Permits; Foreign Fishing

AGENCY:

National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.

ACTION:

Notice of receipt of foreign fishing application.

SUMMARY:

NMFS publishes for public review and comment a summary of an application submitted by the Government of Lithuania requesting authorization to conduct fishing operations in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in 2001 under provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act).

ADDRESSES:

Comments may be submitted to NMFS, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, International Fisheries Division, 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910; and/or to the Regional Fishery Management Councils listed below:-

Paul J. Howard, Executive Director, New England Fishery Management Council, 50 Water Street, Mill 2, Newburyport, MA 01905, Phone (978) 465-0492, Fax (978) 465-3116;

Daniel T. Furlong, Executive Director, Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, Federal Building, Room 2115, 300 South New Street, Dover, DE 19904, Phone (302) 674-2331, Fax (302) 674-4136.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Robert A. Dickinson, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, (301) 713-2276.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

In accordance with a Memorandum of Understanding with the Secretary of State, NMFS publishes, for public review and comment, summaries of applications received by the Secretary of State requesting permits for foreign fishing vessels to fish in the U.S. EEZ under provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Act (16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.).

This notice concerns the receipt of an application from the Government of Lithuania requesting authorization to conduct joint venture (JV) operations in 2001 in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean for Atlantic mackerel and Atlantic herring. The large stern trawler/processors MAIRONIS and UTENA are identified as the Lithuanian vessels that would receive Atlantic mackerel and Atlantic herring from U.S. vessels in JV operations. The application also requests that the Government of Lithuania be allocated 2,000 metric tons (mt) of Atlantic mackerel and 1,000 mt of Atlantic herring for harvest by the named vessels in 2001.