Date: June 13, 2017 Federal Register summary: “This advance notice of proposed rulemaking provides information on a request by the Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) to announce deliberations of potential accumulation limits for Catcher Processor Permit use or ownership in the Pacific Coast groundfish fishery. The Council may not count any acquisition and usage of […]
The Council recommended changes to the FMP during the development of the 2017-2018 harvest specifications and management measures. Amendment 27 FMP reclassified big skate from an ecosystem component species to “in the fishery,” list deacon rockfish in Table 3-1, and revised Chapter 5.5 to describe a new inseason process in California. The new inseason process […]
FMP changes related to the biennial management process Amendment 27 to the Groundfish FMP was developed as part of the 2017-2018 harvest specifications and management measures process. It reclassified big skate from an ecosystem component species to “in the fishery,” listed deacon rockfish as a management unit species, and added a description of a new […]
In April 2012, the Council recommended allowing a fixed gear permit and a trawl permit to be registered to the same vessel at the same time.
In September 2013, the Council initiated the limited entry fixed gear (LEFG) sablefish permit stacking program review. The review was finalized in June 2014 and at the same time, the Council recommended the use of electronic fish tickets and changes to the own-and-control rules. A regulatory amendment in 2016 implemented these two recommendations along with […]
By November 30, 2015, anyone who controls trawl quota shares was required to be within the quota share control limits (including the aggregate non-whiting quota share control limit) with respect to all of their holdings—except for widow rockfish quota shares, which continues to be under a transfer moratorium. In April 2015, the Council recommended that […]
In September 2016, the Council took action to change management of the at-sea whiting sector allocations of darkblotched rockfish and Pacific ocean perch to set-asides, while maintaining the allocation formulas in the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for these two stocks to determine the set-aside amounts. This change required an Amendment to the […]
Te Council embarked on this initiative to help it develop recommendations to refine and improve the ecosystem indicators presented the Annual State of the California Current Ecosystem Report. Throughout 2015 and 2016 the Council’s Ecosystem Working Group, the Integrated Ecosystem Assessment Team, and the Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) Ecosystem Subcommittee assessed the overall performance […]
This initiative, which the Council completed in 2015, focuses on preventing new commercial fishing of forage fish that are currently unmanaged and unfished until the Council can assess the scientific information relating to any proposed fishery and consider impacts to existing fisheries, communities, and the marine ecosystem. This action recognizes the importance of these forage […]
In April 2016, the Council took final action on a package of recommendations related to the monitoring of vessel movements. The package includes: providing fishermen a choice between increasing their vessel’s satellite vessel monitoring system (VMS) ping rate, using electronic discard monitoring in conjunction with their VMS unit; allowing vessels declared into the whiting mothership fishery […]