Amendment 13 to the 2006 Consolidated HMS Fishery Management Plan: Bluefin Management Measures
Summary
NOAA Fisheries is exploring management options with a focus on:
- Refining the Individual Bluefin Quota Program.
- Reassessing share distribution and allocation of bluefin tuna quotas, including the potential elimination or phasing out of the Purse Seine category.
- Other regulatory provisions regarding the directed and incidental bluefin fisheries.
Atlantic Bluefin Tuna: Draft Environmental Impact Statement and Proposed Rule for Draft Amendment 13 to the 2006 Consolidated Atlantic HMS FMP
NOAA Fisheries announces a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) and proposed rule for Draft Amendment 13 to the 2006 Consolidated Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Fishery Management Plan. The DEIS is available now and the proposed rule will be published on May 21, and will be available on the NOAA Fisheries website. Also on May 21, the EPA will publish the Notice of Availability of the DEIS. The DEIS analyzes the ecological and socioeconomic impacts of the alternatives that are considered in Draft Amendment 13. A schedule of public hearings will be announced in a separate Federal Register notice.
Who is affected?
The proposed measures could affect any U.S. fisherman who targets or incidentally catches Atlantic bluefin tuna.
What will it do?
A full description of the proposed management measures can be found in the proposed rule, which will be published on May 21, 2021, and the full range of alternatives considered can be found in the DEIS, which is below. The proposed measures are summarized below.
Proposed Measures |
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Longline category Individual Bluefin Quota (IBQ) Shares
IBQ Share Cap - Cap amount of IBQ shares owned per entity at 25% Electronic Monitoring
Cost Recovery Program - Implement a cost recovery program via dealers Dealer Reporting Requirements - Remove PIN and dead discard requirements for IBQ reports |
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Purse Seine category and quota reallocation
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Angling category Modify Angling category trophy areas and allocations (percentages) |
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Harpoon category Set a Harpoon category limit on the total number of bluefin at 10 fish (combined large medium and giant) and maintain current retention limit range on large medium bluefin |
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Permit category corrections Allow vessels with an open access Atlantic tunas or HMS permit to change permit categories within a fishing year provided they have not landed a bluefin |
Amendment 13 Webinar Presentation Video
Submit comments by September 20, 2021:
The end of the comment period for the Amendment 13 proposed rule is being extended until September 20, 2021. The original end of the comment period was July 20, 2021.
Written comments, identified by “NOAA-NMFS-2019-0042,” may be submitted electronically via the Federal eRulemaking Portal http://www.regulations.gov, or sent by mail to the contact information included below. All comments received are a part of the public record and generally will be posted to http://www.regulations.gov without change. All Personal Identifying Information (name, address, etc.) voluntarily submitted by the commenter may be publicly accessible. Do not submit Confidential Business Information or otherwise sensitive or protected information. NMFS will accept anonymous comments (enter N/A in the required fields if you wish to remain anonymous). You may submit attachments to electronic comments in Microsoft Word, Excel, WordPerfect, or Adobe PDF file formats only.
For further information on this proposed rule and draft environmental impact statement, contact HMS staff at 978-281-9260. Copies of the proposed rule, draft environmental impact statement, and other supporting documents are available upon request from the Highly Migratory Species Management Division (phone: 301-427-8503).