Fisheries of the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and South Atlantic; Queen Conch Fishery of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands; Regulatory Amendment 2

NMFS issues this final rule to implement Regulatory Amendment 2 to the Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for the Queen Conch Resources of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) (Regulatory Amendment 2), as prepared by the Caribbean Fishery Management Council (Council). This final rule revises the commercial trip limit for queen conch in the Caribbean exclusive economic zone (EEZ) to be compatible with the trip limit in USVI territorial waters. The purpose of this provision is to improve the compatibility of Federal and USVI territorial regulations for queen conch in order to facilitate enforcement efforts while ensuring the long-term health of the queen conch resource. This final rule also changes the regulations specifying the queen conch fishing season to correct an inadvertent change to the text that occurred in a prior rulemaking. The revision better reflects the original and current intent of the Council.