At the April meeting, the Council reviewed cooperative reports for the American Fisheries Act Program, Amendment 80 Program, Central Gulf of Alaska Rockfish Program, and BSAI Crab Rationalization Program. As part of these programs, cooperatives have been required or requested to provide an annual written report detailing the use of the cooperative quota or addressing other specific areas of Council interest. The written reports and the voluntary presentations (available under Agenda Item C7) are a resource for the Council to track the effectiveness of the cooperatives and whether the cooperative programs are meeting their intended goals. The reports and presentations also facilitate feedback from cooperative managers to the Council on successes of the program and areas of the program that may need adjustment.
The Council expressed their appreciation to the cooperative managers that provided presentations, and those managers that took the initiative to provide a more thorough and comprehensive report and presentation. The Council encourages all cooperative managers to continue providing comprehensive written reports and voluntary presentations even when questions are few since all reports and presentations are important to the Council as a resource. The Council also underscored the importance of written reports and presentations to those cooperatives in the crab program that chose not to submit a report. The lack of written crab program reports makes it difficult for the Council to measure the success of the crab program and whether the goals of the crab program are being met.
The Council made no requests for additional information to be included in the cooperative reports. Copies of the cooperative reports are available on the Council website. Staff contacts are Jon McCracken and Sarah Marrinan.
