Program Improvements and Enhancement Rule 2

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 Council approved the following NMFS-proposed trailing actions for inclusion in PIE 2:

• Changes to first receiver site license application requirement and reduction of site inspection requirements,
• Removal of the end-of-year ban on QP transfers between vessel accounts,
• Clarification that mothership/catcher vessels with more than one catch history allocation may commit each to a different mothership,
• Change of the term “permit holder” to “vessel owner,” as necessary, to clarify the regulations, and
• Clarification of the process for vessel owners to request a change in vessel ownership through the Fisheries Permit Office.

PIE 2 also included additional regulations needed to allow QS trading and other necessary clarifications, as well as the following three Council recommendations:

• Change of the Opt-out Requirement for QP Deficits lasting more than 30 days, in order to allow vessels to rejoin the fishery after deficits are cleared (adopted by the Council at its April 2012 meeting).
• Elimination of the required annual filing of a preliminary co-op report in November, leaving in place the requirement that a final report be submitted in March of the following year. This requirement applies to the whiting mothership and catcher-processor sectors (adopted by the Council at its April 2012 meeting).
• Modification of the QS/QP control rules to clarify the safe harbors for lenders (adopted by the Council at its November 2013 meeting).

PIE 2 did not include the Council’s April 2012 recommendation to allow joint registration of fixed gear and trawl permits on the same vessel at the same time.  Implementation of this provision was delayed and a proposed rule was published on June 1, 2016.

The proposed rule for PIE 2 published on July 19, 2013 and the public comment deadline was August 19. The NEPA analysis for PIE 2 was covered by the Amendment 20 EIS. The final rule was published on November 15, 2013, with the section affecting QP transfers to be effective December 15, 2013, and all other sections to be effective January 1, 2014. On March 5, 2014, NMFS published a correction to the proposed rule.

NMFS has published a compliance guide for the PIE rule, which is available from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) website: download the PIE 2 Compliance Guide.