations governing the summer flounder fishery require
publication of this notice to advise the Commonwealth of Virginia that
the quota has been harvested and to advise vessel and dealer permit
holders that no commercial quota is available for landing summer
flounder in Virginia.
DATES: Effective December 23, 1997, through December 31, 1997.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Regina Spallone, Fishery Policy
Analyst, 978-281-9221.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Regulations governing the summer flounder
fishery are found at 50 CFR part 648. The regulations require annual
specification of a commercial quota that is apportioned among the
states from North Carolina through Maine. The process to set the annual
commercial quota and the percent allocated to each state are described
in Sec. 648.100.
The initial total commercial quota for summer flounder for the 1997
calendar year was set equal to 11,111,298 lb (5,040,000 kg) (March 7,
1997, 62 FR 10473). The percent allocated to vessels landing summer
flounder in Virginia is 21.31676 percent, or 2,368,569 lb (1,074,365
kg).
Section 648.100(d)(2) stipulates that any overages of commercial
quota landed in any state be deducted from that state's annual quota
for the following year. In the calendar year 1996, a total of 2,274,457
lb (1,031,676 kg) were landed in Virginia. The amount allocated for
Virginia landings in 1996 was 2,200,681 lb (998,212 kg), creating a
73,776 lb (33,464 kg) overage that was deducted from the amount
allocated for landings in the Commonwealth during 1997 (July 15, 1997,
62 FR 37742). The resulting quota for Virginia is 2,294,793 lb
(1,040,901 kg).
Section 648.101(b) requires the Administrator, Northeast Region,
NMFS (Regional Administrator), to monitor state commercial quotas and
to determine when a state's commercial quota is harvested. The Regional
Administrator is further required to publish a notice in the Federal
Register advising a state and notifying Federal vessel and dealer
permit holders that, effective upon a specific date, the state's
commercial quota has been harvested and no commercial quota is
available for landing summer flounder in that state. Because the
available information indicates that the Commonwealth of Virginia has
attained its quota for 1997, the Regional Administrator has determined
based on dealer reports and other available information, that the
Commonwealth of Virginia's commercial quota has been harvested.
The regulations at Sec. 648.4(b) provide that Federal permit
holders agree as a condition of the permit not to land summer flounder
in any state that the Regional Administrator has determined no longer
has commercial quota available. Therefore, effective 0001 hours
December 23, 1997, further landings of summer flounder in Virginia by
vessels holding commercial Federal fisheries permits are prohibited for
the remainder of the 1997 calendar year, unless additional quota
becomes available through a transfer and is announced in the Federal
Register. Effective the date above, federally permitted dealers are
also advised that they may not purchase summer flounder from federally
permitted vessels that land in Virginia for the remainder of the
calendar year, or until additional quota becomes available through a
transfer.
Classification
This action is required by 50 CFR part 648 and is exempt from
review under E.O. 12886.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: December 22, 1997.
Gary C. Matlock,
Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries
Service.
[FR Doc. 97-33889 Filed 12-23-97; 3:51 pm]
BILLING CODE 3210-22-P
