Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery

Riepilogo

This final rule amends current regulatory text regarding boundaries for the essential fish habitat (EFH) closures that were established by Framework 16 to the Atlantic Sea Scallop (Scallop) Fishery Management Plan (FMP) and Framework 39 to the Northeast Multispecies (NE Multispecies) FMP (Joint Frameworks 16/39) in order to reflect recent court orders in Oceana v. Evans, vacating such text and reinstating boundaries for EFH closures established by Amendment 10 to the Scallop FMP (Amendment 10). This final rule also revises the Scallop Access Area boundaries to be consistent with the redefined EFH closed areas.