Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; 2025-2026 Specifications for the Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish Fishery Management Plan

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE <SUBAGY>National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>50 CFR Part 648</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. 250506-0078]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 0648-BN43</RIN> <SUBJECT>Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; 2025-2026 Specifications for the Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish 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 2025-2026 specifications for the Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish Fishery Management Plan (FMP), as recommended by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council). This action proposes new 2025 and projected 2026 butterfish fishery specifications, and reaffirmed 2025 chub mackerel, <E T="03">Illex</E> squid, longfin squid, and Atlantic mackerel fishery specifications. The proposed specifications are intended to establish allowable harvest levels that will prevent overfishing, consistent with the most recent scientific information. This action would also adjust the minimum square mesh size for directed butterfish trawl trips; account for a 2024 Atlantic mackerel annual catch limit overage (if applicable); and correct existing regulations. </SUM> <DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Public comments must be received by June 12, 2025. </DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> A plain language summary of this proposed rule is available at <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov/docket/NOAA-NMFS-2025-0011.</E> You may submit comments on this document, identified by NOAA-NMFS-2025-0011, by any of the following methods: <E T="03">Electronic Submission:</E> Submit all electronic public comments via the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal. Visit <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> and type NOAA-NMFS-2025-0011 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, 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> Maria Fenton, Fishery Policy Analyst, (978) 281-9196. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Background</HD> NMFS and the Council manage fisheries for Atlantic mackerel, chub mackerel, <E T="03">Illex</E> squid, longfin squid, and butterfish pursuant to the Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish FMP. In 2023, the most recent year for which complete revenue data are available, these five species supported fisheries producing an overall $46 million in revenues. Regulations implementing the Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish FMP appear at 50 CFR part 648, subpart B. Section 302(g)(1)(B) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act; 16 U.S.C. 1852(g)(1)(B)) states that the Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) for each regional fishery management council shall provide its council with ongoing scientific advice for fishery management decisions, including recommendations for acceptable biological catch (ABC), preventing overfishing, ensuring maximum sustainable yield (MSY), and achieving rebuilding targets. The ABC is a level of catch that accounts for the scientific uncertainty in the estimate of the stock's defined overfishing limit (OFL). The Northeast Fisheries Science Center completed the most recent butterfish management track assessment in June 2024. Consistent with the 2022 management track assessment, the results of the 2024 assessment indicated that the stock is not overfished and overfishing is not occurring. The assessment also found that spawning stock biomass (SSB) is well above the biomass target (SSB <E T="52">MSY</E> proxy), and fishing mortality (F) is well below the overfishing threshold proxy (F <E T="52">MSY</E> proxy). The assessment noted, however, that both of these conclusions depend heavily on estimates of natural mortality (M) and survey catchability, both of which are sources of considerable uncertainty. The SSC met in July 2024 to review the results of the 2024 butterfish assessment and make ABC recommendations. As it did with the results of the 2022 assessment, when developing its butterfish ABC recommendations, the SSC substituted an alternative F <E T="52">MSY</E> equal to <FR>2/3</FR> *M. This adjusts the magnitude of projected catches downward, and is thought to be more consistent with ecological characteristics of short-lived forage fish. The SSC also used an OFL coefficient of variation of 150 percent to generate its ABC recommendations. In September 2024, the Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish Monitoring Committee reviewed the SSC's ABC recommendations, Advisory Panel and staff input, and updated fishery data, and finalized its recommendations for 2025 and projected 2026 butterfish specifications. During its October 2024 meeting, the Council reviewed this input and finalized its recommendations for proposed 2025 and projected 2026 butterfish specifications. Section 303(c) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act (16 U.S.C. 1853(c)) allows a Council to submit proposed regulations that it deems necessary or appropriate for making modifications to regulations implementing an FMP or FMP amendment to the Secretary of Commerce. Section 304(b) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act (16 U.S.C. 1854(b)) requires the Secretary of Commerce to evaluate the Council's proposed regulations to determine whether they are consistent with the FMP, FMP amendment, the Magnuson-Stevens Act, and other applicable law. If that determination is affirmative, the Secretary must publish the proposed regulations in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> for public comment, and to promulgate a final rule after the end of the comment period. Implementing regulations for the Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish FMP at § 648.22(d)(1) state that if the proposed specifications that are published in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> differ from those recommended by the Council, the reasons for those differences must be clearly stated, and the revised specifications must satisfy the criteria set forth in that section. NMFS proposes to implement the Council's recommended butterfish specifications pursuant to sections 303(c) and 304(b) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act. Through this rule, NMFS also proposes to reaffirm previously-projected specifications (with several revisions to ensure that all components of the applicable specifications as described at § 648.22 are accounted for), account for a potential overage of the Atlantic mackerel ACL (if necessary), and make corrections to existing regulations pursuant to section 305(d) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which authorizes the Secretary to implement management measures necessary to carry out an approved fishery management plan. <HD SOURCE="HD2">Proposed 2025 and Projected 2026 Butterfish Specifications</HD> Relative to 2024, the Council's recommended 2025 specifications would: • Increase the OFL by 9.3 percent; • Increase the ABC/annual catch limit (ACL) by 8.6 percent; • Lower the annual catch target (ACT) buffer to zero percent, resulting in a 14.3-percent increase in the ACT; • Increase assumed other discards by 52.8 percent and the total discard set-aside by 12.8 percent; • Maintain the butterfish discard cap in the longfin squid fishery; • Increase the domestic annual harvest (DAH) by 15.0 percent; and • Maintain the trimester allocations for the butterfish mortality cap. In 2026, the projected butterfish OFL, ABC, and ACT would decrease by 19.1 percent, and the projected DAH would decrease by 28.9 percent, relative to 2025. The remainder of the projected 2026 specifications would remain status quo relative to 2025. The Council's recommended 2025 and projected 2026 butterfish specifications did not include zero values for research set-aside (RSA) and total allowable level of foreign fishing (TALFF), and did not explicitly state that domestic annual processing (DAP) is set equal to DAH. While these were not part of the Council's recommendations or materials provided in the Council process, this has been how the fishery has been managed in recent years, and NMFS includes them here in order to clarify that all of the components of the butterfish specifications as described at § 648.22 are accounted for (table 1 and table 2). <GPOTABLE COLS="4" OPTS="L2,nj,i1" CDEF="s50,8,13,14"> <TTITLE>Table 1—2024 and Proposed 2025 and Projected 2026 Butterfish Specifications </TTITLE> [Metric tons, mt] <CHED H="1">Specification</CHED> <CHED H="1">2024</CHED> <CHED H="1">Proposed 2025</CHED> <CHED H="1">Projected 2026</CHED> <ROW> <ENT I="01">OFL</ENT> <ENT>16,096</ENT> <ENT>17,587</ENT> <ENT>14,224</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">ABC/ACL</ENT> <ENT>15,764</ENT> <ENT>17,115</ENT> <ENT>13,842</ENT> <ENT I="01">Butterfish cap in longfin squid fishery</ENT> <ENT>3,884</ENT> <ENT>3,884</ENT> <ENT>3,884</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Total discard set-aside (all sources)</ENT> <ENT>5,132</ENT> <ENT>5,791</ENT> <ENT>5,791</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Assumed other discards</ENT> <ENT>1,248</ENT> <ENT>1,907</ENT> <ENT>1,907</ENT> </ROW> ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 32k characters. 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