Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Fisheries; Atlantic Bluefin Tuna

NMFS adjusts the October-December time-period subquota for the General category Atlantic bluefin tuna (BFT) fishery by transferring 60 metric tons (mt) from the Longline South subquota, 10 mt from the Longline North subquota, 60 mt from the Angling category large school/ small medium size class subquota for the northern area, and including the quota underharvest from previous time periods, for a revised coastwide General category October - December time-period subquota of approximately 301.4 mt. NMFS has also determined that the BFT General category restricted fishing day (RFD) schedule should be adjusted to allow for maximum utilization of the General category October-December time-period subquota. Therefore, NMFS authorizes fishing under the General category quota the previously designated RFDs for the month of October, 2002. Additionally, the daily retention limit is increased to two large medium or giant BFT for the remainder of October, 2002. These actions are being taken to allow for maximum utilization of the U.S. landings quota of BFT while maintaining a fair distribution of fishing opportunities, preventing overharvest of the adjusted subquotas for the affected fishing categories, helping to achieve optimum yield in the General category fishery, and allowing the collection of a broad range of data for stock monitoring purposes, consistent with the objectives of the Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Tunas, Swordfish, and Sharks (HMS FMP).