[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 208 (Thursday, October 28, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 58035-58036]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-28104]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
[I.D. 092099A]
Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Fisheries; Atlantic Yellowfin
Tuna
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
[[Page 58036]]
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of availability.
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SUMMARY: As required under the Fisheries Act of 1995, NMFS is
publishing final statistics on the level of U.S. recreational and
commercial landings of Atlantic yellowfin tuna (YFT) in metric tons
(mt) since 1981. Preliminary statistics were published in March 1996,
and NMFS received considerable public comment. NMFS is publishing these
final statistics to inform the public of updated data on landings
trends in the YFT recreational and commercial fisheries.
ADDRESSES: To request a copy of the scientific paper which forms the
basis for these revised YFT statistics, contact Pasquale Scida at 978-
281-9208.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Regulations implemented under the authority
of the Atlantic Tunas Convention Act (16 U.S.C. 971 et seq.) and the
Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (16 U.S.C.
1801 et seq.) governing the harvest of yellowfin tuna by persons and
vessels subject to U.S. jurisdiction are found at 50 CFR part 635.
NMFS is required under the Fisheries Act of 1995, Title III,
Atlantic Tunas Convention Act, section 309(a) to publish Federal
Register documents with preliminary and final/revised statistics on the
commercial and recreational yellowfin tuna landings for the past 10
years. NMFS published preliminary data on YFT landings in a Federal
Register document to inform the public of trends in YFT recreational
and commercial landings (61 FR 10319, March 13, 1996). In order to meet
the intent of the Fisheries Act of 1995, given the complexity of the
issues involved with a complex data recovery of YFT landings, NMFS
deemed it preferable to at least publish preliminary data within the
140-day deadline and requested public comment over a 2-month time
period.
These preliminary data and data issues have been discussed at
meetings of the Advisory Committee to the U.S. Section to the
International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT)
in recent years. Comments received from both the general public and
from the ICCAT Advisory Committee (IAC) resulted in extensive
reexamination of the data by NMFS scientists to gather the best
available data on commercial and recreational YFT landings for
publication and subsequent revisions to the preliminary statistics. At
the November 1998 IAC meeting, a copy of a draft report to be used as
the basis for submitting revised estimates of YFT landings to ICCAT was
circulated to the IAC. After further refining the information, NMFS
provided a draft scientific paper detailing YFT data revisions to the
IAC at its March 1999 meeting.
The source of the YFT data and revisions made to the historical
database are described in a paper that has been submitted to the ICCAT
Standing Committee on Research and Statistics (SCRS) at its 1999
meetings. As noted in the summary of this SCRS paper, a variety of
commercial landings databases were examined for the purpose of
evaluating the possible need for revising reports of U.S. landings of
Atlantic bigeye, albacore, yellowfin, and skipjack tuna to ICCAT. This
SCRS paper updates, with appropriate revision and additions, a previous
review of U.S. commercial landings of Atlantic yellowfin as presented
in an earlier SCRS paper. In addition, various sources of recreational
landing tallies and estimates are examined and landings values are
presented. To obtain copies of this SCRS paper, see ADDRESSES.
In presenting these revised data to the SCRS, the United States is
formally revising historical landings statistics. These revised
statistics have been submitted through the ICCAT reporting process,
after incorporating the review comments received from both the IAC and
the SCRS, and will be published in future reports of the SCRS. Because
this review and revision of YFT statistics included extensive research
of all sources of YFT data and a variety of estimation techniques, NMFS
considers these historical data as the best data available at this
time. NMFS, therefore, does not intend to consider further revisions to
these data unless new, verifiable data become available.
NMFS is exploring and, in some cases, implementing new measures
designed to improve the quality of YFT commercial and recreational
landings data. The Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Tunas,
Swordfish, and Sharks, adopted in April 1999, includes new permitting
and reporting requirements for recreational vessels, including logbooks
for Highly Migratory Species charter/headboats, if selected. Through
efforts implemented under the Atlantic Coast Cooperative Statistics
Program, NMFS is working with states and other fishery management
authorities to ensure uniform, non-redundant, and consistent data
collection systems. These and other efforts should contribute to
improved quality of YFT data in coming years.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq. and 16 U.S.C. 971 et seq.
Dated: October 22, 1999.
Gary C. Matlock,
Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries
Service.
Table: Yellowfin Tuna Commercial and Recreational Landings, 1981-1998,
in metric tons round weight
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Year Commercial Landings Recreational Landings
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1981 1886 1274
1982 819 912
1983 358 2196
1984 1775 405
1985 6342 3394
1986 5102 4836
1987 5710 3952
1988 9166 1899
1989 6530 1930
1990 5121 545
1991 5495 1418
1992 5982 957
1993 4386 1898
1994 3775 4522
1995 4395 4157
1996 3788 4498
1997 4105 3569
1998 2693 2927
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[FR Doc. 99-28104 Filed 10-27-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-F