Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Northeast Skate Complex; Framework Adjustment 12

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE <SUBAGY>National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>50 CFR Part 648</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. 240510-0135]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 0648-BM96</RIN> <SUBJECT>Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Northeast Skate Complex; Framework Adjustment 12</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Proposed rule; request for comments. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> NMFS proposes to implement measures recommended by the New England Fishery Management Council in Framework Adjustment 12 to the Northeast Skate Complex Fishery Management Plan. This action would specify skate catch limits for fishing years 2024 and 2025, increase seasonal trip limits for the wing fishery, and remove species-specific restrictions for barndoor and smooth skate. This proposed action is necessary to establish skate specifications consistent with the most recent scientific information. The intent of this action is to establish appropriate catch limits for the skate fishery, while providing additional operational flexibility to fishery participants. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Comments must be received by June 24, 2024. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> The New England Fishery Management Council (Council) has prepared a draft environmental assessment (EA) for this action that describes the proposed measures in Framework 12 and other considered alternatives and analyzes the impacts of the proposed measures and alternatives. The Council submitted a draft of Framework 12 to NMFS that includes the draft EA, a description of the Council's preferred alternatives, the Council's rationale for selecting each alternative, and an Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis (IRFA). Copies of the draft of Framework 12, the draft EA, the IRFA, and information on the economic impacts of this proposed rulemaking are available upon request from Dr. Cate O'Keefe, Executive Director, New England Fishery Management Council, 50 Water Street, Newburyport, MA 01950 and accessible via the internet in documents available at: <E T="03">https://www.nefmc.org/library/skate-framework-12.</E> You may submit comments on this document, identified by NOAA-NMFS-2024-0056, by either of the following methods: <E T="03">Electronic Submission:</E> Submit all electronic public comments via the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal. Go to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> and enter NOAA-NMFS-2024-0056 in the Search box ( <E T="03">note:</E> copying and pasting the FDMS Docket Number directly from this document may not yield search results). Click on the “Comment” icon, complete the required fields, and enter or attach your comments. <E T="03">Instructions:</E> Comments sent by any other method, to any other address or individual, or received after the end of the comment period, may not be considered by NMFS. All comments received are a part of the public record and will generally be posted for public viewing on <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> without change. All personal identifying information ( <E T="03">e.g.,</E> name, address, etc.), confidential business information, or otherwise sensitive information submitted voluntarily by the sender will be publicly accessible. NMFS will accept anonymous comments (enter “N/A” in the required fields if you wish to remain anonymous). <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Shannah Jaburek, Fishery Policy Analyst, (978) 282-8456. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Background</HD> The New England Fishery Management Council manages a complex of seven skate species (barndoor, clearnose, little, rosette, smooth, thorny, and winter) off the New England and mid-Atlantic coasts through the Northeast Skate Complex Fishery Management Plan (FMP). Skates are harvested and managed through two different targeted fisheries, one for food (the wing fishery) and one for use as bait in other fisheries (the bait fishery). The FMP requires that annual catch and possession limits for the skate fishery be reviewed and established through the specifications process for up to two fishing years at a time. The current specifications (revised March 17, 2022; 87 FR 15146) expired on April 30, 2024, but through a rollover provision in the regulations will remain effective until the final rule for this action is implemented. In the fall of 2023, the Northeast Skate Complex FMP underwent a level-3 management track assessment that re-estimated commercial fishery catch data, updated survey biomass indices, added recreational catch to total catch, and updated reference points. The assessment also included projections of total fishery catch of skates for 2024 and 2025. The Council took final action on this framework at the December 2023 meeting in Newport, RI. