Fisheries Off West Coast States; Coastal Pelagic Species Fisheries; Annual Specifications; 2024-2025 Annual Specifications and Management Measures for Pacific Sardine

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE <SUBAGY>National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>50 CFR Part 660</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. 240614-0162; RTID 0648-XD848]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Fisheries Off West Coast States; Coastal Pelagic Species Fisheries; Annual Specifications; 2024-2025 Annual Specifications and Management Measures for Pacific Sardine</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 annual harvest specifications and management measures for the northern subpopulation of Pacific sardine (hereafter, Pacific sardine), for the fishing year from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025. This proposed rule would prohibit most directed commercial fishing for Pacific sardine off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California. Pacific sardine harvest would be allowed only for use as live bait, in minor directed fisheries, as incidental catch in other fisheries, or as authorized under exempted fishing permits. The proposed harvest specifications for 2024-2025 include an overfishing limit of 8,312 metric tons (mt), an annual catch limit of 6,005 mt, and an annual catch target of 5,500 mt. This proposed rule is intended to conserve, manage, and rebuild the Pacific sardine stock off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Comments must be received by July 8, 2024. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> A plain language summary of this rule is available at <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov/docket/NOAA-NMFS-2024-0040.</E> You may submit comments on this document, identified by NOAA-NMFS-2024-0040, by the following method: • <E T="03">Electronic Submissions:</E> Submit all public comments via the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal. Go to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> and enter NOAA-NMFS-2024-0040 in the Search box. 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 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, <E T="03">etc.</E> ), 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> Katie Davis, West Coast Region, NMFS, (323) 372-2126, <E T="03">Katie.Davis@noaa.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> NMFS manages the Pacific sardine fishery in the U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ) off the Pacific coast ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> off the U.S. west coast states of California, Oregon, and Washington) in accordance with the Coastal Pelagic Species (CPS) Fishery Management Plan (FMP). The CPS FMP and its implementing regulations require NMFS to set annual reference points and management measures for the Pacific sardine fishery based on the annual specification framework and control rules in the FMP. These control rules include the harvest guideline (HG) control rule, which, in conjunction with the overfishing limit (OFL) and acceptable biological catch (ABC) control rules in the FMP, are used to set required reference points, in accordance with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) (16 U.S.C. 1801 <E T="03">et seq.</E> ). Additionally, the CPS FMP requires management measures for the Pacific sardine fishery, such as catch restrictions, in the Pacific sardine rebuilding plan implemented by Amendment 18 to the CPS FMP (86 FR 33142, June 24, 2021). The NMFS Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC) conducts annual stock assessments for Pacific sardine, alternating between benchmark assessments in 1 year and update assessments the following 2 years. Benchmark assessments are evaluated by a stock assessment review (STAR) panel, which provides a report to the Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) documenting its findings on the technical merits. During public meetings each year, the Council, including the Council's CPS Management Team (Team), CPS Advisory Subpanel (Subpanel), and Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC), review the estimated biomass and the status of the fishery in these stock assessments, and recommend applicable reference points, catch limits, and management measures. Following Council review and public comment, the Council recommends these harvest specifications and management measures and any in-season accountability measures to NMFS, who then reviews the Council's recommendations to ensure they are consistent with the CPS FMP and all applicable laws. Following that review, NMFS publishes annual specifications in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> to establish annual reference points ( <E T="03">e.g.,</E> the OFL, ABC, and annual catch limit (ACL)) and management measures for each Pacific sardine fishing year. The OFL is an annual catch amount that corresponds to the estimate of (annual) fishing mortality corresponding to maximum sustainable yield (MSY). The ABC is set below the OFL and is a reference point that incorporates a scientific uncertainty buffer against overfishing. For Pacific sardine, the ABC is based on a percentage reduction (BUFFER) of the OFL as determined by an SSC evaluation of scientific uncertainty (sigma σ) and the Council's risk policy (P*). In cases where the SSC quantifies scientific uncertainty (sigma, σ) associated with estimating an OFL, the percentage reduction that defines the ABC buffer can be determined by translating the estimated σ to a range of probability of overfishing (P*) values. The CPS FMP control rules, as they apply to annual reference points, use the following formulas: <FP SOURCE="FP-2"> OFL = Biomass * E <E T="52">MSY</E> * DISTRIBUTION </FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2"> ABC = Biomass * BUFFER * E <E T="52">MSY</E> * DISTRIBUTION </FP> <E T="03">Biomass.</E> The estimated stock biomass of Pacific sardine ages 1 and older, in metric tons. <E T="03">E</E> <E T="52">MSY</E> . The exploitation rate for deterministic equilibrium maximum sustainable yield. Since 2014, the SSC has used a temperature-recruitment relationship based on a running 3-year average of the California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) temperature index to calculate an E <E T="52">MSY</E> for Pacific sardine. <E T="03">DISTRIBUTION.</E> The average portion of the Pacific sardine biomass estimated to be in the U.S. EEZ off the Pacific coast. DISTRIBUTION is currently defined in the CPS FMP as 87 percent and is based on the average historical larval distribution obtained from scientific cruises and the distribution of the resource according to the logbooks of aerial fish-spotters. <E T="03">BUFFER.</E> The percentage reduction of the OFL as determined by the SSC's evaluation of scientific uncertainty (sigma) and the Council's risk policy (P*). During the 2019-2020 fishing year, the estimated biomass of Pacific sardine dropped below its 50,000-mt minimum stock size threshold (MSST), which triggered an overfished determination process. NMFS declared the stock overfished on June 26, 2019, and notified the Council of this determination on July 9, 2019. A rebuilding plan for Pacific sardine was finalized on June 24, 2021 (86 FR 33142). The rebuilding plan (Amendment 18 to the CPS FMP) stipulates that reference points ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> the OFL, ABC, and ACL) are to continue to be set annually based on annual stock assessments, the control rules in the FMP, and best scientific information available recommendations from the Council's SSC. The rebuilding plan also includes the following management measures that restrict harvest: (1) prohibition of the primary directed fishery when the biomass is at or below 150,000 mt; (2) automatic reduction in incidental allowances in other CPS fisheries to no more than 20 percent by weight when the biomass is at or below 50,000 mt; and (3) other accountability measures the Council may recommend. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Proposed Reference Points and Management Measures</HD> At the Council's April 2024 meeting, the Council's SSC reviewed a STAR panel report on the SWFSC's 2024 benchmark stock assessment, as well as the assessment itself, titled “Assessment of the Pacific sardine resource ( <E T="03">Sardinops sagax</E> ) in 2024 for U.S. management in 2024-2025,” and concluded that the 2024 benchmark assessment for Pacific sardine is the best scientific information available for the management of Pacific sardine. During their review, the SSC noted major improvements from the 2020 benchmark assessment, including an updated habitat model for assigning fishery catch and survey biomass to the northern and southern subpopulations of sardine. However, the SSC applied a category 2d sigma, instead of a category 1, as some past full assessments have been categorized. The result of a category 2d sigma determination compared to a category 1 is that it equates to a larger scientific uncertainty buffer, and therefore a lower ABC. During the discussion of the appropriate category, the SSC discussed potential uncertainty in the relationship between sardine productivity and ocean temperatures used to calculate E <E T="52">MSY</E> as well as uncertainty in the strength of the 2023 year-class represented in the stock assessment. Based on the ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 30k characters. 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