photo credit APICDA
The Council made an initial review of an amendment package that would revise the American Fisheries Act (AFA) Program and the Crab Rationalization (CR) Program ownership attribution regulations and the Crab Fisheries Management Plan to provide for the different requirements for the CDQ groups, as distinguished from other program participants, which is mandated by the Magnuson-Stevens Act (as amended by the Coast Guard Act). Specifically, this action would remove the application of the “10-percent” rule for the CDQ groups and replace it with the proportional “individual and collective” rule. Since the 2006 amendment to the Magnuson-Stevens Act mandating the use of the individual and collective rule for CDQ groups, NMFS implemented this modification in practice by using the individual and collective rule but has not revised the AFA or CR Program regulations or the Crab FMP. This action would revise the regulations and the Crab FMP to make them consistent with the Magnuson-Stevens Act and current practice. Final action is scheduled for April. Staff contact is Sarah Marrinan.
