April 2026 Decision Summary Document

April 8-12, 2026 

Council Meeting Decision Summary Documents highlight significant activities and decisions made at Council meetings. Fishery management decisions made by the Council are formally transmitted to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) as recommendations and are not final until NMFS approval.  Results of agenda items that do not reach a level of highlight significance are typically not described in the Decision Summary Document.  For a more detailed account of Council meeting discussions, see the Council meeting record and transcripts.  

Groundfish Management

Marine Mammal Take Reduction Team Update

The Council received an update regarding the Marine Mammal Take Reduction Team (TRT) from the Council representative, Dr. Rebecca Lent, and other participants.  The last meeting of the TRT occurred March 30-April 3, and consensus recommendations were generated for consideration by NMFS. Once the Take Reduction Plan is finalized by NMFS, the Council may comment or respond as necessary.

Widow Rockfish Alternative Harvest Control Rule

The Council adopted a revised range of harvest specification alternatives for widow rockfish for the 2027-28 biennium as shown in the table below as recommended by the GAP in Agenda Item C.3.a, Supplemental GAP Report 1.  Alternative 2d is a new alternative based on the overfishing limit (OFL) recommended by the Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) (Agenda Item C.3.a, Supplemental SSC Report 1, April 2026).  The Council removed from consideration Alternatives 2a (8,400 mt constant catch annual catch limit [ACL]) and 2c (5,858 mt constant catch ACL) described in the Situation Summary and Alternative 2 from Agenda Item C.7, Attachment 2. 

Alternative	Alternative 1		Alternative 2d		Alternative 2b
Description	Default Harvest Control Rule		SSC’s OFL-1		20% Ramp Down a/
Year	2027	2028	2027	2028	2027	2028
OFL (mt)	4,916	5,172	6,239	6,239
ABC (mt)	4,596	4,810	6,238	6,238
ACL (mt)	4,596	4,810	6,238	6,238	6,720	6,720
ACL difference from 2025 (11,237mt)	-6,641 (-59%)	-6,427 (-57%)	-4,999 (-44%)	-4,999 (-44%)	-4,517 (-40%)	-4,517 (-40%)
ACL difference from dHCR			+1,642 (+35%)	+1,428 (+30%)	+2,124 (+46%)	+1,910 (+40%)

a/ “20% ramp down” refers to a 20 percent decrease of the Council’s November 2025 motion that proposed using a 10 percent decrease from the assumed catch from 2025 and 2026.  For details, see Agenda Item D.4, Attachment 2, March 2026

The Council also tasked Council and NMFS staff with discussing with NOAA General Counsel differences between the Magnuson Stevens Act requirements to prevent overfishing and the National Standard 1 Technical Guidance used by the SSC to recommend an OFL. Depending on these discussions, the SSC may be asked to provide additional rationale and/or to reconsider their OFL recommendation.  The Council is expected to take final action on widow rockfish harvest specifications in June 2026.

Harvest Specifications for 2027–28 Fisheries  

The Council adopted its interim final harvest specifications for all stocks and complexes, except for widow rockfish, for 2027-28 fisheries.  The default harvest control rule was adopted for all stocks (see Appendix 1 of Agenda Item C.4, Attachment 1) except canary rockfish, petrale sole, rougheye/blackspotted, shortspine thornyhead, and yellowtail rockfish north of 40° 10’ N. lat., as shown in the table below.  While the Council had previously recommended Alternative 2 for chilipepper and yelloweye rockfish as the preliminary preferred alternative, the Council ultimately recommended Alternative 1 (default harvest control rule) at this meeting as the final preferred alternative to provide additional opportunity to the fisheries through higher harvest specifications while maintaining acceptable risk to these stocks.

