Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Modify the Timing of Haul Designation for Trawl Catcher Processors in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Groundfish Fisheries

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE <SUBAGY>National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>50 CFR Part 679</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. 250915-0155]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 0648-BL49</RIN> <SUBJECT>Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Modify the Timing of Haul Designation for Trawl Catcher Processors in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Groundfish Fisheries</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 revise regulations to standardize the time limit in which trawl catcher/processors (C/Ps) participating in the groundfish fisheries in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) and the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) management areas must assign a management program to each haul. This proposed rule is necessary to improve consistency for when trawl C/Ps are required to assign a specific management program to a haul. It would also allow additional time for vessel operators participating in the Western Alaska Community Development Quota (CDQ) and non-CDQ fisheries on the same trip to determine which management program to assign to a haul. This rule is intended to promote the goals and objectives of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act), the Fishery Management Plans (FMPs) for Groundfish of the GOA and BSAI Management Areas, and other applicable laws. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Submit comments on or before November 3, 2025. </EFFDATE> <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-2024-0154.</E> You may submit comments on this document, identified by NOAA-NMFS-2024-0154, 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-2024-0154 in the Search box. Click on the “Comment” icon, complete the required fields, and enter or attach your comments. • <E T="03">Mail:</E> Submit written comments to Gretchen Harrington, Assistant Regional Administrator, Sustainable Fisheries Division, Alaska Region NMFS. Mail comments to P.O. Box 21668, Juneau, AK 99802-1668. <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), 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). Electronic copies of the draft Regulatory Impact Review (referred to as the “Analysis”) and categorical exclusion prepared for this proposed rule may be obtained from <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov.</E> Written comments regarding the burden-hour estimates or other aspects of the collection-of-information requirements contained in this proposed rule may be submitted to NMFS at the above address and to <E T="03">https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain.</E> Find this particular information collection by selecting “Currently under 30-day Review—Open for Public Comments” or by using the search function. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Caleb Taylor, <E T="03">caleb.taylor@noaa.gov,</E> 907-586-7228. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Authority for Action</HD> NMFS manages the groundfish fisheries in the exclusive economic zone under the GOA FMP and under the BSAI FMP. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) prepared and recommended these FMPs under the authority of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, 16 U.S.C. 1801 <E T="03">et seq.</E> Regulations governing U.S. fisheries and implementing the FMPs for groundfish of the GOA and BSAI appear at 50 CFR parts 600 and 679. This action is implemented under Magnuson-Stevens Act section 305(d) and is necessary to carry out Section 3.9.1 of both the BSAI FMP and GOA FMP, which describes the Council's recommended approach to recordkeeping and reporting requirements. This section of both FMPs states that in consultation with the Council, the Secretary of Commerce may require recordkeeping that is necessary and appropriate to determine catch, production, effort, price, and other information necessary for conservation and management of the fisheries. The FMPs also state that the Secretary should amend regulations as necessary to accomplish the goals and objectives of the FMPs, the Magnuson-Stevens Act, and other applicable laws, consistent with Magnuson-Stevens Act section 305(d) (16 U.S.C. 1855(d)). This action modifies recordkeeping and reporting requirements that are necessary to attribute catch to specific fishery management programs implemented under the BSAI and GOA FMPs. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Background</HD> Trawl C/Ps are large vessels, ranging in length from 90 ft (27.43 meters (m)) to over 350 ft (106.68 m) length overall (LOA) that use trawl gear to harvest catch and then process that catch at sea. In 2024, 30 trawl C/Ps fished for groundfish in the Exclusive Economic Zone off Alaska, participating in the Amendment 80 Program, American Fisheries Act Program (AFA), Central GOA Rockfish Program (Rockfish Program), Aleutian Islands Pollock Program (AIP), open access fisheries, and the CDQ Program. Recordkeeping and reporting requirements necessary to attribute catch to specific fishery management programs are specified at § 679.5 and summarized in Section 2.1.1 of the Analysis (See <E T="02">ADDRESSES</E> ). Logbook requirements for trawl C/Ps have evolved over time, beginning with the use of a paper daily cumulative production logbook (DCPL) followed by development and use of a NMFS-approved electronic logbook (ELB) (§ 679.5(f)). If active, the operator of a trawl C/P using a NMFS-approved ELB must enter all information into its NMFS-approved ELB that is required be entered into a DCPL (§ 679.5(c)(4), (c)(6)), subject to the same recording time limits for DCPLs (§ 679.5(f)(2)(iii)(B)( <E T="03">1</E> )). The CDQ Program was established to provide eligible western Alaska villages with the opportunity to participate and invest in fisheries in the BSAI, to support economic development in western Alaska, to alleviate poverty and provide economic and social benefits for residents of western Alaska, and to achieve sustainable and diversified local economies in western Alaska (16 U.S.C. 1855(i)). The Council and NMFS have implemented additional amendments over time to provide flexibility and better meet the objectives of the CDQ Program. The regulatory text at § 679.5(c)(4)(ii)(B)( <E T="03">2</E> ) was changed in the final rule to implement amendment 91 to the BSAI FMP (75 FR 53026, August 30, 2010). As part of that final rule, the time limit for recording the CDQ number ( <E T="03">§ 679.2</E> “CDQ number”) to a haul was changed for operators of C/Ps, catcher vessels delivering to motherships, and motherships. Namely, operators were required to record the CDQ number within 2 hours after completion of weighing on the scale all catch in the haul (§ 679.5(c)(4)(ii)(B)( <E T="03">2</E> )). By contrast, under current regulations at § 679.5(c)(4)(ii)(B)( <E T="03">1</E> ), trawl C/P's time limit for assigning a management program to each non-CDQ program haul is within 2 hours after completion of gear retrieval. As a result, under current regulations, the CDQ Program hauls and non-CDQ program hauls have separate time limits for when the management program code needs to be reported. This timing discrepancy creates potential confusion for trawl C/P vessel operators participating in both CDQ Program and non-CDQ program fishing on the same fishing trip, and does not allow trawl C/Ps adequate time to assess haul species composition before assigning a haul to a non-CDQ program. This action would revise § 679.5(c)(4)(ii)(B)( <E T="03">1</E> ) and ( <E T="03">2</E> ) to state that a trawl C/P haul must be assigned to a management program, including the CDQ Program (specifying CDQ number if applicable), no later than 2 hours after all catch in the haul has been weighed. The requirement at § 679.5(c)(4)(ii)(B)( <E T="03">1</E> ) to record the management program for non-CDQ program hauls within 2 hours after completion of gear retrieval means that, if this logbook field is left blank after that time passes, the haul could be interpreted as assigned to a CDQ Program by default. Although § 679.5(c)(4)(ii)(B)( <E T="03">2</E> ) allows more time for the vessel operator to record the CDQ number, a default assignment of hauls to the CDQ Program after 2 hours of gear retrieval does not provide the CDQ groups and their industry partners the additional time needed to assess haul species composition to determine whether a haul should be assigned to the CDQ Program or to a non-CDQ management program. In April 2019, the Council requested that NMFS review reporting time limits for trawl C/Ps and clarify that trawl C/Ps must designate the management program and/or CDQ number within 2 hours after all catch in the net has been weighed. As a result of this review, NMFS is now proceeding with this proposed rule. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Proposed Rule </HD> This proposed rule would do the following: (1) mod ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 21k characters. 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