NMFS proposes to implement management measures described in Amendment 35 to the Fishery Management Plan for the Reef Fish Resources of the Gulf of Mexico (FMP) prepared by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council. If implemented, this rule would establish sector annual catch limits (ACLs) and sector annual catch targets (ACTs) for greater amberjack; revise the sector accountability measures (AMs) for greater amberjack; and establish a commercial trip limit for greater amberjack. Additionally, Amendment 35 would modify the greater amberjack rebuilding plan. The intent of Amendment 35 is to end overfishing of greater amberjack, modify the greater amberjack rebuilding plan and help achieve optimum yield (OY) for the greater amberjack resource in accordance with the requirements of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act).
Written comments must be received on or before August 20, 2012.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments on the proposed rule identified by ``NOAA-NMFS-2012-0107'' by any of the following methods:
Electronic submissions: Submit electronic comments via the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the ``Instructions'' for submitting comments.
Mail: Rich Malinowski, Southeast Regional Office, NMFS, 263 13th Avenue South, St. Petersburg, FL 33701.
Instructions: All comments received are a part of the public record and will generally be posted to http://www.regulations.gov without change. All Personal Identifying Information (for example, name, address, etc.) voluntarily submitted by the commenter may be publicly accessible. Do not submit Confidential Business Information or otherwise sensitive or protected information. NMFS will accept anonymous comments (enter N/A in the required field if you wish to remain anonymous).
To submit comments through the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov, enter ``NOAA-NMFS-2012-0107'' in the search field and click on ``search.'' After you locate the document ``Fisheries of the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and South Atlantic; Reef Fish Fishery of the Gulf of Mexico; Amendment 35,'' click the ``Submit a Comment'' link in that row. This will display the comment Web form. You can then enter your submitterinformation (unless you prefer to remain anonymous), and type your comment on the Web form. You can also attach additional files (up to 10MB) in Microsoft Word, Excel, WordPerfect, or Adobe PDF file formats only.
Comments received through means not specified in this rule will not be considered.
For further assistance with submitting a comment, see the ``Commenting'' section at http://www.regulations.gov/#!faqs or the Help section at http://www.regulations.gov.
Electronic copies of Amendment 35, which includes a draft environmental assessment, an initial regulatory flexibility analysis (IRFA), and a regulatory impact review, may be obtained from the Southeast Regional Office Web site at http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov/sf/GrouperSnapperandReefFish.htm.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Rich Malinowski, Southeast Regional Office, telephone 727-824-5305, email rich.malinowski@noaa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
The reef fish fishery of the Gulf is managed under the FMP. The FMP was prepared by the Council and is implemented through regulations at 50 CFR part 622 under the authority of the Magnuson-Stevens Act. All greater amberjack weights discussed in this proposed rule are in round weight.
Background
Since 1990, the Council and NMFS have implemented a series of management measures to prevent overfishing of the greater amberjack stock and achieve OY. Amendment 1 to the FMP added greater amberjack to the list of species in the FMP, set a recreational minimum size limit of 28 inches (71 cm), established a three-fish recreational bag limit, and set a commercial minimum size limit of 36 inches (91 cm) (55 FR 2079, January 22, 1990). Amendment 12 to the FMP reduced the greater amberjack recreational bag limit to one fish per person per day (61 FR 65983, December 16, 1996).
Greater amberjack were first determined to be overfished and undergoing overfishing in 2000. Secretarial Amendment 2 established a rebuilding plan for greater amberjack, starting in 2003, based on a stock assessment conducted in 2000 (68 FR 39898, July 3, 2003). A 2006 SEDAR benchmark stock assessment (SEDAR 9 2006c) determined that the greater amberjack stock was still overfished and undergoing overfishing. Amendment 30A to the FMP set the greater amberjack stock total allowable catch at 1,871,000 lb (848,671 kg), for the 2008 through 2010 fishing years. Using an allocation of 73 percent for the recreational sector and 27 percent for the commercial sector, Amendment 30A to the FMP established a recreational quota of 1,368,000 lb (620,514 kg), and a commercial quota of 503,000 lb (228,157 kg) (73 FR 38139, July 3, 2008). Amendment 30A also established greater amberjack AMs. These AMs state that if a sector's landings reaches, or is projected to reach, the applicable quota, the sector will close for the remainder of the fishing year. Additionally, in the event of a quota overage, the respective sector's quota will be reduced in the following fishing year by the amount of the respective sector's quota overage in the prior fishing year.
