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Browse 293 rules and proposed rules from the Federal Register.
293
Total Regulations
Showing 91–120 of 293
Page 4 / 10
NMFS announces that the State of Rhode Island is transferring a portion of their 2025 commercial bluefish quota to the State of North Carolina. This quota adjustment is necessary to comply with the Atlantic Bluefish Fishery Management Plan (FMP) quota transfer provisions. This announcement informs the public of the revised 2025 commercial bluefish quotas for Rhode Island and North Carolina.
NMFS announces that the State of North Carolina is transferring a portion of its 2025 commercial summer flounder quota to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. This adjustment to the 2025 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 2025 commercial quotas for North Carolina and Massachusetts.
NMFS implements an accountability measure for the commercial harvest of gag in South Atlantic Federal waters. NMFS projects that commercial landings of gag will reach the commercial annual catch limit (ACL) for 2025. Therefore, NMFS closes the commercial sector of gag in South Atlantic Federal waters to protect the gag resource from overfishing.
NMFS is prohibiting retention of big skates in the Central Regulatory Area of the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). This action is necessary because the 2025 total allowable catch (TAC) of big skates in the Central Regulatory Area of the GOA has been reached.
We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS; collectively, the "Services") propose to revise portions of our regulations for section 7 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (ESA or Act). The proposed revisions to the interagency cooperation regulations confirm the Services' application of statutory requirements for interagency cooperation, while continuing to provide for the conservation of listed species.
We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS; collectively, the "Services"), propose to revise portions of our regulations for section 4 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (ESA or Act). The proposed revisions to the regulations clarify and interpret portions of the Act concerning the procedures and criteria used for listing, reclassifying, and delisting species on the Lists of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants and designating critical habitat.
Two regional fishery management councils have submitted to NMFS for review, and consideration of approval and implementation by NMFS, amendments to four fishery management plans (FMPs) in the Gulf of America (Gulf), South Atlantic, and Atlantic, referenced here as the Commercial Electronic Logbook Amendments. If approved by the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary) and implemented by NMFS, the Commercial Electronic Logbook Amendments would require submission of certain commercial fishing logbooks in an electronic format rather than the current paper format. These FMP amendments also propose minor changes to some of the required data fields in the logbooks determined to be necessary to successfully transition from paper to electronic reporting. The purpose of the Commercial Electronic Logbook Amendments is to increase the accuracy and efficiency of fisheries data that NMFS receives from federally permitted fishermen participating in the applicable commercial fisheries that occur in the Gulf, South Atlantic, and Atlantic.
NMFS corrects the final rule published on July 7, 2025, to implement the Pacific Halibut Recreational Quota Entity Program Fee Collection. The final rule inadvertently omitted an amendatory instruction to add the definition for "Charter halibut permit holder". This correction fixes that omission.
NMFS increases the 2025 Atlantic herring annual catch limit and Area 1A sub-annual catch limit by 1,000 metric tons (mt) for the remainder of 2025. This action is required by the herring regulations when, based on data through October 1, 2025, NMFS determines that the New Brunswick weir fishery has landed less than 2,722 mt of herring. This notification informs the public of these catch limit changes.
NMFS announces three inseason actions for the 2025 portion of the 2025-2026 ocean salmon fisheries. These inseason actions modify the commercial salmon fisheries in the area from the United States/Canada border to Cape Falcon, Oregon and the recreational salmon fisheries in the area from the Oregon/California border to the U.S./Mexico border.
Effective at 0001 hours on November 10, 2025, Federal commercial tilefish permit holders are prohibited from fishing for, catching, possessing, transferring or landing blueline tilefish in the Tilefish Management Unit for the remainder of the 2025 fishing year. This action is required because NMFS has projected that 100 percent of the 2025 total allowable landings will have been caught. This action is intended to prevent over-harvest of blueline tilefish for the fishing year.
NMFS announces that the 2025 summer flounder commercial quota allocated to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has been harvested. Vessels issued a commercial Federal fisheries permit for the summer flounder fishery may not land summer flounder in Massachusetts for the remainder of calendar year 2025, unless additional quota becomes available through a transfer from another state. Regulations governing the summer flounder fishery require publication of this notification to advise Massachusetts that the quota has been harvested, and to advise vessel permit holders and dealer permit holders that no Federal commercial quota is available for landing summer flounder in Massachusetts.
