[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 135 (Tuesday, July 15, 1997)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 37741-37743]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-18462]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
50 CFR Part 648
[Docket No. 961210346-7035-02; I.D. 070397G]
Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Summer Flounder
Fishery; Adjustments to the 1997 State Quotas; Commercial Quota
Harvested for North Carolina
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Commercial quota adjustment, notice of commercial quota
harvest.
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SUMMARY: NMFS issues this notification announcing adjustments to the
commercial state quotas for the 1997 summer flounder fishery. This
action complies with regulations implementing the Fishery Management
Plan for the Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea
[[Page 37742]]
Bass Fisheries (FMP), which require that landings in excess of a
state's annual summer flounder commercial quota be deducted from that
state's quota the following year. The public is advised that quota
adjustments have been made, and is informed of the revised quotas for
the affected states. As a consequence of this action, NMFS further
announces that no commercial quota is available for landing summer
flounder in North Carolina for the remainder of the 1997 calendar year.
DATES: Effective July 9, 1997, through December 31, 1997.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Regina L. Spallone, Fishery Policy
Analyst, 508-281-9221.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Regulations implementing summer flounder
management measures are found at 50 CFR part 648, subparts A and G. The
regulations require annual specification of a commercial quota that is
apportioned among the Atlantic coastal states from North Carolina
through Maine. The process to set the annual commercial quota and the
percent allocated to each state is described in Sec. 648.100. The final
specifications for the 1997 summer flounder fishery, adopted to ensure
achievement of a fishing mortality rate of 0.3 for 1997, set a
coastwide commercial quota equal to 11,111,298 lb (5.0 million kg)
(March 7, 1997, 62 FR 10473).
Section 648.100(d)(2) provides that all landings for sale in a
state shall be applied against that state's annual commercial quota.
Any landings in excess of the state's quota must be deducted from that
state's annual quota for the following year. NMFS published all
available 1996 landings data as part of the final specifications for
1997, and made associated adjustments to several states' 1997 quotas as
a result of 1996 overages. Quota adjustments were made to the 1997
commercial quotas for the States of Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island,
Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, and North
Carolina. At the time of publication of the final specifications, the
remaining states of New Hampshire and Maryland did not appear to have
exceeded their quotas.
When these data were presented to the principal state official with
marine fishery management responsibility in each constituent state,
data were noted as final, with the exception of Virginia inshore
landings of summer flounder, which were preliminary. However, it was
noted that if additional data were received that would alter the
figures, an adjustment would be necessary. Since the final
specifications were published, additional landings from 1996 have been
reported by several states. These late reports came from either
federally permitted dealers or state statistical agencies.
Weekly dealer reports must be received or postmarked, if mailed,
within 3 days after the end of each reporting week. If a dealer is
delinquent in submitting its reports, a permit will not be issued in
the following year until all delinquent reports are received. Since
dealers must renew permits annually, some dealers have recently
submitted delinquent 1996 reports in order to comply with the
regulations and receive a 1997 permit. NMFS recognizes the problems
that chronic late dealer reporting poses to accurate quota monitoring.
As such, present compliance monitoring includes monthly checks of
weekly dealer reports (for quota managed species) versus monthly dealer
weighouts (for all species), to eliminate concerns of a dealer's
continued chronic late or misreporting on weekly reports. If chronic
problems are noted, dealers are referred to law enforcement for further
action.
Additionally, some states have inshore fisheries that are not
covered by the Federal reporting system. These landings data are
collected by the respective state agencies and submitted to NMFS as
they become available. As a result of these late and/or additional
reports, in this case from the States of Maryland, Virginia, and North
Carolina, additional 1996 landings data have recently become available.
In the case of North Carolina, the state-collected data were not
provided to NMFS until May 28, 1997. While other state data were
received prior to that date, all of the adjustments are made in this
notice.
