The Council received a report from staff about progress with developing the Bering Sea Fishery Ecosystem Plan (FEP). The report addressed how the Council’s preliminary outline for the FEP, adopted in December 2015 is consistent with more recent national guidance from NMFS, in the form of an Ecosystem-based Fishery Management (EBFM) Roadmap, and Lenfest, which recently published a report on Building Effective Fishery Ecosystem Plans. Dr Phil Levin gave a presentation on the Lenfest report at the meeting.
The Council’s Bering Sea FEP Team is preparing the core FEP document and a review of the Council’s current EBFM approach (which is the Council’s first action module) tentatively for review in October. The Team will continue to liaise with the Ecosystem Committee as the work progresses.
Staff contact is Diana Evans.