Atlantic Highly Migratory Species; Atlantic Commercial Shark Management Measures

This final rule establishes the annual quotas and opening dates for the 2010 fishing season for sandbar sharks, non-sandbar large coastal sharks (LCS), small coastal sharks (SCS), and pelagic sharks based on any over- and/or underharvests experienced during the 2008 and 2009 Atlantic commercial shark fishing seasons. NMFS needs to take this action to establish the 2010 adjusted fishing quotas and to open the commercial fishing seasons for the Atlantic sandbar shark, non-sandbar LCS, SCS, and pelagic shark fishery based on over- and underharvests from the 2009 fishing season. This action is expected to affect commercial shark fishermen in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico regions.