Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Framework Adjustment 39 to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE <SUBAGY>National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>50 CFR Part 648</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. 250311-0035]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 0648-BN45</RIN> <SUBJECT>Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Framework Adjustment 39 to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan</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 approve and implement Framework Adjustment 39 to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan (FMP) that establishes specifications and other management measures for fishing years 2025 and 2026, including fishing effort allocation into access areas, modifying when areas open to optimize yield and minimize bycatch, and closures to protect juvenile scallops. Vessels with a limited access general category B permit may transit outside of the Northern Gulf of Maine with scallops onboard. Research set-aside program regulations are clarified. This action is necessary to prevent overfishing and improve resource yield-per-recruit and management of the fishery. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Comments must be received by April 2, 2025. </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 39 and other considered alternatives and analyzes the impacts of the proposed measures and alternatives. The Council submitted a draft of Framework 39 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 39, 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/scallop-framework-39.</E> A plain language summary of this proposed rule is available at <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov/docket/NOAA-NMFS-2024-0145.</E> You may submit comments on this document, identified by NOAA-NMFS-2024-0145, by the following method: <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-2024-0145 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">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, <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> Emily Keiley, Fishery Policy Analyst, 978-281-9116, email: <E T="03">emily.keiley@noaa.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Background</HD> The scallop fishery's management unit ranges from the shorelines of Maine through North Carolina to the outer boundary of the Exclusive Economic Zone. The Atlantic Sea Scallop FMP, established in 1982, includes a number of amendments and framework adjustments that have revised and refined the fishery's management. The New England Fishery Management Council sets scallop fishery catch limits and other management measures through specification or framework adjustments that occur annually or biennially. The Council adopted Framework Adjustment 39 to the Atlantic Sea Scallop FMP on December 5, 2024. Council action on Framework 39 could not be taken until the December meeting because the data and scientific analysis required to support the action was not complete and available until the end of November 2024. Each year the scallop resource is surveyed and area-specific estimates of scallop biomass are produced to support the dynamic management system. These surveys, resulting data, and analysis are critical to the development of science-driven allocations. The Council submitted a draft of the framework, including the Initial Regulatory Flexibility Act analysis for NMFS review and approval on December 20, 2024. This action proposes to approve and implement Framework 39, which establishes scallop specifications and other measures for fishing years 2025 and 2026, including changes to the catch, effort, and quota allocations and adjustments to the rotational area management program for fishing year 2025, and establishes default specifications for fishing year 2026, as recommended by the Council. NMFS proposes to implement these Framework 39 measures by the April 1 start of fishing year 2025. If NMFS implements these measures after the start of the fishing year, the default allocation measures currently established for fishing year 2025 will go into effect on April 1, 2025. The default allocations are significantly lower than the allocations proposed in Framework 39. Delay of this action beyond the April 1 start of the fishing year would result in negative social and economic impacts to the scallop industry. Pursuant to section 303(c) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act), this proposed rule is deemed necessary and appropriate, <HD SOURCE="HD2">Specification of Scallop Overfishing Limit (OFL), Acceptable Biological Catch (ABC), Annual Catch Limits (ACL), Annual Catch Targets (ACT), Annual Projected Landings (APL) and Set-Asides for the 2025 Fishing Year, and Default Specifications for Fishing Year 2026</HD> The Council set the proposed OFL based on a fishing mortality rate (F) of 0.61, equivalent to the F threshold updated through the Northeast Fisheries Science Center's most recent scallop benchmark stock assessment that was completed in September 2020 (NEFSC, 2020). The proposed ABC and the equivalent total ACL for each fishing year are based on an F of 0.45, which is the F associated with a 25-percent probability of exceeding the OFL. The Council's Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) recommended scallop fishery ABCs of 39.5 million pounds (lb; 17,901 metric tons (mt)) for 2025 and 39.1 million lb (17,745 mt) for the 2026 fishing year, after accounting for discards and incidental mortality. In support of the Council's development of the next framework adjustment, the SSC will reevaluate the best available scientific information and, if warranted by the science at that time, the SSC may recommend modifications to the ABC for the 2026 fishing year. Table 1 outlines the proposed scallop fishery catch limits. After deducting the incidental target total allowable catch (TAC), the research set-aside (RSA), and the observer set-aside, the remaining ACL available to the fishery is allocated according to the following fleet proportions established in Amendment 11 to the Atlantic Sea Scallop FMP (72 FR 20090, April 14, 2008): 94.5 percent is allocated to the limited access scallop fleet ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> the larger “trip boat” fleet); 5 percent is allocated to the limited access general category (LAGC) individual fishing quota (IFQ) fleet ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> the smaller “day boat” fleet); and the remaining 0.5 percent is allocated to limited access scallop vessels that also have LAGC IFQ permits. Amendment 15 (76 FR 43746, July 21, 2011) specified that buffers to account for management uncertainty are not necessary in setting the LAGC ACLs ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> the LAGC ACL is equal to the LAGC ACT). For the limited access fleet, the management uncertainty buffer is based on the F associated with a 75-percent probability of remaining below the F associated with ABC/ACL, which, using the updated Fs applied to the ABC/ACL, now results in an F of 0.39. Amendment 21 (87 FR 1688, January 12, 2023) modified the ACL flowchart to account for the scallop biomass in the Northern Gulf of Maine (NGOM) as part of the legal limits in the fishery by adding biomass from the area into calculations of the OFL and ABC. That action moved the accounting of the NGOM ACL from only within the OFL into the OFL and ABC/ACL for the entire fishery. In addition, Amendment 21 created the NGOM Set-Aside to support a directed LAGC fishery (including NGOM and LAGC IFQ permitted vessels) in the NGOM Management Area. <GPOTABLE COLS="3" OPTS="L2,i1" CDEF="s100,12,12"> <TTITLE> Table 1—Scallop Catch Limits ( <E T="01">mt</E> ) for Fishing Years 2025 and 2026 for the Limited Access and LAGC IFQ Fleets </TTITLE> <CHED H="1">Catch limits</CHED> <ENT I="01">ABC/ACL (discards removed)</ENT> <ENT>17,901</ENT> <ENT>17,745</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Incidental Landings</ENT> <ENT I="01">LAGC IFQ ACL (5 percent of ACL)</ENT> <ENT>841</ENT> <ENT>837</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Limited Access with LAGC IFQ ACL (0.5 percent of ACL)</ENT> <ENT>84</ENT> <ENT>84</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Limited Access ACT</ENT> <ENT>13,771</ENT> <ENT>13,707</ENT> <ENT I ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 79k characters. 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