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 […]

A Draft Restoration Plan and NEPA Evaluation for the YFD-70 Dry Dock (“Draft Restoration Plan”) was released by NOAA for public comment in December 2022 and the public comment period closed March 15, 2023. The Draft Restoration Plan is the result of a Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) process that began after the dry dock […]

The intent of Amendment 24 is to clarify the technical process for reviewing updates to the models used to determine the Chinook salmon abundance threshold that may trigger additional management measures to limit the impact of ocean salmon fisheries on Southern Resident killer whales (SRKW). The whales are listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) […]

Salmon FMP Amendment 23 updated the description of the conservation objective (revised Harvest Control Rule) for Council-managed salmon fisheries on Southern Oregon/Northern California Coast (SONCC) natural coho.  Amendment 23 replaced the current HCR with two new HCRs.  The first limits total fishery exploitation rates (ERs) on each of five individual representative population units within the […]

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 […]

In November 2019, the Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) directed the Groundfish Advisory Subpanel (GAP) to develop the scope of action and draft a purpose and need statement for non-trawl area management during the GAP’s March and April 2020 meetings.  The GAP then submitted Informational Report 4 in June 2020 for Council consideration and scheduling […]

Amendment 31 to the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan (FMP) was completed in June 2023. Under Amendment 31, 20 stocks for 14 managed groundfish species were adopted. Amendment 31 defines stock units, including geographic delineations within the jurisdiction of the FMP, for black rockfish, canary rockfish, copper rockfish, Dover sole, lingcod, Pacific spiny dogfish, […]