[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 158 (Friday, August 15, 1997)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Page 43674]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-21669]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
50 CFR Part 648
[Docket No. 961210346-7035-02; I.D. 081197A]
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.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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 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 Massachusetts 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 Massachusetts.
DATES: Effective August 13, 1997, through December 31, 1997.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dana Hartley, Fishery Management
Specialist, 508-281-9226.
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 Massachusetts is 6.82046 percent, or 757,841 lb (343,751
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 800,704
lb (363,193 kg) were landed in Massachusetts. The amount allocated for
Massachusetts landings in 1996 was 752,092 lb (328,350 kg), creating a
48,612 lb (22,050 kg) overage that was deducted from the amount
allocated for landings in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts during 1997
(July 15, 1997, 62 FR 37741). The resulting 1997 quota for
Massachusetts is 709,229 lb (321,701 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 Massachusetts
has attained its quota for 1997, the Regional Administrator has
determined based on dealer reports and other available information,
that the Commonwealth'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 August 13, 1997,
further landings of summer flounder in Massachusetts 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 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. 12286.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: August 11, 1997.
Gary C. Matlock,
Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries
Service.
[FR Doc. 97-21669 Filed 8-12-97; 2:16 pm]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-F
