Fishery Management Plan Environmental Impact Statement Regulatory Impact Review And Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis For The Northeast Multi Species Fishery

"The New England Fishery Management Council and the NOAA Assistant Administrator for Fisheries propose to adopt, approve, and implement Amendment 16 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan (FMP) pursuant to the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (the Act). The EIS presents the details of a management program designed to ensure compliance with the Act. It proposes measures to continue formal rebuilding programs for overfished stocks and to end overfishing on those stocks where it is occurring. Appropriate management measures will be adopted to implement these rebuilding programs. The Amendment includes measures that address a wide range of other management issues."--Page 3.

"Location: Exclusive economic zone off the U.S. East Coast. Summary: Framework Adjustment 44 will implement trip limits to control fishing mortality on two stocks, provide additional authority to the NOAA Fisheries Service (National Marine Fisheries Service) Regional Administrator, Northeast Region, to prevent annual catch limits from being exceeded, and specify catch levels for fishing years 2010 through 2012"--Cover letter summary.

"The purpose of this action is to provide NE multispecies vessels fishing with trawl gear with the option to prosecute the skate bait fishery outside of the DAS program in an area that has been determined to have less than five percent of catch that is regulated groundfish species. The need for this action is to reduce inflated estimated discards of groundfish that cause an economic hardship for the groundfish sectors that currently prosecute the skate-bait fishery under a DAS"--Page 8.

"This action incorporates information from recent stock assessments to update the status determination criteria for pollock, extend the rebuilding program for Georges Bank yellowtail flounder, and specify annual catch limits for several stocks. In addition, this action eliminates unnecessary closure areas applicable to scallop vessels, maintains existing allocations of yellowtail flounder bycatch to the scallop fishery, delays the responsibility of the fishing industry to pay for dockside monitoring coverage through 2012, redistributes the fishing history of canceled permits to all remaining limited access NE multispecies permits for the purposes of calculating a sector's yearly allocation of each stock, approves the creation of new sectors, refines trip limits and area access for handgear vessels, revises monitoring requirements, and implements a spawning closure area to protect Gulf of Maine code. Through emergency authority, this action also increases the 2011 Georges Bank yellowtail flounder catch limit based on increased flexibility allowed under the International Fisheries Agreement Clarification Act. These measures largely build upon existing measures and analyses, and are expected to continue efforts to rebuild overfished stocks, minimize costs to industry, and increase the economic efficiency of vessel operations"--Cover letter.