Pacific Island Fisheries; Amendment 7 to the Fishery Ecosystem Plan for the American Samoa Archipelago; Discontinue Rebuilding Plan for American Samoa Bottomfish and Implement Annual Catch Limits and Accountability Measures for Fishing Years 2024-2026

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE <SUBAGY>National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>50 CFR Part 665</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. 240813-0218]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 0648-BN03</RIN> <SUBJECT>Pacific Island Fisheries; Amendment 7 to the Fishery Ecosystem Plan for the American Samoa Archipelago; Discontinue Rebuilding Plan for American Samoa Bottomfish and Implement Annual Catch Limits and Accountability Measures for Fishing Years 2024-2026</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Department of Commerce. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Proposed rule; request for comments. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> NMFS proposes to amend the Fishery Ecosystem Plan for the American Samoa Archipelago (FEP) to discontinue the rebuilding plan for American Samoa bottomfish and to implement single-species annual catch limits (ACL) and accountability measures (AM) for bottomfish in the American Samoa archipelago for fishing years 2024, 2025 and 2026. The action is necessary because new best scientific information indicates the fishery is not overfished or experiencing overfishing, and new ACLs and AMs are warranted. This proposed rule considers the best available scientific, commercial, and other information about the fishery, and would support the long-term sustainability of the fishery. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> NMFS must receive comments by October 4, 2024. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> A plain language summary of this proposed amendment is available at <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov/docket/NOAA-NMFS-2024-0088.</E> You may submit comments on this document, identified by NOAA-NMFS-2024-0088, 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 type NOAA-NMFS-2024-0088 in the Search box (note: 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">Mail:</E> Submit written comments to Sarah Malloy, Deputy Regional Administrator, NMFS Pacific Islands Regional Office (PIRO), 1845 Wasp Blvd., Bldg. 176, Honolulu, HI 96818. <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">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). Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act, the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) and NMFS prepared an environmental assessment (EA) to support this proposed action. The EA is available at <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov.</E> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Heather Nelson, NMFS PIRO, Sustainable Fisheries Division, 808-725-5179. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> NMFS and the Council manage the American Samoa bottomfish fishery in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ, generally 3-200 nautical miles (345 kilometers) from shore) around the American Samoa Archipelago under the FEP and implementing regulations, as authorized by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act). The 2019 stock assessment for the American Samoa bottomfish fishery indicated that the stock was overfished and experiencing overfishing. The fishery has therefore been managed under a rebuilding plan since 2022 (87 FR 25590, May 5, 2022). However, in September 2023 NMFS determined that none of the stocks in the fishery are overfished and were not overfished in the year in which the 2019 overfished determination was made. Accordingly, the Council and NMFS have proposed discontinuing the rebuilding plan, and the subject rule would implement new ACLs and AMs to prevent overfishing and provide sustainable management for the fishery consistent with the FEP, the Magnuson-Stevens Act and implementing regulations. The fishery targets and harvests 11 bottomfish management unit species (BMUS), which includes emperors, snappers, groupers, and jacks. Bottomfish are typically harvested in deep waters, though some species are caught over reefs at shallower depths. The majority (85 percent) of bottomfish habitat is in territorial waters, and the remaining 15 percent is in Federal waters. Fishing for bottomfish primarily occurs using aluminum alia catamarans less than 32 feet (9.7 meters) in length that are outfitted with outboard engines and wooden hand reels that fishermen use for both trolling and bottomfish fishing. There are no permitting or reporting requirements for bottomfish fishing in either territorial waters or Federal waters around American Samoa. The American Samoa Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources collects catch data through voluntary boat-based and shore-based creel survey programs and collects commercial sales data through a mandatory commercial receipt book system in accordance with territorial regulations. The fishing year for the fishery begins on January 1 and ends on December 31. In June 2023, the NMFS Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) completed a benchmark stock assessment for bottomfish in American Samoa, which was the culmination of a 3-year American Samoa bottomfish stock assessment improvement plan. Key improvements in the 2023 assessment compared to the 2019 assessment include identification and correction of issues with fisheries data; incorporation of data through 2021, including historical catch from 1967 to 1985 using older government reports; and use of single-species, age-structured models instead of assessing bottomfish as a multispecies stock complex. Stock projections and corresponding probabilities of overfishing were calculated for 2022-2028 over a range of hypothetical 8-year catches for 9 BMUS: <E T="03">Aphareus rutilans, Aprion virescens, Caranx lugubris, Etelis coruscans, Lethrinus rubrioperculatus, Lutjanus kasmira, Pristipomoides flavipinnis, P. zonatus, and Variola louti. Etelis carbunculus</E> and <E T="03">Pristipomoides filamentosus</E> were not assessed due to insufficient data. The assessment indicated that none of the American Samoa bottomfish stocks assessed in the 2023 benchmark assessment were overfished or subject to overfishing, and the stock assessment also found that the fishery was neither overfished nor experiencing overfishing in any year from 2017 through the 2021, the final data year in the assessment. That none of the stocks were overfished in the final data year of the previous assessment or since is significant because that is a criterion for discontinuing a rebuilding plan (see 50 CFR 600.310(j)(5)). On August 23, 2023, PIFSC determined the 2023 benchmark stock assessment to be the best scientific information available, consistent with National Standard 2 of the Magnuson-Stevens Act. On September 20, 2023, NMFS determined that none of the American Samoa BMUS were overfished or experiencing overfishing, and NMFS informed the Council of this determination on September 21, 2023. Under the proposed action, NMFS would amend the FEP to discontinue the rebuilding plan for American Samoa bottomfish. NMFS must specify ACLs and AMs for each stock and stock complex in an FEP, as recommended by the Council, and must consider the best available scientific, commercial, and other information about the fishery. Therefore, the Council recommended and NMFS proposes to implement single-species ACLs and AMs for each BMUS assessed by the 2023 benchmark stock assessment for fishing years 2024, 2025 and 2026. All recommended ACLs are below the overfishing limit, set at a 50 percent risk of overfishing, and below the allowable biological catch established by the Council's Scientific and Statistical Committee, consistent with National Standard 1 of the Magnuson-Stevens Act. Further, the Council recommended and NMFS proposes to establish indicator species for unassessed <E T="03">E. carbunculus</E> and <E T="03">P. filamentosus.</E> NMFS would establish <E T="03">E. coruscans</E> as an indicator species for E. <E T="03">carbunculus</E> and <E T="03">P. flavipinnis</E> as an indicator species for <E T="03">P. filamentosus.</E> NMFS would not implement separate ACLs for <E T="03">E. carbunculus</E> and <E T="03">P. filamentosus.</E> Instead, they would be subject to the post-season AM based on catch of the indicator species, as defined at 50 CFR 600.310(d)(2)(ii). NMFS proposes to implement the following ACLs: <GPOTABLE COLS="3" OPTS="L2,nj,i1" CDEF="s50,r50,15"> <TTITLE>Table 1—Proposed ACLs for American Samoa BMUS for Fishing Years 2024, 2025, and 2026</TTITLE> <CHED H="1">Species</CHED> <CHED H="1">Samoan name</CHED> After the end of each fishing year, if NMFS and the Council determine that the average catch from the most recent 3-year period exceeds the ACL for any species, NMFS would reduce the ACL for that species in the subsequent year by the amount of overage. Although the ACLs apply to Federal waters, both catch from territorial and Federal waters would be counted towards the ACLs. American Samoa does not currently implement catch limits in territorial waters. As an additional performance measure specified in the F ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 27k characters. 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