[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 143 (Monday, July 27, 1998)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Page 40066]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-19975]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
50 CFR Part 648
[Docket No. 971015246-7293-02; I.D. 072098D]
Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Summer Flounder
Fishery; Commercial Quota Harvested for Massachusetts
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 Massachusetts has been harvested.
Vessels issued a commercial Federal fisheries permit for the summer
flounder fishery may not land summer flounder in Massachusetts 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 document to advise the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts 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 Massachusetts.
DATES: Effective 0001 hours, July 23, 1998, through December 31, 1998.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tom Warren, Fishery Management
Specialist, (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 Massachusetts is 6.82046 percent, or 757,841 lb
(343,751 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 the calendar year 1997, a total of 745,171
lb (338,004 kg) were landed in Massachusetts, creating a 35,942 lb
(16,303 kg) overage that was deducted from the amount allocated for
landings in the Commonwealth during 1998 (63 FR 23227, April 28, 1998).
The resulting quota for Massachusetts is 721,899 lb (327,488 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 document 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 Commonwealth of Massachusetts 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 July
23, 1998, further landings of summer flounder in Massachusetts 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 July 23, 1998, federally permitted dealers are also
advised that they may not purchase summer flounder from federally
permitted vessels that land in Massachusetts 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 21, 1998.
Bruce C. Morehead,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 98-19975 Filed 7-22-98; 2:35 pm]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-F
