Action Grouping: In progress

  • Action in Development: FMP Amendment – Sardine Stock Definition Revision

    In November 2025, the Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) scoped an action to revise the stock definition specified in the Coastal Pelagic Species Fishery Management Plan’s (CPS FMP) Fishery Management Unit (FMU; Table 1-1 in the CPS FMP). The Council scoped this action to re-evaluate the FMU for sardine due to newly published research on…

  • Phase 2 Stock Definitions: Identification of Groundfish Stocks in Need of Conservation and Management  

    In this action, the Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) evaluated groundfish currently managed in the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan (FMP) to identify and define stocks in need of conservation and management in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).  NMFS has advised the Council, both in writing (Agenda Item E.3.a, NMFS Report 1, March 2022) and verbally at the March…

  • Amendment 37: Identification of Groundfish in Need of Conservation and Management and Defining their Stocks 

    Under Amendment 37, the Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) Pacific Coast to identified and defined stocks in need of conservation and management Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan (FMP) (EEZ). The Council considered three action alternatives for all species in the FMP (2025 version). Alternative 1 would identify species as in need of conservation and management in the EEZ. Alternative 2 would identify species as not in need of conservation and management in the…

  • Limited Entry Fixed Gear Follow On Actions

    The Council began its second review of the Limited Entry Fixed Gear (LEFG) permit stacking program (i.e., primary tier fishery) in September 2020. In June 2022, the Council completed its review with adoption of the final report, including research and data needs and recommendation for program changes. In March 2023, under Workload and New Management Measure…

  • Non-Tribal Commercial Halibut Regulatory Changes: Vessel Monitoring Systems, Seabird Avoidance Measures, and Catch Reporting

    What did the Council recommend?  The Council recommended that vessels participating in the non-Tribal directed commercial Pacific halibut (DC) halibut fishery that only retain halibut must carry and operate a Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) unit and deploy streamer lines when setting gear. Specifically, the Council recommended:  For waters north of 42 degrees north latitude (Oregon…

  • CPS FMP Amendment 22: EFH

    At its June 2023 meeting, the Council concluded its EFH periodic review and took final action on updated essential fish habitat (EFH) provisions for CPS stocks. The Council approved proposed FMP amendment language and adopted a revised CPS FMP Appendix D, which includes updated EFH identification and descriptions, life history summaries, fishing and non-fishing impacts,…

  • Fixed Gear Marking and Entanglement Risk Reduction

    Whale entanglement reports off the U.S. West Coast have increased since 2013 with humpback whales being the most common species entangled across all gear types and origins. Recent increases of entanglements in West Coast fisheries pose significant challenges for fisheries management because of the current difficulty to differentiate among gear types that could be the…

  • Ecosystem and Climate Information for Species, Fisheries, and FMPs

    As a follow-on to the Climate and Communities Initiative, in September 2022 the Council endorsed the near-term schedule presented by the Ad Hoc Ecosystem Workgroup (EWG). This would begin with the Ecosystem and Climate Information for Species, Fisheries, and FMPs Initiative, which frequently called Initiative 4 (since it is the fourth initiative undertaken since FEP adoption.…

  • Gear switching and trawl allocation attainment

    Based on issues identified in its first review of the trawl catch share program (review of Amendment 20 to the FMP), the Council undertook a number of follow-on actions (see Section 5.0 of the review document, completed in November 2017).  One of these issues was related to gear switching in the shoreside individual fishing quoa…