Atlantic Highly Migratory Species; Prohibiting Retention of Oceanic Whitetip Sharks in U.S. Atlantic Waters and Hammerhead Sharks in the U.S. Caribbean Sea

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE <SUBAGY>National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>50 CFR Part 635</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. 231228-0317]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 0648-BK54</RIN> <SUBJECT>Atlantic Highly Migratory Species; Prohibiting Retention of Oceanic Whitetip Sharks in U.S. Atlantic Waters and Hammerhead Sharks in the U.S. Caribbean Sea</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> In this final rule, NMFS is prohibiting the retention and possession of oceanic whitetip sharks ( <E T="03">Carcharhinus longimanus</E> ) in U.S. waters of the Atlantic Ocean, including the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, and hammerhead sharks (great ( <E T="03">Sphyrna mokarran</E> ), smooth ( <E T="03">S. zygaena</E> ), and scalloped ( <E T="03">S. lewini</E> ) hammerhead sharks) in U.S. waters of the Caribbean Sea. This action is responsive to two Biological Opinions (BiOps) for Atlantic Highly Migratory Species (HMS): one for the pelagic longline (PLL) fishery and one for the non-PLL fisheries. The BiOps strongly encouraged the inclusion of the scalloped hammerhead shark Central and Southwest Atlantic Distinct Population Segment (DPS) and the oceanic whitetip shark on the list of prohibited sharks for recreational and/or commercial HMS fisheries. These prohibitions apply to all HMS permitted fishermen. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This final rule is effective February 2, 2024. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> Additional information related to this final rule, including electronic copies of the supporting documents are available from the HMS Management Division website at <E T="03">https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/topic/atlantic-highly-migratory-species,</E> on <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> (enter “NOAA-NMFS-2023-0025” in the Search box), or by contacting Ann Williamson at <E T="03">ann.williamson@noaa.gov</E> or 301-427-8503. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Ann Williamson, <E T="03">ann.williamson@noaa.gov,</E> Becky Curtis, <E T="03">becky.curtis@noaa.gov,</E> or Karyl Brewster-Geisz, <E T="03">karyl.brewster-geisz@noaa.gov,</E> at 301-427-8503. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Background</HD> Atlantic shark fisheries are managed under the 2006 Consolidated HMS Fishery Management Plan (FMP) and its amendments, pursuant to the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act; 16 U.S.C. 1801 <E T="03">et seq.</E> ) and consistent with the Atlantic Tunas Convention Act (ATCA; 16 U.S.C. 971 <E T="03">et seq.</E> ). HMS implementing regulations are at 50 CFR part 635. Background information about the need to prohibit the retention and possession of oceanic whitetip sharks in U.S. waters of the Atlantic Ocean, including the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, and hammerhead sharks (great, smooth, and scalloped hammerhead sharks) in U.S. waters of the Caribbean Sea was provided in the preamble to the proposed rule (88 FR 17171, March 22, 2023) and is not repeated here. The comment period for the proposed rule closed on May 22, 2023. NMFS received 93 written comments as well as oral comments during the public hearing held by webinar on April 25, 2023. The comments received, and the responses to those comments, are summarized in the Response to Comments section. After considering public comments on the proposed rule, NMFS is finalizing the rule as proposed. As described, no changes are made from the proposed rule. NMFS has prepared an Environmental Assessment (EA), Regulatory Impact Review (RIR), and Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis (FRFA), which analyze the anticipated environmental, social, and economic impacts of several alternatives considered for this final rule. The full list of alternatives and their analyses are provided in the final EA/RIR/FRFA and are not repeated here. A summary of the FRFA is provided below. A copy of the final EA/RIR/FRFA prepared for this final rule is available from NMFS (see <E T="02">ADDRESSES</E> ). As described in the proposed rule, NMFS issued two BiOps in May 2020: the “Biological Opinion on the Operation of the HMS Fisheries excluding Pelagic Longline” and the “Biological Opinion on the Operation of the HMS Pelagic Longline Fishery,” prepared under section 7(a)(2) of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). These BiOps concluded consultation on the HMS PLL and non-PLL fisheries, as managed under the 2006 Consolidated HMS FMP and its amendments. The BiOps included conservation recommendations for oceanic whitetip shark and the scalloped hammerhead shark Central and Southwest Atlantic DPS that strongly encouraged the inclusion of these federally protected species on the HMS list of prohibited shark species for