SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

The NOAA NEFSC submitted a complete application for an EFP to conduct commercial fishing activities that the regulations would otherwise restrict, to continue trials of on-demand fishing gear that use one or no surface buoys, and to test the ability of gear marking systems to consistently locate gear. This EFP would exempt the participating vessels from the following Federal regulations: ( printed page 64886)

Project Narrative

This project is a continuation of DA25-051 to trial on-demand (also known as ropeless) fishing systems aimed at reducing the entanglement risk to protected species, mainly the North Atlantic Right Whale, in trap/pot and gillnet fisheries. DA25-051 authorized on-demand gear trials on up to 180 total trap/pot vessels and up to 20 total gillnet vessels to replace up to 20 of their existing trawls/strings (up to 2,000 total trawls/strings) with modified trawls/strings, including in the ALWTRP Restricted Areas. DA25-051 expires on December 31, 2026.

This EFP would allow up to 90 total trap/pot vessels and up to 10 gillnet vessels to replace up to 20 of their existing trawls/strings (up to 1,000 total trawls/strings) with modified trawls/strings, including in the ALWTRP Restricted Areas. Modified gear would replace one or both traditional end lines with acoustic on-demand systems and other alternatives to persistent buoy lines (including, but not limited to, spooled systems, buoy and stowed-rope systems, lift-bag systems, and grappling).

The research focus for 2027 includes:

• New acoustic releases, stowed rope designs, inflatable systems, and emerging technologies will be evaluated as they become available. Investigators will work with manufacturers and fishermen to test and refine gears and gather data to inform regulators. New innovative gears will be tested using hybrid, one end ropeless, configurations in areas open to commercial fishing.
• New and existing on-demand gear performance will be evaluated in varied environmental conditions among varied vessel and gear configurations to inform safety decisions and refine reliability and operability. Emerging systems designed for deeper waters (>75 fathoms (137.2 meters)) will be evaluated in terms of reliability and operationally feasible.
• Data analysis will focus on durability, performance, user experience, and additional criteria that could be used to later approve innovative gear technologies.
• Dedicated research trips will be employed to evaluate alternative (digital) gear location marking accuracy and compare gear marking methods (manual versus automatic).
• Experimental fishing in Restricted Areas will incorporate novel on-demand systems and new fishing partners to further assess the feasibility and efficiency of fishing fully on-demand trawls. Trials will be conducted with a focus on safety (protected species and fishermen) and equity (fishermen and manufacturers).
• NEFSC will coordinate with Maine's Department of Marine Resources and Massachusetts' Department of Marine Fisheries on-demand research programs.
• Communication efforts will continue to the broader fishing community.

To ensure that on-demand fishing and gear marking technologies are adequately tested across the breadth of regional commercial fishing conditions, NEFSC requests the flexibility to test on-demand gear across the geographic range of the Federal American lobster and Jonah crab fishery, including testing fully on-demand gear (no persistent vertical lines) in ALWTRP Restricted Areas. It also requests the opportunity to trial on-demand gillnet and other trap/pot gear across the Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank, Southern New England, and the Mid-Atlantic. To cover a greater area and target areas where data is needed, NEFSC has requested flexibility ( printed page 64887) to have greater than 100 participants during the permit period (with only 100 fishing at one time). It would provide requested modifications to the active participants, general locations, and technologies to be tested one month in advance. Priority would be given to participants who are seasonally excluded from fishing in certain areas and/or in offshore fisheries with limited entanglement mitigation options.

This permit would only exempt vessels from the specified Federal regulations in Federal waters. It would not exempt the vessels from any requirements imposed by any State, the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, or any other applicable laws. The applicant would be responsible for obtaining all required State authorizations. Other than gear markings, all trap/pot trawls and gillnet strings would be consistent with the regulations of the management area where the vessel is fishing and would be fished in accordance with the participating vessels' standard operations (number and length of trips, soak times, trap limits, etc.).

The use of on-demand lobster trap gear in the ALWTRP Restricted Areas is limited to gear without any persistent vertical lines. The EFP would allow vessels to modify up to 20 trawls each, but would cap effort to 600 total trawls in the ALWTRP Restricted Areas. If necessary, due to a high level of interest and limited capacity, the NEFSC may require a demonstrated history of fishing within ALWTRP Restricted Areas as a condition for participation in on-demand trials in those areas.

