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AGENCY:
National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION:
Temporary rule; quota transfer.
SUMMARY:
NMFS announces that the State of Maine is transferring a portion of its 2024 commercial summer flounder quota to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. This adjustment to the 2024 fishing year quota is necessary to comply with the Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Fishery Management Plan (FMP) quota transfer provisions. This announcement informs the public of the revised 2024 commercial quotas for Maine and Massachusetts.
DATES:
Effective October 18, 2024, through December 31, 2024.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Matthew Rigdon, Fishery Management Specialist, (978) 281-9336.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Regulations governing the summer flounder fishery are found in 50 CFR 648.100 through 648.111. These regulations require annual specification of a commercial quota that is apportioned among the coastal states from Maine through North Carolina. The process to set the annual commercial quota and the percent allocated to each state is described in § 648.102, and the final 2024 allocations were published on December 21, 2023 (88 FR 88266).
The final rule implementing Amendment 5 to the FMP, as published in the Federal Register on December 17, 1993 (58 FR 65936), provided a mechanism for transferring summer flounder commercial quota from one state to another. Two or more states, under mutual agreement and with the concurrence of the NMFS Greater Atlantic Regional Administrator, can transfer or combine summer flounder commercial quota under § 648.102(c)(2). The Regional Administrator is required to consider three criteria in the evaluation of requests for quota transfers or combinations: (1) the transfers or combinations would not preclude the overall annual quota from being fully harvested; (2) the transfers address an unforeseen variation or contingency in the fishery; and (3) the transfers are consistent with the objectives of the FMP and the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act). The Regional Administrator has determined these three criteria have been met for the transfer approved in this notification.
Maine is transferring 4,000 pounds (lb; 1,814 kilograms (kg)) of summer flounder to Massachusetts through a mutual agreement between the states. This transfer was requested to help address an overage of the Massachusetts 2024 summer flounder quota. The revised summer flounder quotas for 2024 are: Maine, 180 lb (82 kg); and Massachusetts, 619,561 lb (281,028 kg).
Classification
NMFS issues this action pursuant to section 305(d) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act. This action is required by 50 CFR 648.102(c)(2)(i) through (iv), which was issued pursuant to section 304(b) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act and is exempted from review under Executive Order 12866.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: October 16, 2024.
Karen H. Abrams,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2024-24320 Filed 10-18-24; 8:45 am]
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