[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 54 (Friday, March 20, 1998)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Page 13563]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-7345]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
50 CFR Part 648
[Docket No. 971015246-7293-02; I.D. 031398D]
Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Summer Flounder
Fishery; Commercial Quota Harvested for Maine
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Commercial quota harvest.
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SUMMARY: NMFS announces the summer flounder commercial quota available
to the State of Maine has been harvested. Vessels issued a commercial
Federal fisheries permit for the summer flounder fishery may not land
summer flounder in Maine for the remainder of calendar year 1998,
unless additional quota becomes available through a transfer.
Regulations governing the summer flounder fishery require publication
of this announcement to advise the State of Maine that the quota has
been harvested and to advise vessel permit holders and dealer permit
holders that no commercial quota is available for landing summer
flounder in Maine.
DATES: Effective 0001 hours, March 20, 1998, through December 31, 1998.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tom Warren, telephone (978) 281-9347.
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
coastal 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 1998
calendar year was set equal to 11,105,636 lb (5,037,432 kg) (62 FR
66304, December 18, 1997). The percent allocated to vessels landing
summer flounder in Maine is 0.04756 percent, or 5,284 lb (2,397 kg).
Section 648.100(e)(4) stipulates that any overages of commercial
quota landed in any state be deducted from that state's annual quota
for the following year. In calendar year 1997, a total of 2,835 lb
(1,286 kg) were landed in Maine, creating a 493 lb (224 kg) overage
that was deducted from the amount allocated for landings in the State
during 1998 (63 FR 3478, January 23, 1998). The resulting commercial
quota for Maine in 1998 is 4,791 lb (2,173 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. The Regional
Administrator has determined, based upon dealer reports and other
available information, that the State of Maine has attained its quota
for 1998.
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 March
20, 1998, further landings of summer flounder in Maine by vessels
holding commercial Federal fisheries permits are prohibited for the
remainder of the 1998 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 Maine 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. 12866.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: March 16, 1998.
Bruce C. Morehead,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 98-7345 Filed 3-17-98; 2:45 pm]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-F