NMFS, upon request from the U.S. Department of the Navy (including the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps (Navy)) and on behalf of the U.S. Coast Guard (Coast Guard; hereafter, Navy and Coast Guard are collectively referred to as Action Proponents), issues these regulations pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) to govern the taking of marine mammals incidental to training and testing activities conducted in the Atlantic Fleet Training and Testing (AFTT) Study Area over the course of 7 years from November 2025 through November 2032. These regulations, which allow for the issuance of letters of authorization (LOAs) for the incidental take of marine mammals during specified activities and timeframes, prescribe the permissible methods of taking and other means of effecting the least practicable adverse impact on marine mammal species and their habitat, and establish requirements pertaining to the monitoring and reporting of such taking. The Action Proponents' activities are considered military readiness activities pursuant to the MMPA, as amended by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004 (2004 NDAA) and the NDAA for Fiscal Year 2019 (2019 NDAA).
NMFS is prohibiting directed fishing for Pacific ocean perch in the Eastern Aleutian district (EAI) of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area (BSAI) by vessels participating in the BSAI trawl limited access sector fishery. This action is necessary to prevent exceeding the 2025 total allowable catch (TAC) of Pacific ocean perch in the EAI allocated to vessels participating in the BSAI trawl limited access sector fishery.
NMFS is prohibiting directed fishing for Atka mackerel in the Central Aleutian district (CAI) of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area (BSAI) by vessels participating in the BSAI trawl limited access sector fishery. This action is necessary to prevent exceeding the 2025 total allowable catch (TAC) of Atka mackerel in the CAI allocated to vessels participating in the BSAI trawl limited access sector fishery.
NMFS is prohibiting directed fishing for Pacific ocean perch in the Western Aleutian district (WAI) of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area (BSAI) by vessels participating in the BSAI trawl limited access sector fishery. This action is necessary to prevent exceeding the 2025 total allowable catch (TAC) of Pacific ocean perch in the WAI allocated to vessels participating in the BSAI trawl limited access sector fishery.
NMFS is prohibiting directed fishing for Pacific ocean perch in the Central Aleutian district (CAI) of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area (BSAI) by vessels participating in the BSAI trawl limited access sector fishery. This action is necessary to prevent exceeding the 2025 total allowable catch (TAC) of Pacific ocean perch in the CAI allocated to vessels participating in the BSAI trawl limited access sector fishery.
NMFS announces a closure for the 2025 fishing season for the red snapper private angling component in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) off Texas in the Gulf of America (Gulf) through this temporary rule. The red snapper recreational private angling component in the Gulf EEZ off Texas closes on November 21, 2025, until 12:01 a.m., local time, on January 1, 2026. This closure is necessary to prevent the private angling component from exceeding the Texas regional management area annual catch limit (ACL) and to prevent overfishing of the Gulf red snapper resource.
NMFS is prohibiting directed fishing for pollock in Statistical Area 620 in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). This action is necessary to prevent exceeding the annual 2025 total allowable catch of pollock in Statistical Area 620 in the GOA.
NMFS is prohibiting directed fishing for Atka mackerel in the Bering Sea subarea and Eastern Aleutian District (BS/EAI) of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area (BSAI) by vessels participating in the BSAI trawl limited access sector fishery. This action is necessary to prevent exceeding the 2025 total allowable catch (TAC) of Atka mackerel in the BS/EAI allocated to vessels participating in the BSAI trawl limited access sector fishery.
NMFS closes the General category fishery for Atlantic bluefin tuna (BFT) for the remainder of the October through November time period. The General category may only retain, possess, or land large medium and giant (i.e., measuring 73 inches (185 centimeters (cm) curved fork length (CFL) or greater) BFT when the fishery is open. This action applies to Atlantic Tunas General category (commercial) permitted vessels and Atlantic highly migratory species (HMS) Charter/ Headboat permitted vessels with a commercial sale endorsement when fishing commercially for BFT. This action also waives the previously scheduled restricted-fishing days (RFDs) for the remainder of the October through November time period. With the RFDs waived during the closure, fishermen aboard General category permitted vessels and HMS Charter/Headboat permitted vessels may tag and release BFT of all sizes, subject to the requirements of the catch-and-release and tag- and-release programs. On December 1, 2025, the fishery will reopen automatically.
