BILLING CODE 3510-22-P
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
50 CFR Part 648
Docket No. 231215-0305; RTID 0648-XE067
Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Summer Flounder Fishery; Quota
Transfer from Virginia to Massachusetts
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Temporary rule; quota transfer.
SUMMARY: NMFS announces that the Commonwealth of Virginia is transferring a
portion of its 2024 commercial summer flounder quota to the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts. This adjustment to the 2024 fishing year quota is necessary to comply
with the Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Fishery Management Plan (FMP)
quota transfer provisions. This announcement informs the public of the revised 2024
commercial quotas for Virginia and Massachusetts.
DATES: Effective June 27, 2024, through December 31, 2024.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Laura Deighan, Fishery Management
Specialist, (978) 281-9184.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Regulations governing the summer flounder
fishery are found in 50 CFR 648.100 through 648.111. These regulations require annual
specification of a commercial quota that is apportioned among the coastal states from
Maine through North Carolina. The process to set the annual commercial quota and the
percent allocated to each state is described in § 648.102, and the final 2024 allocations
were published on December 21, 2023 (88 FR 88266).
The final rule implementing amendment 5 to the FMP, as published in the

Federal Register on December 17, 1993 (58 FR 65936), provided a mechanism for
transferring summer flounder commercial quota from one state to another. Two or more
states, under mutual agreement and with the concurrence of the NMFS Greater Atlantic
Regional Administrator, can transfer or combine summer flounder commercial quota
under § 648.102(c)(2). The Regional Administrator is required to consider three criteria
in the evaluation of requests for quota transfers or combinations: (1) the transfers or
combinations would not preclude the overall annual quota from being fully harvested; (2)
the transfers address an unforeseen variation or contingency in the fishery; and (3) the
transfers are consistent with the objectives of the FMP and the Magnuson-Stevens
Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act). The Regional
Administrator has determined these three criteria have been met for the transfer approved
in this notification.
Virginia is transferring 490 pounds (lb; 222 kilograms (kg)) to Massachusetts
through a mutual agreement between the states. This transfer was requested to repay
landings made by an out-of-state permitted vessel under a safe harbor agreement. The
revised summer flounder quotas for 2024 are: Virginia, 1,895,267 lb (859,679 kg); and
Massachusetts, 608,183 lb (275,867 kg).
Classification
NMFS issues this action pursuant to section 305(d) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
This action is required by 50 CFR 648.102(c)(2)(i) through (iv), which was issued
pursuant to section 304(b) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, and is exempted from review
under Executive Order 12866.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: June 24, 2024.

Karen H. Abrams,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries,
National Marine Fisheries Service.

[FR Doc. 2024-14218 Filed: 6/27/2024 8:45 am; Publication Date: 6/28/2024]