Atlantic Highly Migratory Species; Atlantic Swordfish Quotas

This final rule would adjust the North and South Atlantic swordfish quotas for the 2008 fishing year (January 1, 2008, through December 31, 2008) to account for 2007 underharvests, to the extent allowable, and transfer 18.8 metric tons (mt) dressed weight (dw) to Canada per the 2006 International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) recommendations 06-02 and 06-03. The North Atlantic 2008 directed baseline quotas plus the 2007 underharvest would be divided equally between the semiannual periods of January through June, and July through December. The adjustment of the swordfish quotas, to account for underharvests is administrative in nature and does not require a change to regulatory text.