Stock	Alt	HCR	2027 ACL (mt)	2028 ACL (mt)
Canary rockfish	Alt. 2	ABC= ACL (P* = 0.45); return to default in 2029	643	664
Petrale sole	Alt.2	ABC/ACL = 2,489 mt for 2027-28; return to default in 2029	2,489	2,489
Rougheye/ Blackspotted rockfish a/	Alt.2	ACL = 300 mt, return to default in 2029	300	300
Shortspine thornyhead	Alt.2	ABC/ACL = 902 mt for 2027-28; return to default in 2029	902	902
Yellowtail rockfish north of 40° 10’ N lat.	Alt. 2	Ad-Hoc Phase In	5,050	4,730

a/Apportioned 98% percent to slope rockfish complex north of 40° 10’ N. lat. and 2% percent to the slope rockfish complex south of 40° 10’ N. Lat.

Workload and New Management Measures Priorities, including Trawl Follow-on Actions Scoping

The Council reviewed its current workload and priorities list and made the following changes.

Regarding the priorities (Table A of Agenda Item C.5, Attachment 1), the Council recommended that items A1 Harvest Specifications Flexibility and A2/A3 Trawl Gear Exempted Fishing Permits remain the top priorities as they are tentatively scheduled for final action in 2026.  The Council recommended that C2 Risk Management and C1 Trawl Follow-on Actions become the next priorities, followed by the remaining A list items.

Regarding Trawl Follow-on Actions (C1), the Council recommended the priorities as described in Agenda Item C.5.a, Supplemental GAP Report 1.  The highest priority actions identified were T1 observer/electronic monitoring coverage, T2 Shoreside Monitoring, and T10 Cost Recovery (see descriptions in Agenda Item C.5, Supplemental Attachment 2).  Item T7 Set-Aside Management was removed from the potential list of trawl follow-on actions and moved into C2 Risk Management. Items B2 Increasing IFQ Carryover from 10 percent and B3 Aggregate Non-Whiting QS (quota share) Control Limits and Individual Species Weighting were moved into the broader trawl follow-on actions package. 

The Council also requested that Council and NMFS staff examine moving forward at-sea declaration changes (as described in Agenda Item C.5.a, Supplemental GAP Report 1) and the Commercial Sale of Recreational Fish Waste (A4) as a part of the Trawl Gear exempted fishing permit agenda item, as long as it does not slow down the progress on that action.  Staff will bring back a report in June 2026 regarding any updates.

Finally, the Council removed item B5 Prohibition on Directed Shortbelly Rockfish Fishery from the B list of Agenda Item C.5, Attachment 1.

The Groundfish Workload and New Management Measures List has been updated to reflect these changes on the Council’s webpage for this item.

Preliminary Preferred Management Measure Alternatives for 2027–28 Fisheries

The Council adopted area management modifications as described in Supplemental GAP Report 1 and Supplemental EC Report 1. They adopted, as preliminary preferred alternative (PPA), to remove the following Yelloweye Rockfish Conservation Areas (YRCAs) from regulations: Stonewall Bank Expansions 1 and 2, Point St. George, South Reef, Reading Rock, Point Delgada (North), and Point Delgada (South) YRCAs. T Stonewall Bank Expansions 1 and 2 are also Pacific halibut YRCAs. This issue was acknowledged by the Council.  If this change to area management is adopted as final by the Council, it will also require concurrent changes to the Pacific halibut regulations. The Council adopted as PPA a measure to remove the 150 fm Non-Trawl Rockfish Conservation Area (RCA) boundary line around Lasuen Knoll and revise the Federal language regarding the exemption of this Non-Trawl RCA line. Further, the Council adopted regulatory text modification in the Federal non-trawl trip limit tables to reflect the RCA boundary change around Lasuen Knoll.

The Council adopted the 5-year rolling median mortality for research and incidental open access set-asides for 2027-28 (see Appendix 1 in Supplemental GMT Report 1), with the exception of yelloweye rockfish and petrale sole, as recommended by the GMT in Supplemental GMT Report 1. The Council adopted custom research set-asides for yelloweye rockfish (2.92 mt) and petrale sole (24.1 mt), based on the rationale in Supplemental GMT Report 1, as PPA.  There are no exempted fishing permit set-asides requested for 2027-28. The Council adopted the resultant fishery harvest guidelines (HGs), which are the ACL minus the set-asides, in Table A-1 of Supplemental GMT Report 1, which also includes the updated Tribal set-asides from Supplemental Tribal Report 1.

