The Council is currently considering three management measures that would apply to vessels participating in the non-Tribal directed commercial Pacific halibut (DC halibut) fishery and vessels landing Pacific halibut in the DC halibut fishery and incidentally in the salmon troll fishery and primary sablefish fishery north of Point Chehalis, WA. The measures under consideration are: […]

The Council initiated a review of HMS essential fish habitat (EFH) provisions in 2020 and took final action approving Amendment 8, which incorporates new and newly available information on EFH into the FMP, at its November 2023 meeting. Periodic EFH reviews are required by the EFH regulations at 50 CFR 600 Subpart J, and this […]

At its June 2023 meeting, the Council took final action on essential fish habitat (EFH) provisions for CPS stocks. The Council adopted a new CPS FMP Appendix, which includes updated EFH identification and descriptions, life history summaries, fishing and non-fishing impacts, research and information needs, and new maps. The Council highlighted the need for additional […]

The Council adopted its final preferred alternatives (FPA) for the 2025-26 harvest specifications and management measure process at their June 2024 meeting. This action also included adoption of a rebuilding plan for California quillback rockfish. The following summarizes the FPA.   1.1 Harvest Specifications The Council adopted default harvest control rules (HCRs) to calculate harvest specifications […]

Finding cost efficiencies and flexibility for monitoring the trawl rationalization program is a Council priority. In this regard, using at-sea electronic monitoring (EM) to reduce observer costs has been a major focus. In addition, the potential use of EM in lieu of an observer can create a flexible option for vessel operations.  In 2014, 2016, […]