Magnuson-Stevens Act Provisions; Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Northeast Multispecies Fishery; Proposed Rule To Implement Addenda to 17 Fishing Year (FY) 2010 Sector Operations Plans and Contracts

Zusammenfassung

This action proposes to add certain exemptions from Federal fishing regulations to some or all Northeast (NE) multispecies sector operations plans that were previously approved by the final sector rule published April 9, 2010. That rule approved FY 2010 sector operations plans and contracts and allocations of Annual Catch Entitlements (ACE) for 17 sectors in the NE multispecies fishery. In addition to several universal exemptions approved in the final rule for Amendment 16 the NE Multispecies Fisheries Management Plan (FMP), the final sector rule also approved several additional exemptions from NE multispecies regulations for those sectors that requested them through their respective sector operations plans. The sectors requested several exemptions in the FY 2010 operations plans that NMFS subsequently disapproved for various reasons, including that they were not allowed as exemptions under Amendment 16, or that they were being addressed in the Amendment 16 proposed rule. Among these was a request to participate in the Gulf of Maine (GOM) Haddock Sink Gillnet Pilot Program, a program proposed in Amendment 16 that would have allowed the seasonal use of 6-inch (15.24-cm) mesh gillnet