[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 158 (Tuesday, August 17, 1999)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 44661-44662]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-21299]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
50 CFR Part 648
[Docket No. 981014259-8312-02; I.D. 081099A]
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 1999, unless additional quota becomes
available through a transfer. Regulations
[[Page 44662]]
governing the summer flounder fishery require publication of this
notification 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 from 0001 hours, August 16, 1999, through 2400 hours,
December 31, 1999.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Paul H. Jones, Fishery Policy Analyst,
(978) 281-9273.
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 on a percentage
basis among the 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 initial total commercial quota for summer flounder for the 1999
calendar year was set equal to 11,110,300 lb (5,039,547 kg)(64 FR 5196,
February 3, 1999, corrected at 64 FR 9088, February 24, 1999). The
percent allocated to vessels landing summer flounder in Massachusetts
is 6.82046 percent, or 757,842 lb (343,751 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 notification 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 1999.
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 August
16, 1999, further landings of summer flounder in Massachusetts by
vessels holding commercial Federal fisheries permits are prohibited for
the remainder of the 1999 calendar year, unless additional quota
becomes available through a transfer and is announced in the Federal
Register. Effective the same date, 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: August 12, 1999.
Bruce C. Morehead,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 99-21299 Filed 8-12-99; 3:18 pm]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-F