Status of Stock
In 2010, the Southeast Data, Assessment, and Review (SEDAR) stock assessment update (SEDAR 9 Update) was conducted for greater amberjack. The SEDAR 9 Update (2010) indicated that the greater amberjack stock was both overfished and undergoing overfishing.
In March 2011, the Council's Science and Statistical Committee (SSC) reviewed the update assessment, determined the assessment to be the best scientific information available, and accepted its conclusions that the stock was undergoing overfishing and is overfished. However, the SSC rejected as unreliable the absolute values that resulted in the conclusions and rejected the assessment's yield projections. The SSC believed that the yield projections were unreliable because they showed large sensitivity to small changes in initial conditions, fishing mortality rates, and catch. Therefore, the SSC did not use the stock assessment to set the overfishing limit (OFL) or the acceptable biological catch (ABC) but instead used Tier 3b of the ABC control rule that the Council was developing in the Generic Annual Catch Limit/Accountability Measure Amendment (Generic ACL Amendment). NMFS approved the Generic ACL Amendment and published a final rule implementing the management measures in that amendment in December 2011 (76 FR 82044, December 29, 2011).
Both Tier 1 and Tier 2 of the ABC control rule require stable yield projections, which were not available for greater amberjack. Tier 3 of the control rule applies when no assessment is available but landings data exist. Tier 3a applies when the stock is unlikely to undergo overfishing if future landings are equal to or moderately higher than the mean of recent landings. Tier 3b applies when expert evaluation of the best scientific information available indicates that recent landings may be unsustainable. Tier 3b uses the average of recent annual catches to set the OFL and the ABC is set as a percentage of the OFL. The ABC control rule states that the default is to set the ABC equal to 75 percent of the OFL. The SSC decided that, given the likelihood of ongoing overfishing, Tier 3b was appropriate for greater amberjack. Therefore, instead of relying on assessment projections, the SSC set the OFL for greater amberjack equal to the weight of the mean landings for the most recent ten years (2000-2009) and recommended the ABC for three years (2011-2013) be set at 75 percent of that 10-year mean.
The Council accepted the SSC's recommendations, set the ACL equal to the ABC, and consistent with the Generic ACL Amendment, set the ACT approximately 15 percent below the ACL. Although the ACL adopted by the Council was based on landings recorded during a time period when overfishing is believed to have been occurring, in the Generic ACL Amendment the Council determined that the Tier 3b methodology would end overfishing where applicable. NMFS approved this approach when approving the Generic ACL Amendment, and finds that following this approach in Amendment 35 is consistent with the FMP as amended.
Further, greater amberjack landings are somewhat variable over the 10-year period of 2000 through 2009, and there is no discernible trend in these landings. The lack of a discernible trend in landings data supports the conclusion that the stock size is more likely than not stable enough that the ABC recommendation (i.e., 75 percent of the OFL) and management measures implemented by the Council (setting the ACT approximately 15 percent below the ACL) will provide the reduction in greater amberjack fishing mortality necessary to end overfishing and rebuild the greater amberjack stock. A new benchmark assessment for greater amberjack is scheduled to occur in 2013. When the new assessment is completed, NMFS and the Council will be able to confirm that greater amberjack has met its rebuilding schedule.
Management Measures Contained in This Proposed Rule
This proposed rule would establish greater amberjack sector ACLs and sector ACTs (which are expressed as quotas in the regulatory text), revise the sector AMs, and establish a commercial trip limit for greater amberjack.
ACLs and ACTs
This rule would define specific ACLs for the greater amberjack commercial and recreational sectors. This proposed rule would also establish the ACTs (expressed as quotas in the regulatory text) for both sectors.
