Foreign Fishing Regulations; Approval of Preliminary Management Plan (PMP) for Atlantic Herring and Modification of Subpart C of the Foreign Fishing Regulations

NMFS announces the approval of the PMP for Atlantic herring and issues this interim final rule to modify the foreign fishing regulations pertaining to the Northwest Atlantic Ocean fishery. In accordance with the PMP, Atlantic herring is removed from the list of species prohibited for possession by foreign vessels and is added to the allocated species list for the exclusive economic zone (EEZ). This rule also removes the foreign fishing regulations pertaining to Atlantic hakes. The PMP sets the initial specifications for Atlantic herring and this rule provides a mechanism for modifying the initial specifications for that species. This rule also removes silver hake and red hake from the allocated species list and adds them, along with several other multispecies finfish, to the prohibited species list. The intended effect of this rule is to encourage the U.S. harvest of an underutilized segment of the stock of Atlantic herring by allowing the issuance of permits to foreign vessels to receive herring from U.S. vessels.