recreational and/or commercial HMS fisheries. In order to reduce the mortality of oceanic whitetip sharks and the Central and Southwest Atlantic DPS of scalloped hammerhead sharks, which are both listed as threatened under the ESA, and implement two conservation recommendations from the May 2020 BiOps, this final rule will add oceanic whitetip shark to the prohibited shark species group, remove oceanic whitetip shark from the list of pelagic indicator species, and prohibit the possession and retention of great, smooth, and scalloped hammerhead sharks in the U.S. Caribbean region. This final rule applies to all HMS permitted fishermen. Under this final rule, oceanic whitetip sharks are added to the prohibited shark species group using the criteria in 50 CFR 635.34(c). Retention, possession, landing, sale, and purchase of oceanic whitetip sharks or parts of oceanic whitetip sharks are prohibited in all commercial and recreational HMS fisheries in U.S. waters of the Atlantic Ocean, including the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea. Oceanic whitetip sharks are also removed from the list of pelagic indicator species (Table 2 to Appendix A to Part 635). Sharks in the prohibited shark species group cannot be possessed or landed and therefore, their presence on board a vessel cannot be considered a useful indicator of a pelagic longline vessel. Additionally, under this final rule, the possession and retention of hammerhead sharks in the large coastal shark (LCS) complex ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> great, smooth, and scalloped hammerhead sharks) is prohibited in all HMS fisheries in the U.S. Caribbean region, as “Caribbean” is defined at 50 CFR 622.2. Retention of hammerhead sharks is currently not allowed for commercial vessels in the PLL fishery. This final rule prohibits retention and possession of LCS hammerhead sharks for all HMS commercial and recreational permit holders in the U.S. Caribbean region, including in those instances where it was previously authorized ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> recreational permit holders with a shark endorsement when tunas, swordfish, and/or billfish are not retained). Due to the difficulty in differentiating between the various species of LCS hammerhead sharks, this final rule applies to all LCS hammerhead sharks to mitigate the potential for continued mortality of scalloped hammerhead sharks from fishermen either bringing hammerhead sharks on board to identify the species (increasing the likelihood of post-release mortality) or unintentionally retaining a scalloped hammerhead shark due to misidentification. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Response to Comments</HD> Written comments can be found at <E T="03">www.regulations.gov;</E> type “NOAA-NMFS-2023-0025” in the Search box (note: copying and pasting the FDMS Docket Number directly from this document may not yield search results). Below, NMFS summarizes and responds to the comments made on the proposed rule during the comment period. <E T="03">Comment 1:</E> NMFS received many comments in support of the proposed measures for oceanic whitetip sharks (preferred Alternative A2 in the EA for this action). Commenters stated that they supported these measures because oceanic whitetip sharks are listed as threatened under the ESA and endangered on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. Some commenters supported adding oceanic whitetip sharks to the prohibited shark species group to address overfishing concerns and promote population recovery of an apex predator that is critical for marine ecosystem health. <E T="03">Response:</E> NMFS agrees that these measures will reduce mortality of oceanic whitetip sharks and promote the conservation and recovery of this threatened species. Regarding the IUCN Red List status of oceanic whitetip sharks, NMFS scientists participate in species assessments for the Red List, but NMFS does not base management actions on IUCN designations. The IUCN uses different criteria. NMFS adheres to ESA-applicable criteria for determining whether a species is threatened or endangered. NMFS determines whether stocks are overfished or overfishing is occurring pursuant to the Magnuson-Stevens Act. <E T="03">Comment 2:</E> Several commenters supported the proposed measures for LCS hammerhead sharks (preferred Alternative B4 in the EA for this action). However, many of those commenters stated that the prohibition on possession and retention of LCS hammerhead sharks should be extended to all Federal waters of the northwest Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean Sea. One commenter specifically stated that all hammerhead sharks should be added to the prohibited shark species group. Reasons that commenters provided for expanding the proposed measures include: great and smooth hammerhead sharks have an unknown stock status in the Atlantic Ocean but evidence suggests that populations are ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 48k characters. 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