In November 2012, the Council recommended moving the shorebased sector primary whiting season opening date to May 15 for the area north of 40o 30’ N. latitude. The proposed rule was published on February 17, 2015 and the public comment deadline was March 19, 2015. NMFS published a final environmental assessment for this action in March 2015, and a final rule on […]
The current pass-through of the quota pounds allocated for the quota share set-aside for the adaptive management program (10% of the non-whiting quota shares) was set to expire at the end of 2014 (for further description of the Adaptive Management Program, see “Develop Criteria for Distributing Adaptive Management Program Quota Pounds”). The Council recommended a […]
In September 2011, the Council adopted a cost recovery program structure. Download the complete description of the Council’s recommendations on Cost Recovery. National Marine Fisheries Service published a proposed rule on February 1, 2013 and the public comment deadline was March 18, 2013. The National Environmental Policy Act analysis for cost recovery was covered by the Amendment 20 EIS. The final […]
In April 2012, the Council recommended an alternative that would address industry concerns about the restrictiveness of the chafing gear regulations for the midwater trawl fishery. The Council reconsidered and reaffirmed its decision in November 2012. The proposed rule was published on March 19, 2014 and the public comment deadline was April 18, 2014. On April 4, […]
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, […]
Date: June 23, 2014 Federal Register summary: “This advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) announces a control date of June 23, 2014, that may be used as a reference for allocation decisions when considering potential future management actions to limit the number of participants in the large-mesh drift gillnet (DGN) fishery that targets swordfish and […]
The Program Improvements and Enhancement Rule 2 (PIE 2) included a number of regulatory changes recommended by the Council. In April 2012, the Council recommended to NMFS the preliminary preferred alternatives for all of the items on the Council’s list, except for the Pacific whiting season dates (on which no action was taken). Additionally, the […]
In March 2012, the Council considered matters associated with the 2011 District Court Judge Thelton E. Henderson decision in the case C10-4829-TEH: Pacific Dawn, LLC, et al. v. John Bryson, et al., including the February 21, 2012 Court Order on Remedy. This order remanded “for further consideration” the regulations addressing the initial allocation of whiting […]
This rule corrects an error in the regulations to make them consistent with the groundfish fishery management plan. The date by which National Marine Fisheries Service will mail notices for quot share permit and account renewal will be September 15 (consistent with the September 15, 2015 date for renewing groundfish limited entry permits). The final rule correcting […]
The regulatory amendments pertaining to the Amendment 20 trawl rationalization program included, but were not limited to: severability of the mothership/catcher vessel endorsement and associated whiting catch history assignments from the limited entry trawl permit, continuation of the AMP QP pass-through, through 2014 of the Shorebased IFQ Program or until an AMP process is established, […]