Atlantic Highly Migratory Species; Spatial Fisheries Management; Amendment 15 to the 2006 Consolidated Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Fishery Management Plan

What it does

This final rule implements Amendment 15 to the 2006 Consolidated Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Fishery Management Plan (HMS FMP) (Amendment 15). This final action modifies the timing of the Mid-Atlantic shark closed area, modifies the boundaries of the Charleston Bump and East Florida Coast closed areas to create low- and/ or high-bycatch-risk areas, and maintains the current boundaries and timing of the DeSoto Canyon closed area. This action also establishes a process to collect data from all the spatial management areas and review that data as needed and on a regular basis, while also renaming the closed areas to more closely reflect their intended uses. This rule does not implement a fleet-wide requirement for vessel owners to pay for electronic monitoring sampling costs as proposed but requires pelagic longline vessel owners to pay for the electronic monitoring sampling costs if their vessels choose to fish within the low-bycatch- risk areas of the Charleston Bump and East Florida Coast spatial management areas. This final action directly affects bottom and pelagic longline fishermen who hold Atlantic HMS fishing permits.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's summary, as published in the Federal Register.

What changed in the regulation

1 part of Title 50 of the Code of Federal Regulations:

50 CFR 635

Wording on eCFR: the day before it took effect and from the day it took effect (first part listed).

Compared with

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has published 186 final rules in 2026 so far, compared with 184 in all of 2025.

Counted by the Tribune from Federal Register records since Jan. 1, 2025.

Before this

No earlier Federal Register document under regulation identifier 0648-BI10 since Jan. 1, 2025.

What happens next and when

This final rule is effective April 3, 2026.

The agency's dates, word for word.

Check it yourself

• The document in the Federal Register
• Docket NOAA-NMFS-2019-0035 on Regulations.gov
• Title 50 on eCFR

The record as published

Source: the Federal Register (public domain). The document in the Federal Register