In October 2012, the Council defined a Purpose & Need statement, as well as 14 goals and objectives for the program. The Purpose & Need statement was revised in February 2013 to include all regulatory areas of the GOA where groundfish trawl fishing occurs. The goals and objectives for the action were most recently revised in June 2016. The purpose of the proposed action is to improve stock conservation through vessel-level and/or cooperative-level incentives to eliminate wasteful fishing practices, provide mechanisms to control and reduce bycatch, and create accountability measures when utilizing PSC, target, and secondary species. It will also have the added benefit of reducing the incentive to fish during unsafe conditions and improving operational efficiencies.

The Council recognizes that GOA harvesters, processors, and communities all have a stake in the groundfish trawl fisheries. The program is expected to support the continued direct and indirect participation of the coastal communities that are dependent upon those fisheries.

In June 2013, the Council received stakeholder proposals on design elements to be considered for a bycatch management program. In October 2013, the Council forwarded a framework of one potential program structure for preliminary analysis, and received a discussion paper on that framework in April 2014. In February 2014, the Council convened a workshop on the development of community protection measures in groundfish catch share programs in other U.S. regions (workshop summary). The Council reviewed discussion papers exploring possible elements of a cooperative-based program structure in October 2014 and again in October 2015. At its October 2015 meeting, the Council expanded its range of alternatives for analysis to four (including the “no action” alternative). In December 2015, staff presented the Council with a work plan that outlines the process of developing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Per that plan, staff presented interim discussion papers at the February and June 2016 meetings. In December 2016, the Council reviewed preliminary drafts of sections in a completed EIS, including an economic analysis and social impact assessment. At that meeting, the Council made the decision to postpone work on the GOA Trawl Bycatch Management Program indefinitely.