Environmental Assessment for Amendment 55 to the Fishery Management Plan for the Snapper-Grouper Fishery of the South Atlantic Region (Amendment 55)

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) proposes regulations to implement Amendment 55 pursuant to section 304(b)(1)(A) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.  The latest Southeast Data, Assessment, and Review (SEDAR) stock assessment (SEDAR 68 Operational Assessment [OA] 2022) assessed scamp and yellowmouth grouper in the South Atlantic as a single species due to misidentification issues between the two species.  SEDAR 68 OA (2022) indicated that the scamp and yellowmouth grouper stock is overfished, but that overfishing is not occurring.  Yellowmouth grouper is currently part of the Other South Atlantic Shallow Water Grouper (OSASWG) complex (containing rock hind, red hind, coney, graysby, yellowmouth grouper, and yellowfin grouper).  Amendment 55 would reorganize the OSASWG complex, establish a new Scamp and Yellowmouth Grouper Complex including stock determination criteria, rebuilding plan, catch levels, sector allocations, management measures, and accountability measures.  Additionally, Amendment 55 would modify the catch levels for the remaining species (rock hind, red hind, coney, graysby, and yellowfin grouper) within the OSASWG complex.  The need for this amendment is to rebuild the scamp and yellowmouth grouper stock, and achieve optimum yield while minimizing, to the extent practicable, adverse social and economic effects.