The National Standard 1 Guidelines (74 FR 3178, June 16, 2009) require the establishment of a mechanism for specifying ACLs in the FMP at a level such that overfishing does not occur in the fishery. Within Amendment 30A to the FMP, the Council and NMFS established greater amberjack commercial and recreational quotas that functioned as ACLs. An ACT is a management target established to account for management uncertainty in controlling the actual catch at or below the ACL. An ACT is used in the system of AMs so that the ACL is not exceeded. Therefore, a sector ACT should be set below the sector ACL to allow the sector to be closed when the ACT is projected to be reached. Amendment 35 would establish the greater amberjack ACL equal to the greater amberjack stock ABC at 1,780,000 lb (807,394 kg), and set the greater amberjack stock ACT at 1,539,000 lb (698,079 kg) based on the ACT Control Rule developed in the Generic ACL Amendment (76 FR 82044, December 29, 2011).
Sector allocations were established in Amendment 30A to the FMP and were not changed in Amendment 35. For greater amberjack, 27 percent of the ACL is allocated to the commercial sector and 73 percent of the ACL is allocated to the recreational sector.
This proposed rule would establish the greater amberjack commercial ACL at 481,000 lb (218,178 kg). The commercial ACT, which is equivalent to the greater amberjack commercial quota, would be reduced from 503,000 lb (228,157 kg), to 409,000 lb (185,519 kg). The commercial ACT would be set 15 percent below the ACL to account for management uncertainty.
This proposed rule would establish the greater amberjack recreational ACL at 1,299,000 lb (589,116 kg). The recreational ACT, which is equivalent to the greater amberjack recreational quota, would be reduced from 1,368,000 lb (620,514 kg), to 1,130,000 lb (512,559 kg). The recreational ACT would be set 13 percent below the ACL to account for management uncertainty.
AMs
This proposed rule would revise the AMs for both the greater amberjack commercial and recreational sectors. AMs are management controls that are implemented to prevent ACLs from being exceeded, and to correct or mitigate overages of the ACL if they occur. There are two categories of AMs, in-season AMs (when the ACL is met or projected to be met) and post-season AMs (when the ACL is exceeded).
The current in-season AM for the greater amberjack commercial sector closes the sector when commercial landings reach or are projected to reach the applicable quota. In addition, if despite such closure the commercial landings exceed the quota, the following year's quota is reduced by the amount of the quota overage in the prior fishing year (post-season AM). This rule would implement an ACT that isless than the ACL, creating a buffer between the two. The ACT would be the quota and this rule would require that the commercial sector close when the ACT is reached or projected to be reached. By closing the commercial sector when the ACT is reached or projected to be reached, there is less probability of exceeding the ACL. In addition to this revision of the in-season AM, this rule would revise the post-season AM as follows: If commercial landings exceed the commercial ACL, then during the following fishing year, both the commercial ACT (commercial quota) and the commercial ACL will be reduced by the amount of the prior years' commercial ACL overage.
The current in-season AM for the greater amberjack recreational sector closes the sector when recreational landings reach or are projected to reach the applicable quota. In addition, if despite such closure the recreational landings exceed the quota, the following year's recreational quota is reduced by the amount of the quota overage in the prior fishing year, and the recreational fishing season is reduced by the amount necessary to recover the overage from the prior fishing year (post-season AMs). This rule would implement an ACT that is less than the ACL, creating a buffer between the two. The ACT would act as the quota and this rule would require that the recreational sector close when the ACT is reached or projected to be reached. By closing the recreational sector when the ACT is reached or projected to be reached, there is less probability of exceeding the ACL. In addition to this revision of the in-season AM, this rule would revise the post-season AMs as follows: If recreational landings exceed the recreational ACL, then during the following fishing year, both the recreational ACT (recreational quota) and the recreational ACL will be reduced by the amount of the prior year's recreational ACL overage.
Commercial Trip Limit
Currently, there is no trip limit for the commercial sector. This rule would establish a commercial trip limit for greater amberjack of 2,000 lb (907 kg). This trip limit would be applicable until the commercial ACT (commercial quota) is reached or projected to be reached during a fishing year and the commercial sector is closed.
Other Action Contained in Amendment 35
Amendment 35 would revise the rebuilding plan for greater amberjack. The greater amberjack stock is currently in its last year of a 10-year rebuilding plan that began in 2003 and ends in 2012. Amendment 35 would modify the rebuilding plan in response to the results from the SEDAR 9 Update and subsequent SSC review and recommendations for the greater amberjack ABC.