The tribes recommended, and the Council adopted as PPA, the tribal set-asides as described in Supplemental Tribal Report 1. The amounts were the same as recommended in November 2025, except decreases to canary rockfish, petrale sole, shortspine thornyhead, and widow rockfish. The Tribes are reducing their set-aside requests for these species in recognition of recent and projected mortality trends in Tribal fisheries. Respectively, these set-asides requests are 290 mt, 35 mt, 100 mt, and 40 mt.

The Council adopted the status quo recreational annual catch target (ACT) copper rockfish south of 34° 27′ N. lat. and non-trawl ACT for shortspine thornyhead north of 34° 27′ N. lat. (i.e., 25 percent of the non-trawl allocation) as PPA. The Council also considered, and adopted as PPA, recreational ACTs for California quillback rockfish (statewide), vermilion/sunset rockfish south of 40° 10′ N. lat., and lingcod south of 40° 10′ N. lat. as described in C.7.a, Supplemental GAP Report 1 and detailed in C.7, Supplemental GMT Report 2.

The Council adopted status quo two-year trawl and non-trawl allocations for all biennially allocated stocks and stock complexes (big skate, bocaccio south of 40° 10′ N. lat., cowcod south of 40° 10′ N. lat., lingcod south of 40° 10′ N. lat., longnose skate, petrale sole, shelf rockfish complex north of 40° 10′ N. lat., shelf rockfish complex south of 40° 10′ N. lat., shortspine thornyhead, widow rockfish), except for slope rockfish complex south of 40° 10′ N. lat. For that complex, the Council considered four options, ultimately adopting Option 4. Option 4 would update the current methodology to reflect current fishery landings as described in Supplemental GAP Report 1 and detailed in Supplemental GMT Report 2. The Council also adopted status quo non-trawl allocations for cowcod south of 40° 10′ N. lat. and bocaccio south of 40° 10′ N. lat. as described in C.7.a, Supplemental GAP Report 1:

As recommended by the GMT ( Supplemental GMT Report 1) and GAP (Supplemental GAP Report 1), The Council adopted as PPA, for Sablefish north of 36° N lat. research set-asides using the rolling 5-year median, no set-asides for exempted fishing permits (as none were requested), and increasing the recreational set-aside to 50 mt when setting the non-tribal commercial harvest guideline. For sablefish south of 36° N. lat., the Council adopted the GMT recommendations shown in Table 8 Supplemental GMT 2, April 2026 as PPA to use the rolling 5-year median to calculate research and Incidental Open Access set-asides, no set-asides for exempted fishing permits (as none were requested), and a recreational to 10 mt when setting the non-tribal commercial harvest guideline. The Council also adopted status quo shares for limited entry (LE)and open access (OA) fixed gear.

For yelloweye rockfish, the Council adopted, as PPA, the status quo biennial trawl/non-trawl allocation, non-trawl sharing percentages for yelloweye rockfish as recommended by the GMT (Supplemental GMT Report 2) and GAP ( Supplemental GAP Report 1). The Council also adopted, as PPA, the non-trawl ACTs at 78.4 percent of the HG and  the resulting sector-specific shares as shown in Table 9 in Agenda Item C.7. a Supplemental GMT 2

For canary rockfish, the Council adopted status quo biennial Trawl/Non-Trawl allocations and within non-trawl harvest guidelines as recommended by the GMT in Table 10 of Agenda Item C.7. a Supplemental GMT 2 as PPA. The Council adopted the at-sea set-asides as shown in Table of  Supplemental GAP Report 1) and the status quo IFQ trip limits for non-IFQ stocks (see Table 12-5, Section 12.1.2 of Attachment 2) as PPA. The Council adopted commercial limited entry and open access fixed gear trip limit as recommended by the GMT in C.7.a Supplemental GMT Report 3