In recognition of industry's interest in grappling as a low-cost alternative to acoustic on-demand systems, this project would allow up to 5 trap/pot vessels to retrieve up to 20 trawls via grappling; this would be a subset of the 90 total trap/pot vessels and the 900 modified trap/pot trawls effort cap. This would enable NEFSC to collect data on the viability of grappling at a commercial scale. Although no grappling trials have occurred to date, four vessels/operators have expressed interest in participating in the study. No grappling would be allowed in the ALWTRP Restricted Areas.

In phase one of participation, staff from NEFSC and the gear manufacturers would provide training to ensure that the system is working as intended and that all participants have sufficient experience with the gear before borrowing from the gear cache library. In phase two, participating vessels would rig an on-demand system to one end of a standard trawl or string and fish it as a hybrid (with one traditional surface marking) for at least 10 hauls per system. In phase three, participants would fish the gear as part of normal fishing operations, including fishing fully on-demand gear and fully on-demand trap trawls in the ALTWRP Restricted Areas. In some cases, a scientific observer may be on board, and/or GoPro Systems (or equivalent) may record gear retrievals. NEFSC would provide standardized data collection sheets to all participants, but individually identifiable data will only be made public with the express permission of the vessel owner.

NEFSC also plans to include targeted geolocation studies in areas with limited trawling and/or dredging to test new location-marking systems on the seafloor and automated location-marking when gear is set and retrieved. This EFP would support efforts to improve gear-marking and gear-conflict avoidance technologies, including testing sub-surface gear location vs. surface location where the gear is deployed, and other gear marking technologies. This EFP would also continue to test the EarthRanger and rmwHub platforms that display gear locations from various gear-marking technologies. NEFSC would demonstrate and encourage adoption of these technologies with non-participant vessels.

NEFSC proposes the following best practices and risk reduction measures for all vessels:

• All vessels would report all right whale sightings to NMFS viane.rw.survey@noaa.gov or (866-755-6622) or the U.S. Coast Guard (Channel 16) and record sightings on data sheets;
• All vessels would retrieve on-demand vertical lines as quickly as possible to minimize time in the water column;
• All vessels would provide mandatory, weekly gear loss reports;
• All vessels would operate within a 10-knot (5.14 meters per second) speed limit when transiting ALWTRP Restricted Areas or when whales are observed;
• For fully on-demand gear without traditional surface markings, participants would use cloud-based data aggregators to share gear locations and orientation details, which would be available to Federal, State, and corresponding enforcement personnel, as well as other fishermen in proximity to the gear;
• For fully on-demand gear without traditional surface markings, on-demand vertical lines would be marked with unique orange marks above the regional markings, in addition to ALWTRP regulations (per agreement with the NMFS Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team Coordinator);
• When fishing in ALWTRP Restricted Areas, vessels would check real-time right whale sightings information (such as Right Whale Sightings Advisories and Whale ALERT) before setting any gear and avoid areas of high right whale abundance, and all vessels would be recommended to follow this process when setting gear outside the ALWTRP Restricted Areas;
• Enforcement will be provided with and trained on digital gear marking systems prior to the start of trials, so they can locate research gear;
• The NEFSC would continue to provide monthly updates on any gear conflicts to GARFO's Sustainable Fisheries Division.

Vessels fishing fully on-demand lobster trap trawls in seasonal Restricted Areas will be required to follow additional practices:

• All participants will be trained by NEFSC on-demand gear experts and gear manufacturers and achieve a sufficient level of experience with the gear based on NEFSC's standard three-phase training protocol (described above) prior to Restricted Area fishing;
• Participants will carry a NEFSC scientist on a subset of trips to overs trial performance and collect additional data;
• An NEFSC-issued research flag will be flown by each vessel;
• No floating groundline will be used on research trawls, including where otherwise legally allowed between the first trap and anchor or on-demand unit;
• Project vessels will operate within a 10-knot vessel speed limit in the Restricted Areas;
• If any large whale species comes within 500 yards of a participating vessel during hauling, fishing will immediately cease, by either removal or resetting, and be reinitiated only after it was reasonable to assume the whale(s) has left the area;
• Participants will be provided with information on species identification as well as protocols to report live, dead, or entangled sightings of all large whale species. All whale sightings will be recorded on data sheets.

If approved, the applicant may request minor modifications and extensions to the EFP throughout the year. EFP modifications and extensions may be granted without further notice if they are deemed essential to facilitate completion of the proposed research and have minimal impacts that do not change the scope or impact of the initially approved EFP request. Any fishing activity conducted outside the ( printed page 64888) scope of the exempted fishing activity would be prohibited.

Authority:16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.