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Proposed Measures</HD> Framework 12 would set management measures and specifications for the skate fishery for the 2024-2025 fishing years. The measures proposed in this action would decrease the annual catch limit to 32,155 mt (from 37,236 mt in 2023) and the overall total allowable landings to 15,178 mt (from 21,142 mt in 2023). A comparison of the current 2023 and the proposed 2024-2025 specifications is summarized below in table 1. Specifications for fishing year 2025 are projected to be the same as those proposed for 2024. The proposed specifications would result in a 26-percent decrease in both the bait and wing fisheries' total allowable landings. Although a decrease, the proposed quotas remain higher than landings in the bait and wing fisheries for at least the last three years; therefore, we do not expect the proposed quotas to be restrictive to the fishery or to result in reductions in overall revenue. The Council will review the projected 2025 specifications to determine if any changes need to be made prior to the 2025 fishing year. We will publish a notice prior to the 2025 fishing year to confirm these limits as projected or publish a proposed rule for any necessary changes. <GPOTABLE COLS="4" OPTS="L2,nj,i1" CDEF="s100,10,10,10"> <TTITLE>Table 1—Comparison of Current 2023 and Proposed 2024-2025 Skate Fishery Specifications, in Metric Tons</TTITLE> <CHED H="1"> </CHED> <CHED H="1"> 2023 (current) </CHED> <CHED H="1">2024-25 (proposed)</CHED> <CHED H="1">Percent change</CHED> <ENT I="01">Wing TAL (66.5% of Overall TAL)</ENT> <ENT>14,059</ENT> <ENT>10,453</ENT> <ENT>−26</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Wing Season 1 TAL (57% of Wing TAL)</ENT> <ENT>8,014</ENT> <ENT>5,958</ENT> <ENT>−26</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Wing Season 2 TAL</ENT> <ENT>6,045</ENT> <ENT>4,495</ENT> <ENT I="01">Bait TAL (33.5% of Overall TAL)</ENT> <ENT>7,082</ENT> <ENT>5,266</ENT> <ENT>−26</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Bait Season 1 TAL (30.8% of Bait TAL)</ENT> <ENT>2,181</ENT> <ENT>1,622</ENT> <ENT>−26</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Bait Season 2 TAL (37.1% of Bait TAL)</ENT> <ENT>2,627</ENT> <ENT>1,954</ENT> <ENT>−26</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Bait Season 3 TAL</ENT> <ENT>2,274</ENT> <ENT>1,690</ENT> This proposed action would also increase the seasonal skate wing possession limits when fishing on a day-at-sea (DAS) by 1,000 lb (453.6 kg) per trip. The wing fishery trip limit in Season 1 (May 1-August 31) would increase from 3,000 lb to 4,000 lb (1,360.8 kg to 1,814.4 kg), and the Season 2 (September 1-April 30) wing fishery trip limit would increase from 5,000 lb to 6,000 lb (2,268 kg to 2,721.6 kg). This action also proposes to increase incidental skate wing possession limits by 25 percent. For trips fishing on a Northeast multispecies B-DAS, the possession limit would increase from 220 lb to 275 lb (99.8 kg to 124.7 kg), and for trips not fishing on a DAS, the possession limit would increase from 500 lb to 625 lb (226.8 kg to 283.5 kg). The intent behind increased possession limits is to reduce operational discards in the fishery and provide better economic flexibility and opportunity to vessels. Even with the reduction in annual quota, this trip limit increase is not expected to result in overages or increased effort because of the Regional Administrator's authority to reduce the possession limits to an incidental catch limit when 85 percent of the quota is projected to be landed. In addition, this action proposes full re-integration of both barndoor and smooth skates into the skate complex by removing possession restrictions for either species. Both barndoor and smooth skates have been considered rebuilt for at least the last five years. Accordingly, the need to manage barndoor and smooth skates as individual stocks is no longer warranted. These two species will be managed as components of the skate complex, as initially intended when the FMP was developed. Currently, vessels are prohibited from retaining smooth skates in the Gulf of Maine Regulated Mesh Area and are prohibited from retaining barndoor skates in certain circumstances. This action proposes to remove the limit specific to barndoor skate within the overall skate possession limits ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> the 25-percent partial possession limit for trips landing skate wings on a DAS), and possession would be allowed on all trips in the skate fishery. This action also proposes to remove the smooth skate possession restriction on all trips landing skate in both the wing and bait skate fisheries. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Classification</HD> Pursuant to section 304(b)(1)(A) of the Magnuson Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act), the NMFS Assistant Administrator has determined that this proposed rule is consistent with the Northeast Skate Complex FMP, other provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, and other a ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 19k characters. 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