Archives: Actions

Amendment 16 provides a framework for specifying biological and management reference points and accountability measures that will meet the requirements of the revised Magnuson-Stevens Act and National Standard 1 Guidelines to account for uncertainty in the fishery management process, reduce the probability of overfishing, and include clear and objective status determination criteria while integrating with […]

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, […]

In September 2011, the Council recommended providing risk pools a safe harbor from the quota share control rules. Risk pools are basically groups of quota share owners who band together to pool their shares of overfished species.  In September 2013, the Council postponed implementation of this recommendation until after the five-year program review; but when […]

The intent of Amendment 13 is to ensure the FMP is consistent with NMFS advisory guidelines. The guidelines describe fishery management approaches to meet the objectives of National Standard 1 (NS1) of section 301 of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA). National Standard 1 states “Conservation and management measures shall prevent overfishing while […]

In June 2010 the Council took final action to adopt Amendment 2. Amendment 2 makes the HMS FMP consistent with advisory guidelines for National Standard 1 in the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA), as amended (50 CFR 600.310). National Standard 1 (NS1) mandates that “Conservation and management measures shall prevent overfishing while achieving, […]

Amendment 23 amends the harvest specifications framework in the groundfish fishery management plan to meet new requirements in the Magnuson-Stevens Act regarding annual catch limits and accountability measures, and to be consistent with the revised National Standard 1 guidelines. These revised guidelines introduced or defined new fishery management concepts including overfishing limits, an acceptable biological […]

Amendment 21 established intersector allocations needed to support the trawl catch share program (Amendment 20). It has been modified by a number of sub-amendments, starting with Amendment 21-1. These amendments and work on other changes to Amendment 21 are tracked on the Amendment 20 page in the section on “Catch share program modifications.” Amendment 21-4 […]

Trawl rationalization Trawl rationalization involved two closely related decisions: the creating the management system used to rationalize the trawl fishery (Amendment 20) and determining the proportion of the available catch that would be allocated to the trawl fishery for most, but not all quota species (Amendment 21). Amendment 20, discussed here, implemented individual fishing quotas […]

At its March 2006 meeting, the Council adopted a complete ban on commercial fishing for all species of krill in West Coast federal waters. They also specified essential fish habitat for krill, an action that makes it easier to work with other federal agencies to protect krill. Final rule CPS FMP Amendment 12 environmental assessment, […]

Amendment 15 was an interim measure. The adopted provisions ended when the trawl rationalization program was implemented under Amendment 20. Amendment 15 prohibited sector-specific participation in the shoreside, catcher/processor, and mothership sectors of the Pacific whiting fishery in each sector for which a vessel did not have a historic participation record during the qualifying period. It […]