[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 46 (Monday, March 10, 1997)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 10822-10823]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-5784]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
50 CFR Part 648
[I.D. 022797A]
New England Fishery Management Council; Meeting
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Public meeting.
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SUMMARY: The New England Fishery Management Council (Council) will hold
a 2-day public meeting on March 12 and 13, 1997, to consider actions
affecting New England fisheries in the exclusive economic zone.
DATES: The meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 12, 1997, at 10
a.m. and on Thursday, March 13, 1997, at 8:30 a.m.
ADDRESSES: The meeting will take place at the King's Grant Inn, Route
128 and Trask Lane, Danvers, MA; telephone (508) 774-6800. Requests for
special accommodations should be addressed to the New England Fishery
Management Council, 5 Broadway, Saugus, MA 01906-1097; telephone: (617)
231-0422.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Paul J. Howard, Executive Director,
New England Fishery Management Council, (617) 231-0422.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
March 12, 1997
The March 12 session will begin with Enforcement Committee
recommendations on cod trip limits and fishing vessels transiting
closed areas. In addition to reviewing NMFS and Coast Guard reports to
the Council on recent enforcement actions, the Enforcement Committee
will provide an update on a Vessel Tracking System trial program and an
evaluation of the current scallop regulations. The Scallop Committee
will review its most recent discussion of
[[Page 10823]]
fishing effort consolidation. The day will conclude with a report by
the Groundfish Committee chairman. His briefing on the committee's
discussions will include: Maintaining or opening groundfish closed
areas to scallop dredging; consideration of a framework adjustment to
the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan (FMP) that would
contain measures to protect incoming year classes of winter flounder;
development of a timetable for winter flounder stock rebuilding and for
whiting management; consideration of a year-round fishery for small
scallop dredges in the Nantucket Shoals Dogfish Exemption Area; the
August 15 through September 13 Northeast Closure Area for groundfish,
as it relates to the gillnet fishery requirement to take 21 days off
from groundfish fishing between June and September; and initial action
on a framework adjustment to the FMP under the framework for
abbreviated rulemaking procedure contained in 50 CFR 648.82. In
addition to allowing fishing in the North Atlantic Fisheries
Organization regulated area without using multispecies days-at-sea
(DAS) allocations, this framework adjustment would provide incentives
to fish offshore through several means including not counting steaming
time against multispecies DAS allocations.
March 13, 1997
The Council Chairman; Executive Director; Regional Administrator,
Northeast Region, NMFS; representatives from the Northeast Fisheries
Science Center; Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC);
U.S. Coast Guard; and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council
liaison will report on recent activities. There will be a briefing on
the Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics Program followed by an
update on public comments received to date on monkfish management
proposals. During the latter portion of the meeting, the Responsible
Fishing Committee will discuss fishermen's training and certification
programs. There will be an update on ASMFC's lobster management program
and a NMFS update on actions to restrict lobster gear to reduce the
risk of northern right whale entanglements.
Announcement of Experimental Fishery Applications
There will be a discussion of several experimental fisheries that
have been recently submitted to NMFS for review and approval. Among the
proposed experiments are extensions of two previous experiments, two
expansions of previously conducted experiments and two new experiments.
The Regional Administrator has conducted preliminary reviews of the
experimental fishery proposals and is seeking Council and industry
comments on the proposals.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Division of
Fish Game and Wildlife conducted studies on food habits and digestive
systems of lobsters taken from artificial reef systems off of New
Jersey. One fishing vessel was issued an experimental fishing permit
(EFP) that exempted it from the possession limit for vessels without a
Federal American lobster permit, size limit, and prohibition on
possession of lobster parts. The investigators were not able to collect
their target numbers of 150 lobsters and have therefore requested an
extension of the EFP to cover the period from June through October of
1997.
The Research Foundation of the State University of New York (SUNY)
has been issued an EFP for a fishing vessel that it has chartered to
conduct studies on interactions between juvenile groundfish and their
habitats. The study is funded under the Saltonstall/Kennedy Grant
program and the EFP expires on April 30, 1997. SUNY has requested that
the EFP be extended to cover the duration of the funded activities. The
project involves collection of samples of juvenile fish in the New York
Bight area with small mesh trawl gear. An EFP is required to exempt the
participating vessel from DAS, gear and mesh size restrictions, and
minimum fish size limits of the FMP.
A member of the fishing industry has requested that the seasonal
experimental whiting separator trawl fishery conducted in the Northern
Shrimp Small Mesh Exemption Area be extended to allow fishing under the
experiment for the entire year. In addition, the applicant has
requested the use of a grate bar spacing of 2 inches (5.08 cm) instead
of the previous 1-9/16 - inch (4-cm) bar spacing used in the previous
fishery. EFPs would be necessary to exempt participating vessels from
mesh size, DAS, and bycatch restrictions of the FMP.
The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (MADMF) has
requested that its experimental small mesh raised footrope trawl
whiting fishery conducted in Cape Cod Bay be expanded to allow two to
three vessels to fish in three additional distinct areas within the
GOM/GB Regulated Mesh Area. MADMF would monitor the vessels and the
trawl gear to determine if the raised footrope trawl is an appropriate
gear to reduce bycatch of regulated species in areas outside of Cape
Cod Bay. EFPs would be required to exempt vessels from mesh size, DAS,
and bycatch restrictions of the multispecies FMP.
The MADMF and an industry member have submitted an application to
conduct comparisons of catch rates of yellowtail flounder using diamond
and square mesh trawls. The purpose of the study is to determine the
selectivity of diamond or square mesh trawls on yellowtail flounder. An
EFP would be required to exempt the vessel from possession limits, DAS,
and mesh size restrictions of the FMP. While the vessel will be using
the regulated 6-inch (15.24-cm) mesh trawls, small mesh codend covers
will be used to measure the catches of the fish for each type of trawl.
The applicants have further requested that the vessel be allowed to
retain and land legal sized regulated multispecies on the experimental
trips.
The Maine Department of Marine Resources (MEDMR) had requested that
fishing vessels and recreational fishers be allowed to catch and retain
juvenile tagged regulated multispecies that were raised and released by
MEDMR. Participating fishers would return the tagged fish to MEDMR. The
purpose of the tagged fish recovery effort is to measure the
survivability of released fish. Those catching and returning tagged
juvenile regulated species would be required to be exempted from the
minimum fish size limits and possibly DAS and possession limits of the
multispecies FMP.
Prior to the conclusion of the meeting, the Council will discuss
policy advice to the Mid-Atlantic Council on mackerel joint ventures
and comments on NMFS' proposed swordfish fishery limited access
program.
Special Accommodations
This meeting is physically accessible to people with disabilities.
Requests for sign language interpretation or other auxiliary aids
should be directed to Paul J. Howard (see ADDRESSES) at least 5 days
prior to the meeting date.
Authority: 16 U.S. C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: March 4, 1997.
Bruce Morehead,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 97-5784 Filed 3-7-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-F
