Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Atlantic Bluefish Fishery; 2024 and Projected 2025 Bluefish Specifications

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE <SUBAGY>National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>50 CFR Part 648</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. 231221-0314; RTID 0648-XD357]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Atlantic Bluefish Fishery; 2024 and Projected 2025 Bluefish Specifications</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final action. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> NMFS issues final Atlantic bluefish specifications for the 2024 fishing year and projects specifications for fishing year 2025, as recommended by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council. This action is necessary to establish allowable harvest levels for the stock to prevent overfishing and promote rebuilding, using the best scientific information available. This action also informs the public of the expected specifications for fishing year 2025. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Effective January 1 2024. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council prepared an environmental assessment (EA) for these specifications that describes the action, other considered alternatives, and analyses of the impacts of all alternatives. Copies of the specifications document, including the EA, are available on request from Dr. Christopher M. Moore, Executive Director, Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, Suite 201, 800 North State Street, Dover, DE 19901. These documents are also accessible via the internet at <E T="03">https://www.mafmc.org/supporting-documents.</E> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Laura Hansen, Fishery Management Specialist, (978) 281-9225. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Background</HD> The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council) and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (Commission) jointly manage the Atlantic Bluefish Fishery Management Plan (FMP). The FMP requires the specification of annual regulatory limits for up to 3 years at a time, including: acceptable biological catch (ABC), commercial and recreational annual catch limits (ACL), commercial and recreational annual catch targets (ACT), a commercial quota, a recreational harvest limit (RHL), and other management measures. This action implements bluefish specifications for the 2024 fishing year, and projects specifications for 2025, based on Council and Commission recommendations. Recent research track (December 2022) and management track (June 2023) assessments for bluefish have determined that the stock is no longer overfished and overfishing is not occurring. However, the spawning stock biomass has not yet reached its target ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> the stock has not fully rebuilt), so the fishery remains under its rebuilding plan. These specifications decrease the 2024 ABC by 43 percent from 2023, based on recommendations from the Council's Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC), results from these assessments, and the rebuilding plan for the stock. No uncertainty buffers were recommended for either the commercial or recreational sector in 2024 or 2025, but commercial discards are now included in the specifications process and are no longer considered negligible. Although the stock is no longer overfished, and therefore transferring quota between the recreational and commercial sectors is no longer prohibited by governing regulations, no sector quota transfer is included in the 2024 specifications because the fishery is still under a rebuilding plan. The resulting 2024 specifications decrease the commercial quota by 43 percent from 2023 and the RHL by 15 percent from the 2023 specifications. No changes were recommended to recreational management measures ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> bag limits), as the average recreational harvest under these limits (11.54 million pounds (lb); 5,234 metric tons (mt)) remains just below the RHL for 2024 (11.96 million lb; 5,425 mt). Status quo recreational measures are also intended to promote continued stability and consistency in the fishery while minimizing the risk of overfishing in the recreational sector. The proposed rule for this action was published in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> on November 16, 2023 (88 FR 78715), and comments were accepted through December 1, 2023. NMFS received two comments from the public, and no changes are made in this final action because of those comments (see Comments and Responses for additional detail). Additional background information regarding the development of these specifications was provided in the proposed rule and is not repeated here. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Final Specifications</HD> This action implements the Council and Commission's recommended 2024 and projected 2025 bluefish catch specifications, as outlined in the proposed rule (table 1). These final specifications decrease all catch limits in 2024 based on best available information from the recent assessments and the rebuilding plan, but project increases to all limits in 2025. As previously mentioned, this action makes no changes to recreational management measures (such as bag limits), as the expected recreational landings under the existing measures are likely to achieve the 2024 RHL without exceeding it. <GPOTABLE COLS="7" OPTS="L2,p7,7/8,i1" CDEF="s50,10,10,10,10,10,10"> <TTITLE>Table 1—Comparison of 2023, Final 2024, and Projected 2025 Bluefish Specifications *</TTITLE> <CHED H="1"> </CHED> <CHED H="1">2023</CHED> <CHED H="2">Million lb</CHED> <CHED H="2">Metric tons</CHED> <CHED H="1">2024</CHED> <CHED H="2">Million lb</CHED> <CHED H="2">Metric tons</CHED> <CHED H="1">2025 (projected)</CHED> <CHED H="2">Million lb</CHED> <CHED H="2">Metric tons</CHED> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Overfishing Limit</ENT> <ENT>45.17</ENT> <ENT>20,490</ENT> <ENT>25.87</ENT> <ENT>11,734</ENT> <ENT>27.49</ENT> <ENT>12,467</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">ABC = Fishery ACL</ENT> <ENT>30.62</ENT> <ENT>13,890</ENT> <ENT>17.48</ENT> <ENT>7,929</ENT> <ENT>21.83</ENT> <ENT>9,903</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Commercial ACL = Commercial ACT</ENT> <ENT>4.29</ENT> <ENT>1,945</ENT> <ENT>2.45</ENT> <ENT>1,110</ENT> <ENT>3.06</ENT> <ENT>1,386</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Recreational ACL = Recreational ACT</ENT> <ENT>26.34</ENT> <ENT>11,945</ENT> <ENT>15.03</ENT> <ENT>6,819</ENT> <ENT>18.78</ENT> <ENT>8,517</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Commercial Discards</ENT> <ENT>0</ENT> <ENT>0</ENT> <ENT>0.02</ENT> <ENT>11</ENT> <ENT>0.02</ENT> <ENT>11</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Recreational Accountability Measures</ENT> <ENT>5.59</ENT> <ENT>2,536</ENT> <ENT>6.64</ENT> <ENT>3,012</ENT> <ENT>3.08</ENT> <ENT>1,396</ENT> <ENT>3.08</ENT> <ENT>1,396</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Commercial Total Allowable Landings (TAL)</ENT> <ENT>4.29</ENT> <ENT>1,945</ENT> <ENT>2.42</ENT> <ENT>1,099</ENT> <ENT>3.03</ENT> <ENT>1,375</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Recreational TAL</ENT> <ENT>14.11</ENT> <ENT>6,400</ENT> <ENT>11.96</ENT> <ENT>5,423</ENT> <ENT>15.70</ENT> <ENT>7,121</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Sector Transfer</ENT> <ENT>4.29</ENT> <ENT>1,945</ENT> <ENT>2.42</ENT> <ENT>1,099</ENT> <ENT>3.03</ENT> <ENT>1,375</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">RHL</ENT> <ENT>14.11</ENT> <ENT>6,400</ENT> <ENT>11.96</ENT> <ENT>5,423</ENT> <ENT>15.70</ENT> <ENT>7,121</ENT> </ROW> <TNOTE>* Specifications are derived from the ABC in metric tons (mt). When values are converted to millions of pounds the numbers may shift due to rounding. The conversion factor used is 1 mt = 2204.6226 lb.</TNOTE> </GPOTABLE> The final coastwide commercial quota is allocated among the coastal states from Maine to Florida based on percent shares specified in the FMP, and the phased-in changes to these share allocations specified in Amendment 7 to the FMP (86 FR 66977, November 24, 2021). The final 2024 and projected 2025 state-allocated commercial quotas are shown below in table 2. No states exceeded their allocated quota in 2022 or are projected to do so in 2023; therefore, no accountability measures for the commercial fishery are required for the 2024 fishing year based on the data available at this time. <GPOTABLE COLS="7" OPTS="L2,p7,7/8,i1" CDEF="s50,12,12,12,12,12,12"> <TTITLE>Table 2—2024 and Projected 2025 Bluefish State Commercial Quota Allocations</TTITLE> <CHED H="1">State</CHED> <CHED H="1">2024</CHED> <ENT>0.43</ENT> <ENT>10,388</ENT> <ENT>4,712</ENT> <ENT>0.35</ENT> <ENT>10,575</ENT> <ENT>4,797</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">New Hampshire</ENT> <ENT>0.33</ENT> <ENT>7,975</ENT> <ENT>3,618</ENT> <ENT>0.30</ENT> <ENT>9,116</ENT> <ENT>4,135</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Massachusetts</ENT> <ENT>8.17</ENT> <ENT>198,025</ENT> <ENT>89,823</ENT> <ENT>8.66</ENT> <ENT>262,473</ENT> <ENT>119,056</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Rhode Island</ENT> <ENT>8.01</ENT> <ENT>194,025</ENT> <ENT>88,008</ENT> <ENT>8.41</ENT> <ENT>254,876</ENT> <ENT>115,610</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Connecticut</ENT> <ENT>1.19</ENT> <ENT>28,821</ENT> <ENT>13,073</ENT> <ENT>1.16</ENT> <ENT>35,284</ENT> <ENT>16,004</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">New York</ENT> <ENT>14.40</ENT> <ENT>348,947</ENT> <ENT>158,280</ENT> <ENT>15.74</ENT> <ENT>477,171</ENT> <ENT>216,441</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">New Jersey</ENT> <ENT>14.40</ENT> <ENT>348,898</ENT> <ENT>158,258</ENT> <ENT>14.26</ENT> <ENT>432,316</ENT> <ENT>196,095</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Delaware</ENT> <ENT>1.29</ENT> <ENT>31,139</ENT> <ENT>14,124</ENT> <ENT>1.09</ENT> <ENT>32,966</ENT> <ENT>14,953</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Maryland</ENT> <ENT>2.54</ENT> <ENT>61,471</ENT> <ENT>27,883</ENT> <ENT>2.38</ENT> <ENT>72,21 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 18k characters. 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