Atlantic Highly Migratory Species; Large Coastal and Small Coastal Atlantic Shark Management Measures

This final rule implements Amendment 6 to the 2006 Consolidated Highly Migratory Species (HMS) Fishery Management Plan (FMP) (Amendment 6) to increase management flexibility to adapt to the changing needs of the Atlantic shark fisheries; prevent overfishing while achieving on a continuing basis optimum yield; and rebuild overfished shark stocks. Specifically, this final rule increases the large coastal shark (LCS) retention limit for directed shark permit holders to a maximum of 55 LCS per trip, with a default limit of 45 LCS per trip, and reduces the sandbar shark research fishery quota to account for dead discards of sandbar sharks during LCS trips; establishes a management boundary in the Atlantic region along 34[deg]00' N. latitude for the small coastal shark (SCS) fishery, north of which harvest and landings of blacknose sharks is prohibited and south of which the quota linkage between blacknose sharks and non- blacknose SCS is maintained; implements a non-blacknose SCS total allowable catch (TAC) of 489.3 mt dw and a commercial quota of 264.1 mt dw in the Atlantic region; apportions the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) regional commercial quotas for aggregated LCS, blacktip, and hammerhead sharks into western and eastern sub-regional quotas along 88[deg]00' W. longitude; implements a non-blacknose SCS TAC of 999.0 mt dw, increases the commercial non-blacknose SCS quota to 112.6 mt dw, and prohibits retention of blacknose sharks in the GOM; and removes the current upgrading restrictions for shark directed limited access permit (LAP) holders.