Articles are combined in one printable PDF for each newsletter here. February 2017 December 2016
Council Appointments
The Council approved all current SSC members for another one-year term, as well as the appointment of Dayv Lowry from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. On the Pacific Northwest Crab Industry Advisory Committee (PNCIAC), the following members were appointed for two years: Lance Farr (Chair), Kevin Kaldestad, Steve Minor, Gary Painter, Dale Schwarzmiller,… Read More →
40th Anniversary Celebration
Nearly 350 guests enjoyed a banquet at the Captain Cook Hotel on December 8 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and the North Pacific Fishery Management Council. At the event, Alaska Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan provided video addresses, thanking the Council and NOAA Fisheries for their… Read More →
Charter Halibut Management Measures
The Charter Halibut Management Committee met in October 2016, and again in December 2016, to consider management measures designed to keep the charter halibut harvest within each area’s (2C and 3A) 2017 allocation. Management measures recommended by the committee were evaluated by Scott Meyer (ADF&G) to determine their likelihood to keep the charter harvest within… Read More →
Charter Halibut Permits
The Council reviewed a discussion paper that presented information on the use of charter halibut permits (CHPs). The discussion paper addressed Council data requests on latent capacity and use of CHPs by non-CHP holders (i.e., leasing). The discussion paper highlighted some of the challenges associated with the CHP database, including the lack of a verification… Read More →
Charter Halibut Recreational Quota Entity
The Council took final action on a package that would allow the formation of a non-profit charter halibut recreational quota entity (RQE) to purchase and hold commercial halibut quota share (QS), to augment the charter catch limits in IPHC Regulatory Area 2C and Area 3A. Under the Council’s preferred alternative, any IFQ annually generated from… Read More →
BSAI Harvest Specifications for 2017/2018
The Council approved the BSAI Groundfish SAFE report and annual catch limits based on recommendations from its advisory committees. The sum of the total allowable catches (TACs) or quotas for all BSAI groundfish is 2 million t for 2017 and 2018. The TACs were set below the sum of the recommended ABCs. The sum of… Read More →
GOA Specifications for 2017/2018
The Council approved the Gulf of Alaska Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation (SAFE) report and recommended final catch specifications for the 2017 and 2018 groundfish fisheries. The Plan Team presentations included stock status updates and a report on the ecosystem SAFE report section. Because there was no summer trawl survey in the GOA in 2016… Read More →
Bristol Bay Red King Crab Savings Area
The SSC and Council reviewed an application for an exempted fishing permit to allow for some flatfish trawling within the Bristol Bay red king crab savings area (RKCSA) closure in order to evaluate the relative differences in crab bycatch rates inside and outside of the closure area. The Bristol Bay red king crab savings area… Read More →
Electronic Monitoring
The Council took final action to establish electronic monitoring (EM) as a part of the North Pacific Observer Program. Under the Council’s preferred alternative, Alternative 2, regulations would be implemented to allow EM to be used for catch estimation. EM would be integrated into the established Observer Program process, by which the Council and NMFS… Read More →