For the Washington recreational fishery, the Council did not adopt a PPA. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) will continue to analyze the range of alternatives as described in C.7.a, Supplemental WDFW Report 2 and include a stand-alone alternative that would allow yelloweye retention on days open to halibut in June. The Council adopted the recommendations for the Oregon recreational fishery for 2027-2028 from Supplemental ODFW Report 1 for public review and finalization in June. The Council adopted the recommendations as described in Supplemental GAP Report 1) for the California recreational fishery, which include a recreational groundfish season structure Option 4 (statewide April 1 – Dec 31 all depths), status quo bag limits statewide except: 2-fish sub-bag limit on vermilion/sunset rockfish statewide and 1 fish sub-bag limit for cowcod and yelloweye rockfish in December only. The Council also recommended decoupling the Rockfish, Cabezon, and Greenling Complex described in Agenda Item C.7.a, Supplemental CDFW Report 1:and a measure requiring all cowcod and yelloweye rockfish be landed whole (Supplemental EC Report 1.)

Additionally, the Council recommended further exploration of Council of the WDFW approach as described in C.7.a, WDFW Report 1, April 2026, G.6.a, Supplemental WDFW Report 1, September 2025, and F.8.a, Supplemental WDFW Report 1, November 2025, as well as other ideas to improve attainment of the ACL across sectors under the newly-prioritized Risk Management project.

The Council adopted the draft Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan amendment language, which removes the rebuilding plans for yelloweye rockfish and California quillback rockfish from the text. Additionally, the Council made a recommendation to Council Executive Director to review the socio-economic analyses supporting groundfish management measures and identify ways in which these analyses can be improved to help inform management. This would be undertaken in collaboration with NMFS social scientists/economists. A report back to the Council is planned for November in order to align with the SSC and Advisory Body review of projection models for the next biennium.

Methodology Review Preliminary Topic Selection

At its April meeting, the Council reviewed reports from both the SSC and Salmon Technical Team and discussed several topics related to salmon science and management. While the Council expressed interest in some of the proposed items, no items were identified for a formal methodology review, partially due to competing workload.

The Council will revisit the topic in September and may consider additional items that would be ready for review by October. Any methodology review outcomes completed in 2026 will be presented to the Council at their November meeting.

2026 Management Measures – Final Action

The Council adopted management measures for 2026 ocean salmon fisheries and will transmit its recommendations to National Marine Fisheries Service for implementation by May 16, 2026. Detailed management measures and a press release are posted on the Council’s webpage.

Pacific Halibut Management

Incidental Catch Limits for the 2026 Salmon Troll Fishery – Final Action

Under the Pacific Halibut Catch Sharing Plan, the salmon troll fishery receives a portion of the non-tribal commercial halibut allocation for incidental retention. The Council adopted the following halibut retention limits for the ocean salmon troll fishery, effective May 16, 2026, through the end of the 2026 salmon season, and resuming April 1, 2027, unless modified by inseason action or 2027 management measures:

• Beginning May 16, 2026, vessels may retain one Pacific halibut per two Chinook salmon, with a maximum of 35 halibut per trip. Additionally, one halibut may be landed regardless of the ratio requirement (1+1 per 2, 35).

Coastal Pelagic Species Management

Methodology Review: Integrated West Coast Pelagics Survey 

The Council approved the use of products of the new Integrated West Coast Pelagics Survey (reviewed in Attachment 4) for use in coastal pelagic species management. Methods and gear remain primarily the same as used on the coastal pelagic species (CPS) survey, with the exception of switching to a new Multi-Function Trawl (MFT) Net from the Nordic 264 net used during prior CPS surveys. The intent is to use the MFT as part of the acoustic-trawl method on the Integrated Survey for collecting survey data on CPS moving forward.

Exempted Fishing Permits for 2026–27 – Final Action 

The Council adopted the final exempted fishing permit recommendations for the 2026-27 fishing year. This recommendation included the renewal of the proposal submitted by the California Wetfish Producers Association to allow fishing for Pacific sardine for biological samples in nearshore areas (Attachment 1)

Pacific Sardine Specifications and Management Measures for 2026–27 – Final Action 

The Council adopted harvest specifications and management measures for the northern subpopulation of Pacific sardine for the 2026-27 fishing year, based on a stock biomass of 30,158 mt projected in the 2025 update assessment (Attachment 1). In the absence of a stock assessment produced for the 2026-2027 fishing season, the biomass estimate from the 2025 assessment remains the best scientific information available to inform harvest specifications and the SSC determined that rolling over the OFL of 4,645 mt from 2025-26 is appropriate for informing management for 2026-27. Given the lack of new information and the short generation time of Pacific sardine, the SSC also determined the acceptable biological catch (ABC) should be calculated by coupling the OFL value with a Category 3 sigma value of 2.0.

