Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Pacific Halibut Recreational Quota Entity Program Fee Collection

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE <SUBAGY>National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>50 CFR Parts 300 and 679</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. 250630-0116]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 0648-BN18</RIN> <SUBJECT>Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Pacific Halibut Recreational Quota Entity Program Fee Collection</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> This final rule authorizes fee collection for the Recreational Quota Entity (RQE) Program. A charter halibut stamp (stamp) is required under this final rule for every charter vessel angler, 18 years of age or older, for each charter vessel fishing trip in a given calendar day, or each calendar day during a charter vessel fishing trip that spans multiple days, who intends to catch and retain halibut on a charter vessel in International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) regulatory areas 2C in Southeast Alaska and 3A in South Central Alaska. Persons who hold charter halibut permits (CHPs) must purchase electronic stamps from NMFS. Charter vessel guides are required to validate a stamp for each adult charter vessel angler intending to catch and retain halibut on a charter vessel fishing trip. This final rule is necessary to promote stability and economic viability in the charter halibut fishery and is intended to promote the goals and objectives of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act), the Northern Pacific Halibut Act of 1982 (Halibut Act), and other applicable laws. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This rule is effective on January 1, 2026. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> Electronic copies of the Regulatory Impact Review (RIR) and the Categorical Exclusion (CE) prepared for this action are available at: <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> or from the NMFS Alaska Region website. Written comments regarding the burden-hour estimates or other aspects of the collection-of-information requirements contained in this final rule may be submitted to NMFS at the Alaska Region website and at: <E T="03">https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain.</E> Find this particular information collection by selecting “Currently under Review—Open for Public Comments” or by using the search function. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Doug Duncan, 907-586-7228, <E T="03">doug.duncan@noaa.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> This final rule authorizes an RQE Program fee collection. NMFS published the proposed rule in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> to authorize an RQE Program fee collection on October 31, 2024 (89 FR 86772). The comment period on the proposed rule ended on December 2, 2024. NMFS received 129 comment letters on the proposed rule. NMFS considered all comments submitted on or before December 2, 2024 in the development of this final rule. A summary of the comments and NMFS' responses are provided in the Comments and Responses section of this preamble. All public comment letters submitted during the comment period may be obtained at: <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov.</E> A detailed review of the rationale for these regulations is provided in the preamble to the proposed rule (89 FR 86772, October 31, 2024). Due to the complications of implementing this RQE fee collection program mid-season, this final rule will be effective on January 1, 2026. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Authority for Action</HD> In December 2022, through the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 (Pub. L. 117-328), the U.S. Congress (Congress) enacted the Driftnet Modernization and Bycatch Reduction Act (Act). Public Law 117-328, 136 Stat. 4459, 5260-61 (Dec. 29, 2022). Section 106 of the Act authorizes the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) to recommend, and the Secretary of Commerce to approve, “regulations necessary for the collection of fees from charter vessel operators who guide recreational anglers who retain Pacific halibut in IPHC regulatory areas 2C and 3A.” Under the section 106 of the Act, any fees collected shall be available for financing administrative costs of the RQE Program; the purchase of halibut Quota Share (QS) in areas 2C and 3A by the RQE; halibut conservation and research; and promotion of the halibut resource by the RQE. This final rule implements section 106 of the Act. The IPHC and NMFS manage fishing for Pacific halibut (halibut, <E T="03">Hippoglossus stenolepis</E> ) through regulations established under authority of the Halibut Act. The IPHC adopts regulations governing the halibut fishery under the Convention between the United States and Canada for the Preservation of the Halibut Fishery of the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea (Convention), signed at Ottawa, Ontario, on March 2, 1953, as amended by a Protocol Amending the Convention (signed at Washington, DC, on March 29, 1979). For the United States, regulations developed by the IPHC are subject to acceptance by the Secretary of State with concurrence from the Secretary of Commerce. After acceptance by the Secretary of State and concurrence from the Secretary of Commerce, NMFS publishes notice of the efficacy of the IPHC regulations in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> . On March 18, 2024, NMFS published the IPHC regulations for the 2024 fishing year ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> 0001 hours, Alaska local time, on January 1, through 2400 hours, Alaska local time, on December 31). IPHC regulations affecting sport fishing for halibut and vessels in the charter halibut fishery in IPHC regulatory areas 2C and 3A may be found in that final rule (89 FR 19275, March 18, 2024). Section 5 of the Halibut Act provides the Secretary of Commerce with general responsibility to carry out the Convention and the Halibut Act. In adopting regulations that may be necessary to carry out the purposes and objectives of the Convention and the Halibut Act, the Secretary of Commerce is directed to consult with the Secretary of the department in which the U.S. Coast Guard is operating, which is currently the Department of Homeland Security. Section 5 of the Halibut Act also provides the Council with authority to develop regulations for waters off Alaska, including limited access regulations that are in addition to, and not in conflict with, approved IPHC regulations. Regulations developed by the Council may be implemented by NMFS only after approval by the Secretary of Commerce. The Council exercised this authority in the development of halibut fishery management measures, codified at 50 CFR 300.65 through 300.67 and 50 CFR part 600. The Council also developed the Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) Program for the commercial halibut and sablefish fisheries, codified at 50 CFR part 679. Management of halibut in the IFQ Program is authorized under section 5 of the Halibut Act. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Background</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">Summary Background on Management of the Charter Halibut Fishery</HD> The proposed rule for this action provides a comprehensive history of management of the guided sport fishery for halibut off Alaska (also referred to herein as the “charter fishery”) (89 FR 86772, October 31, 2024). The proposed rule also provides detailed background on the commercial halibut and sablefish IFQ Program and how the IFQ Program intersects with management of the charter fishery, primarily through the Catch Sharing Plan (CSP) that establishes allocations of halibut between the commercial halibut IFQ and charter sectors. The proposed rule describes the history and development of annual management measures for the charter fishery, including the current annual management processes. The proposed rule also provides a summary of the development of the Charter Halibut Limited Access Program that established CHPs and provides details on the Guided Angler Fish (GAF) Program and the RQE Program. The proposed rule also describes the Military Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) and Community Quota Entity (CQE) programs that issue military charter halibut permits and community charter halibut permits that are also subject to the same annual management measures and many of the same regulations as other CHP holders. The RQE Program fee collection and associated stamp apply to the MWR and CQE. <HD SOURCE="HD2">Recreational Quota Entity (RQE) Program</HD> This action implements regulations that focus on the already established RQE Program. The RQE Program was implemented in 2018 as part of the IFQ Program in IPHC regulatory areas 2C and 3A. More details on the RQE Program are provided in the proposed rule (82 FR 46016, October 3, 2017) and final rule (83 FR 47819, September 21, 2018). The program allows the RQE designated by NMFS to purchase and hold a limited amount of commercial halibut QS that would yield pounds of Recreational Fishing Quota (RFQ). RFQ is the pounds of halibut issued to an RQE on an annual basis to supplement the amount of halibut allocated to the charter halibut fishery (83 FR 47819, September 21, 2018). The RQE Program therefore provides a mechanism for the RQE to purchase a portion of commercial halibut QS for use by the charter fishery, which may result in less restrictive annual management measures for the charter fishery or help maintain existing management measures if there are continued reductions in halibut abundance. In March 2020, NMFS approved the application of the Catch Accounting Through Compensated Halibut (CATCH) Association to serve as the RQE. CATCH is currently eligible to purchase and permanently hold halibut QS, but, to date, CATCH has not purchased any halibut QS, as there was previously no funding mechanism in place. <HD SOURCE="HD2">Guided Angler Fish (GAF) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 136k characters. 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