Based on dealer reports and other available information, NMFS has
determined that the States of Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island,
Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and
North Carolina exceeded their 1996 quotas. The remaining State of New
Hampshire did not exceed its 1996 quota. The revised 1996 landings and
resulting overages for all states are given in Table 1. The adjusted
1997 commercial quota for each state is given in Table 2.
Table 1.--Revised 1996 State Commercial Landings
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Original 1996 landings 1 Revised 1996 landings Difference
State -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
lb (kg) 2 lb (kg) lb (kg)
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ME................................ 8,226 3,731 8,226 3,731 0 0
NH................................ 0 0 0 0 0 0
MA................................ 780,297 353,940 800,704 363,193 20,407 9,256
RI................................ 1,663,520 754,560 1,766,482 801,263 102,962 46,703
CT................................ 278,776 126,451 278,776 126,451 0 0
NY................................ 927,763 420,826 940,313 426,519 12,550 5,693
NJ................................ 2,345,460 1,063,883 2,369,134 1,074,621 23,674 10,738
DE................................ 7,153 3,245 7,917 3,591 764 347
MD................................ 225,051 102,081 264,886 120,150 39,835 18,069
VA................................ 2,280,457 1,034,398 2,274,457 1,031,676 (6,000)\3\ (2,722)
NC................................ 3,688,217 1,672,947 4,227,052 1,917,359 538,835 244,411
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Total......................... 12,204,920 5,536,059 12,937,947 5,868,554 733,027 332,495
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\1\ Original 1996 landings data, as published March 7, 1997.
\2\ Kilograms are as converted from pounds, and may not necessarily add due to rounding.
\3\ Parentheses indicate a negative number.
[[Page 37743]]
Table 2.--1997 Readjusted State Commercial Quotas, as Adjusted for Revised 1996 Overages
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Adjusted 1997 quota \1\ Readjusted 1997 quota
State -------------------------------------------------------
lb (Kg) \2\ lb (Kg)
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ME...................................................... 2,342 1,062 2,342 1,062
NH...................................................... 51 23 51 23
MA...................................................... 729,636 330,957 709,229 321,701
RI...................................................... 1,699,405 770,837 1,596,443 724,134
CT...................................................... 222,806 101,063 222,806 101,063
NY...................................................... 766,893 347,857 754,343 342,164
NJ...................................................... 1,371,266 621,996 1,347,592 611,257
DE...................................................... \3\ (4,898) (2,222) \3\ (5,662) (2,568)
MD...................................................... 226,570 102,770 186,735 84,702
VA...................................................... 2,288,793 1,038,179 2,294,793 1,040,901
NC...................................................... 1,812,440 882,109 1,273,605 577,698
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Total............................................... 9,115,304 4,134,632 8,382,277 3,802,137
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\1\ Adjusted 1997 quotas, as published March 7, 1997.
\2\ Kilograms are as converted from pounds, and may not necessarily add due to rounding.
\3\ Number in parentheses are negative.
Section 648.101(b) requires the Administrator, Northeast Region,
NMFS, (Regional Administrator) to monitor state commercial quotas and
to determine when a state commercial quota is harvested. NMFS is
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.
Since this adjustment reduces the adjusted 1997 North Carolina
commercial quota allocation from 1,812,440 lb (882,109 kg), to
1,273,605 pounds (577,698 kg), and landings for 1997 to date in that
State are in excess of the adjusted quota, this notice also serves to
announce that the summer flounder quota available to North Carolina has
been harvested. As a result, no commercial quota is available for
landing summer flounder in that State for the remainder of the 1997
calendar year.
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
July 9, 1997, until 2400 hours, December 31, 1997, landings of summer
flounder in North Carolina by vessels holding commercial Federal
fisheries permits are prohibited unless additional quota becomes
available through a transfer and is announced in the Federal Register.
Federally permitted dealers are also advised that they may not purchase
summer flounder from federally permitted vessels that land in North
Carolina 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: July 9, 1997.
Gary C. Matlock,
Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries
Service.
[FR Doc. 97-18462 Filed 7-9-97; 4:44 pm]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P