Specifications followed the guidelines of the revised Pacific sardine rebuilding plan approved on May 29, 2025, as Amendment 23 to the CPS Fishery Management Plan (FMP) (90 FR 23461). These specifications included an OFL, ABC with a Tier 3 sigma (uncertainty level), a P* uncertainty buffer, an ACL, and an ACT.

OFL	4,645 mt
P*	0.45
ABC Tier 3	3,613 mt
ACL	2,200 mt
ACT	2,100 mt

Accountability Measures Included:

1. Incidental landing limit in CPS fisheries of 20 percent
2. If the ACT of 2,100 mt is attained, a per-trip limit of 1 mt of Pacific sardine applies to all CPS fisheries
3. An incidental per-landing allowance of 2 mt of Pacific sardine in non-CPS fisheries until the ACL is reached.

 The specifications accommodate the exempted fishing permit request of 520 mt.

Fishery Management Plan Amendment – Sardine Stock Definition and FMU Revision

The Council adopted Alternative 1 as the interim Final Preferred Alternative (iFPA) for the sardine stock definition in the CPS FMP’s fishery management unit (FMU). Alternative 1 would amend the CPS FMP (Section 1.2, Table 1-1) to include all Pacific sardine in U.S. waters in the FMU. The FMU would include one stock of Pacific sardine, delineated coastwide.  The selection of an iFPA is intended to provide a Council decision point to focus the further development of the action, which includes potential revisions to management provisions and reference points for sardine. Final action on the entire FMP amendment package is scheduled for November 2026.

The Council also provided written guidance for NMFS and Council staff to take next steps to prepare a holistic FMP amendment to revise the FMU, per the iFPA. The guidance is as follows:

1. As stated in Attachment 1: the next step will be a review of the key management provisions for Pacific sardine described in the CPS FMP (as outlined in Section 3.3 of Attachment 1) to determine if any of these reference points or other management criteria must be re-affirmed or revised.
2. As described in Supplemental Attachment 2: the CPS subcommittee of the SSC should have a meeting over the summer (of 2026) to review options for generating or reviewing the minimum stock size threshold and the OFL, for the iFPA; while a joint CPS management team-advisory subpanel-SSC (CPSMT-CPSAS-SSC) meeting could be tasked with applying the harvest guideline (HG) control rule formula to the revised stock with recommendations for appropriate parameter values.  As described in the supplemental attachment, there are past analyses on these critical elements that can be reviewed. Overall, these meetings sound like reasonable next steps.
3. The technical team at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC) has begun work to develop science products to support management of the iFPA stock definition, potentially including a coastwide stock assessment. The Council would look to Council staff and NMFS to invite the appropriate attendees and participants for any meetings this summer (2026).

Habitat Issues

Current Habitat Issues

The Council heard updates (G.1.a, Supplemental HC Report 1) on several issues including oil and gas leasing activities in waters off California, Columbia River dam operations, a proposed transmission cable to be buried under the Columbia River, deep-sea and continental shelf marine mineral mining, and a presentation on associations between commercially fished species and cold-water corals and sponges. The Council expressed appreciation for the updates and directed the Habitat Committee to continue tracking relevant issues and recommend developing comment letters as appropriate.

