NMFS temporarily amends the regulations governing the Atlantic bluefin tuna (BFT) fisheries to establish, for 2001 only, a deadline of 11:59 p.m. on May 31 for requesting Atlantic Tunas permit category changes. This regulatory amendment is necessary to provide vessel owners the opportunity to change their permit categories once the automated Atlantic highly migratory species (HMS) permit system is activated for the 2001 fishing year. NMFS received comments in conjunction with the 2001 proposed initial quota specifications and general category effort controls indicating that, due to technical difficulties and subsequent delay in activation of the 2001 permitting system, vessel owners were not provided an adequate opportunity to obtain their permits and/or change their permit categories prior to the previously established deadline of May 15.