NMFS is prohibiting directed fishing for Pacific cod by vessels using pot gear in the Central Regulatory Area of the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). This action is necessary to prevent exceeding the 2025 total allowable catch (TAC) of Pacific cod by vessels using pot gear in the Central Regulatory Area of the GOA.
NMFS issues regulations to implement management measures described in Amendment 2 to the Fishery Management Plans (FMPs) for Puerto Rico, St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John FMP (Amendment 2), as prepared by the Caribbean Fishery Management Council (Council). This final rule prohibits and restricts the use of certain net gear in U.S. Caribbean Federal waters and requires a descending device to be available and ready for use on vessels when fishing for federally managed reef fish species in U.S. Caribbean Federal waters. The purpose of this final rule and Amendment 2 is to protect habitats and species from the potential negative impacts associated with the use of certain net gear and to enhance the survival of released reef fish in U.S. Caribbean Federal waters.
This rule extends the emergency measures to revise portions of the fishing year 2025 provisions in the Northeast multispecies fishery. This action is necessary to address an emergency presented by an absence of approved specifications and other measures for fishing year 2025. This action is intended to mitigate economic harm to the Northeast multispecies fishery participants by establishing fish stock quotas and related measures that allow the fishery to operate while preventing overfishing.
NMFS proposes to revise regulations to standardize the time limit in which trawl catcher/processors (C/Ps) participating in the groundfish fisheries in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) and the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) management areas must assign a management program to each haul. This proposed rule is necessary to improve consistency for when trawl C/Ps are required to assign a specific management program to a haul. It would also allow additional time for vessel operators participating in the Western Alaska Community Development Quota (CDQ) and non-CDQ fisheries on the same trip to determine which management program to assign to a haul. This rule is intended to promote the goals and objectives of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act), the Fishery Management Plans (FMPs) for Groundfish of the GOA and BSAI Management Areas, and other applicable laws.
NMFS is revising regulations that implement the Pacific Fishery Management Council's (Council) Pacific Coast Salmon Fishery Management Plan (Salmon FMP). This final action removes the rebuilding plans for Queets River natural coho salmon (Queets coho salmon) and Strait of Juan de Fuca natural coho salmon (JDF coho salmon) from regulation, as these stocks have been rebuilt and are no longer required to be managed under a rebuilding plan.
NMFS implements an accountability measure for the commercial longline component of golden tilefish in South Atlantic Federal waters. Commercial landings of golden tilefish harvested by bottom longline gear are projected to reach the 2025 commercial quota for the longline component. Therefore, NMFS closes the commercial longline component of golden tilefish in South Atlantic Federal waters. This closure is necessary to protect the golden tilefish resource.
NMFS proposes to implement management measures described in Framework Action 3 under both the St. Croix Fishery Management Plan (FMP) and the St. Thomas and St. John FMP (collectively Framework Action 3), as prepared by the Caribbean Fishery Management Council (Council). If implemented, this proposed rule would modify the annual catch limits (ACLs) for queen triggerfish in Federal waters around St. Croix and in Federal waters around St. Thomas and St. John. The purpose of this proposed rule and Framework Action 3 is to update management reference points for queen triggerfish under the St. Croix FMP and the St. Thomas and St. John FMP consistent with the most recent stock assessments to prevent overfishing and achieve optimum yield (OY).
NMFS is opening directed fishing for Pacific cod by catcher vessels using trawl gear in the Central Regulatory Area of the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). This action is necessary to fully use the 2025 total allowable catch of Pacific cod allocated to catcher vessels using trawl gear in the Central Regulatory Area of the GOA.
NMFS adjusts the 2025 Winter II commercial scup quota and per- trip Federal landing limit. This action is necessary to comply with regulations implementing Framework Adjustment 3 to the Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Fishery Management Plan that established the rollover of unused commercial scup quota from the Winter I to the Winter II period. This notification informs the public of the quota and trip limit changes.