Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan Southern New England Skate Bait Trawl Exemption Area Environmental Assessment Regulatory Impact Review Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis

"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.

"The Regional Administrator (RA) of the Northeast Region of the National Marine Fisheries Service (RA) has the authority to review and approve exempted fishery requests if data show that they meet the requirements dictated by the Northeast (NE) multispecies fishery regulations (50 CFR 648.80). Representatives from the NE multispecies fleet submitted two separate exempted fishery request to the RA in December 2011, requesting that the RA consider an exempted fishery for spiny dogfish in a portion of the Gulf of Maine (GOM) and Inshore Georges Bank (GB) when fishing with gillnet, longline, and handgear (Figure 1). For an exempted fishery to be approved it must be shown, using the best available data, that the bycatch of regulated multispecies in the proposed fishery will be less than 5% of the total catch. Data from the Northeast Fisheries Observer Program (NEFOP) and at-sea monitors (ASM) were compiled and analyzed with reference to groundfish vessels using gillnet, longline, and handgear in the area requested. Upon initial review of the requested exempted fishery, it was clear that the original request would not meet the requirements for an exempted fishery. However, a large grouping of trips that were below the 5% threshold did emerge just to the east of Cape Cod, MA. Therefore, NMFS developed and considered three options, including No Action. Option 1 would allow fishing in this area from June through December for longline and gillnet gear and June through August for handgear. Option 2 analyzes an exemption for longline, gillnet, and handgear in the area year-round. Data from 2010 and 2011 show that if Option 1 is selected, it is likely that bycatch of regulated species (primarily Atlantic cod, pollock, Atlantic halibut, windowpane flounder, winter flounder, and haddock) would be below the 5% threshold for all trips that would occur under this exemption. On October 19, 2012, NMFS published a proposed rule for this action. During the public comment period, NMFS received a comment that we should consider including the portion of Cape Cod Bay south of 42° N in the exemption area. It was our initial determination that there was not enough data to exempt the area from the requirements of the NE multispecies regulations. Based on this comment, we made an additional data request to the Massachusetts Department of Marine Fisheries (MA DMF). MA DMF was able to provide some supplementary trips in the area from a historical dataset. When the area was expanded to include the portion of Cape Cod Bay west of 70° W and south of 42° 11.5' N, there were a total of 11 trips. Therefore, NMFS developed an additional alternative (Alternative 2) to create an exemption area to target spiny dogfish in this portion Cape Cod Bay. There was not sufficient data in other months of the year in this area to consider a year-round exemption. Further, there were some trips in these months that exceeded the 5% NE multispecies threshold. So a yearround option was not a viable option"--Executive summary (page 2).

"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.

"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.

"This action is part or the biennial review process established in the FMP to develop annual catch limits (ACLs) and revise management measures necessary to rebuild overfished groundfish stocks and achieve the goals and objectives of the FMP. Framework 47 was developed to respond to recent stock assessments and updated stock information, as well as to revise management measures after the fishery has operated for 1 year under ACLs and accountability measures (AMs)"--Cover letter; Portfolio comprised of eight related PDF documents digitized and organized by: NOAA Office of Program Planning and Integration (PPI) National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) staff.

"Framework Adjustment 46 revises the haddock incidental catch cap for the Atlantic herring fishery; creates two haddock stock-specific caps with corresponding accountability measures; increases cap allocations; modifies monitoring methods to account for total haddock catch only by midwater trawl vessels"--Cover letter; Portfolio comprised of 5 related PDF documents digitized and organized by: NOAA Office of Program Planning and Integration (PPI) National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) staff.