This initiative would build on the CCI by developing and implementing strategies to improve the responsiveness of fisheries management to climate variability and change, and is intended to set the stage for consideration of climate-informed fisheries management actions. The Council would use a collaborative process that includes IEA scientists, stock assessment scientists, and FMP Management […]

As described in National Standard 1 of the MSA, optimum yield (OY) must be assessed and specified in the FMPs and Councils should determine what the relevant social, economic, and ecological factors are in determining OY. An OY Factors Initiative would provide a mechanism to fulfill National Standard 1 by identifying and describing the social, […]

The purpose of this initiative is to identify whether Council decision-making and NMFS review and regulatory processes should be made more dynamic to respond to rapidly changing environmental conditions. This initiative is intended to respond to the CCI goal to develop and implement strategies for improving the flexibility and responsiveness of our management actions to […]

The FEP goals and objectives are intended to provide more details on the Council’s Vision for the ecosystem, “a thriving and resilient CCE that continues to provide benefits to current and future generations and supports livelihoods, fishing opportunities, and cultural practices that contribute to the wellbeing of fishing communities and the nation.”  In Chapter 4, […]

The MSA’s National Standard 8 requires that fisheries management measures “take into account the importance of fishery resources to fishing communities by utilizing economic and social data . . . in order to (A) provide for the sustained participation of such communities, and (B) to the extent practicable, minimize adverse economic impacts on such communities.”  […]

The MSA’s National Standard 10 states: Conservation and management measures shall, to the extent practicable, promote the safety of human life at sea.  National Standard 10 guidelines may be found at 50 CFR 600.355.  The United States Coast Guard (USCG) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) regularly assess the causes of […]

The MSA defines EFH as “those waters and substrate necessary to fish for spawning, breeding, feeding or growth to maturity” [16 U.S.C. §1802]. All four of the Council’s FMPs have described EFH for managed species, with the groundfish FMP having the most detail, including closed areas to protect EFH. Because of the widely ranging level […]

Catch and bycatch monitoring programs vary among Council fisheries, as do the quantity and quality of information provided by these programs. In 2021, the Council conducted a cross-fishery review of its standardized bycatch reporting methodologies, in keeping with 50 CFR 600.1610.  Consistent with National Standard 9, many of the Council’s fishery-specific regulations focus on achieving […]

This cross-FMP initiative responds to issues raised during the Council’s work on both the second (ecosystem indicators) and third (scenario planning for climate change) ecosystem initiatives, particularly addressing the need to better understand and integrate climate and ocean conditions information affecting the abundance of fish stocks into the fisheries management process.  Under the scenario planning […]

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. […]