Atlantic Highly Migratory Species; Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Fisheries; General Category and Harpoon Category Retention Limit Adjustments

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE <SUBAGY>National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>50 CFR Part 635</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. 220919-0193]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RTID 0648-XD944</RIN> <SUBJECT>Atlantic Highly Migratory Species; Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Fisheries; General Category and Harpoon Category Retention Limit Adjustments</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Temporary rule; retention limit adjustment. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> NMFS is adjusting the General category bluefin tuna (BFT) daily retention limit from the default of one large medium or giant BFT to three large medium or giant BFT. This daily retention limit applies to Atlantic Tunas General category (commercial) permitted vessels and Highly Migratory Species (HMS) Charter/Headboat permitted vessels with a commercial sale endorsement when fishing commercially for BFT. This adjustment will be effective for the June through August subquota time period or until further modified. Additionally, NMFS is modifying the Harpoon category BFT daily retention limit from the default of no more than 10 large medium and giant BFT to 5 large medium or giant BFT. The incidental catch limit of two large medium BFT per vessel per day/trip remains unchanged. These retention limits apply to Atlantic Tunas Harpoon category permitted vessels for the remainder of the 2024 Harpoon category fishing season, which concludes on November 15, 2024, or until further modified. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> The adjusted retention limit for the General category is effective June 1, 2024, through August 31, 2024 or until NMFS announces in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> another adjustment to the retention limit. The adjusted retention limit for the Harpoon category is effective from June 1, 2024, through November 15, 2024, or until NMFS announces in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> another adjustment to the retention limit. </EFFDATE> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Anna Quintrell ( <E T="03">anna.quintrell@noaa.gov</E> ) or Larry Redd, Jr. ( <E T="03">larry.redd@noaa.gov</E> ) at 301-427-8503. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> Atlantic BFT 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. Section 635.27 divides the U.S. BFT quota, established by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) and as implemented by the United States among the various domestic fishing categories, per the allocations established in the 2006 Consolidated HMS FMP and its amendments. NMFS is required under the Magnuson-Stevens Act at 16 U.S.C. 1854(g)(1)(D) to provide U.S. fishing vessels with a reasonable opportunity to harvest quotas under relevant international fishery agreements such as the ICCAT Convention, which is implemented domestically pursuant to ATCA. As described in § 635.27(a), the current baseline U.S. BFT quota is 1,316.14 mt (not including the 25 mt ICCAT allocated to the United States to account for bycatch of BFT in pelagic longline fisheries in the Northeast Distant Gear Restricted Area). The baseline quota for the General category is 710.7 mt. The baseline subquota for the June through August time period is 355.4 mt. The default General category daily retention limit is one large medium or giant BFT (measuring 73 inches (185 cm) curved fork length (CFL) or greater) per vessel per day/trip and applies to General category permitted vessels and to HMS Charter/Headboat permitted vessels (when fishing commercially for BFT) (§ 635.23(a)(2)). The Harpoon category baseline quota is 59.2 mt. As described in § 635.23(d)(1), the overall default Harpoon category daily retention limit is no more than 10 large medium or giant BFT, combined, per vessel per day/trip. As described in § 635.23(d)(2), the incidental daily catch limit is no more than two large medium BFT ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> measuring 73 inches to less than 81 inches (206 cm) CFL) per vessel per day/trip. If the vessel owner/operator retains two large medium BFT during a day/trip under these default retention limits, they may retain a maximum of 8 giant BFT on that same day/trip. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Adjustment of General and Harpoon Category Daily Retention Limits</HD> NMFS may increase or decrease the General or Harpoon category daily retention limits after considering the regulatory determination criteria under § 635.27(a)(7). For the General category, NMFS may adjust the daily retention limit of large medium and giant BFT over a range of zero to five BFT per vessel (see § 635.23(a)(4)). For the Harpoon category, NMFS may adjust the overall daily retention limit of large medium and giant BFT, combined, per vessel per day over a range of 5 to a maximum of 10 BFT per vessel per day (see § 635.23(d)(1)). NMFS may also adjust the incidental daily catch limit for the Harpoon category over a range of two to a maximum of four large medium BFT per vessel per day (see § 635.23(d)(2)). NMFS has considered all relevant determination criteria for adjusting the BFT retention limits in both the General and Harpoon categories. For the General category, after evaluating these criteria, NMFS has decided to increase the daily retention limit from one to three large medium or giant BFT per vessel per day/trip. This adjustment would apply to the June through August time period or until NMFS announces in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> another adjustment to the retention limit. For the Harpoon category, NMFS has decided to decrease the overall daily retention limit to no more than five large medium and giant BFT, combined, per vessel per day/trip ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> BFT measuring 73 inches (185 cm) CFL or greater). This action maintains the incidental daily catch limit of two large medium BFT ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> measuring 73 inches to less than 81 inches (206 cm) CFL) per vessel per day/trip. As such, if two large medium BFT are retained during a day/trip, no more than three giant BFT may be retained on the same day/trip. Similarly, if no large medium BFT are retained, then all five BFT could be giant BFT. This adjustment would apply from June 1 through the remainder of the 2024 Harpoon category fishing season, which concludes on November 15, 2024, or until NMFS announces in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> another adjustment to the retention limit. Regardless of the duration of a fishing trip, no more than a single day's daily retention limit may be possessed or retained at the end of the trip for both the General and Harpoon category vessels. For example, whether a General category vessel takes a 2-day trip or makes two trips in 1 day during the June through August time period, the daily limit of three fish may not be exceeded upon landing. Similarly, a Harpoon category vessel cannot exceed the daily limit of five combined large medium and giant BFT, regardless of the trip's length or number of trips in a day. These retention limits are effective in all areas, except for the Gulf of Mexico, where NMFS prohibits targeting fishing for BFT. The General category retention limit applies to vessels permitted in the General category and to those HMS Charter/Headboat permitted vessels with a commercial sale endorsement when fishing commercially for BFT, while the Harpoon category retention limit applies to those vessels permitted in the Harpoon category. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Consideration of the Determination Criteria</HD> As described above, under § 635.23(a)(4) and (d)(1), NMFS may adjust the daily retention limit of large medium and giant BFT in the General and Harpoon categories after considering the regulatory determination criteria under § 635.27(a)(7). Regarding the usefulness of information obtained from catches in the particular category for biological sampling and monitoring of the status of the stock (§ 635.27(a)(7)(i)), biological samples collected from BFT landed by General or Harpoon category fishermen and provided by BFT dealers continue to provide NMFS with valuable parts and data for ongoing scientific studies of BFT age and growth, migration, and reproductive status. Additional opportunity to land BFT would support the continued collection of a broad range of data for these studies and for stock monitoring purposes. NMFS also considered the catches of the General category quota to date and the likelihood of closure of the General category if no adjustment is made (§ 635.27(a)(7)(ii)). Commercial-size BFT are anticipated to migrate to the fishing grounds off the northeast U.S. coast by early June. Given the typically slow catch rates in early June in the General category, it is unlikely that increasing the retention limit from one BFT to three BFT per vessel for a short period of time would result in the subquota for the June through August time period being reached and a closure becoming necessary. If catch rates increase, NMFS could take another action to reduce the trip limit to ensure the fishery would remain open throughout the June through August time period. In 2023, NMFS took a similar action to increase the retention limit to three BFT per vessel in the first part of the June through August time period (88 FR 34454, May 30, 2023). When catch rates increased in late June, NMFS reduced the retention limit from three BFT per vessel back to the default limit of one BFT per vessel (88 FR 42272, June 30, 2023). NMFS fo ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 22k characters. 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