Cross Fishery Management Plan

Special Project 1: Adaptive Management and Flexibility

The Council adopted preliminary preferred alternatives to advance the implementation of Special Project 1, Adaptive Management and Flexibility. In a series of motions, the Council provided guidance on the following components of the project:

• Prioritization. The Council prioritized work under Special Project 1 in this order:
  • Improved Processes for Data Streams and Integration of Local and Indigenous Knowledge
  • If-Then Statements and Inseason Management Actions
  • Council Action Meeting Requirements
  • Exempted Fishing Permit Process Improvements
• Improved Processes for Data Streams and Integration of Local and Indigenous Knowledge. The Council expressed support for a new section or appendix of the California Current Ecosystem Status Report (ESR) focused on on-the-water observations, to be informed by fishermen’s roundtables as well as an email portal where fishermen and other members of the public can share their observations with NOAA’s California Current Integrated Ecosystem Assessment team. The Council also asked the Executive Director to task Council staff with:  
  • Scoping a workshop to identify Local Knowledge priorities and pathways that can in turn support development of reports that contain Local Knowledge and ESR information specific to the Council’s FMPs. These reports should be produced at a time when they can directly inform the stock assessment and harvest specifications process for each FMP.
  • Continued scoping, with Tribal representatives, of a process to better integrate Indigenous Knowledge into Council decision-making.
• If-Then Statements and Inseason Management Actions. The Council requested that staff conduct a review of existing if-then statements in both NMFS regulations and the Council process, including approaches used in other regions around the U.S. It also tasked Advisory Bodies with reviewing and considering opportunities to develop new if-then statements and/or new inseason management actions, and prioritized the Groundfish and Highly Migratory Species FMPs for this exploration while specifying that the Salmon FMP not be included in this effort. Finally under this priority area, the Council tasked the Habitat Committee and other advisory bodies, as appropriate, with investigating the potential application of if-then statements to support faster responses to changing environmental conditions.
• Council Action Meeting Requirements. The Council requested that staff develop a plan to build more flexibility into Council action timelines by identifying opportunities to reduce the number of meetings required for certain non-controversial, broadly-supported actions and decisions. Staff will bring this plan back to the Council for consideration in September 2026.   
• Exempted Fishing Permit Process Improvements. The Council identified several action items from Agenda Item H.1, Attachment 3 to advance as part of this fourth and final priority area of Special Project 1. Each of these actions is focused on improving or streamlining elements of the Council’s process for reviewing, recommending, and evaluating exempted fishing permits (EFPs):  
  • Action 1 – Create clear EFP materials for applicants
  • Action 4 – Promote efficiency and flexibility in EFP applications and in Council recommendations on EFPs
  • Action 5 – Standardize the protocol for initial review of EFP applications
  • Action 6 – Allow for a one-meeting process for certain EFPs and identify other review flexibilities
  • Action 7 (Option A) – Create an umbrella Council Operating Procedure with FMP-specific subsections
  • Action 8 – Develop criteria for considering EFPs outside of designated cycles/review windows
  • Action 9 – Frontload environmental analyses and build in flexibilities, where and as appropriate
  • Action 11 – Establish a checkpoint schedule for considering EFP-informed management changes
  • Action 12 – Develop an approach to assessing risk and scientific uncertainty when considering an EFP-informed regulatory change

Next Steps. For each of the above components and where tasked, staff and Advisory Bodies will seek to develop materials, analyses, and recommendations for further consideration at the September Council meeting or, in some cases, at a later meeting, depending on the timing and sequencing of Special Project 1 work products and alignment with any related agenda items.

Administrative Matters 

Membership Appointments and Council Operating Procedures

The Council made the following appointments to the Sacramento River Fall Chinook Peer Review Panel

• Chair, Dr. Scott Rumsey (Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission)
• Dr. Hamachan Hamazaki (Alaska Department of Fish and Game)
• Dr. Thomas Buehrens (Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife)
• Dr. Tim Copeland (Idaho Department of Fish and Game)
• Mr. Tommy Garrison (Tribal)
• Dr. Martin Liermann (National Marine Fisheries Service, Northwest Fisheries Science Center)
• Dr. Steve Lindley (Independent expert)

The Council requested the following positions be announced

• Coastal Pelagic Species Advisory Subpanel (CPSAS) – 1 processor position
• Ecosystem Advisory Subpanel (EAS) – 1 Washington At-Large representative
• Habitat Committee (HC) – 1 At-Large position
• Groundfish Advisory Subpanel (GAP) – 1 Trawl At-Large

The Council is also seeking nominations for two at-large positions on the SSC. The Council welcomes all applications and is particularly interested in individuals with experience in economics, social science, groundfish, coastal pelagic species, and salmon.