The Council took final action in February to prohibit directed fishing by regulation for species with sideboard limits insufficient to support directed fishing for non-exempt American Fisheries Act (AFA) vessels and Crab Rationalization (CR) vessels. The Council also recommended removing the sideboard limit on AFA catcher/processors for Central Aleutian Islands Atka mackerel since the sideboard… Read More →
Small Sideboards
At this meeting, the Council reviewed an initial review draft that analyzed a proposed action to revise federal regulations prohibiting directed fishing for species with sideboard limits insufficient to support directed fishing by non-exempt AFA vessels and crab vessels. NMFS would no longer publish these AFA and Crab Rationalization Program sideboard limits in the annual… Read More →
BSAI Yellowfin Sole Trawl Limited Access
At this meeting, the Council took final action to limit access for trawl catcher vessels targeting Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) trawl limited access sector (TLAS) yellowfin sole for delivery of its catch to a mothership or catcher processor. Specifically, the Council is recommending that a catcher vessel may target the BSAI TLAS yellowfin… Read More →
AFA and non-AFA Small Sideboard Elimination
The Council at this meeting reviewed a discussion paper examining the potential for using regulations to close directed fishing for species from both American Fisheries Act (AFA) and Crab Rationalization Programs that have sideboard limits that are not large enough to support a directed fishery or for those species that are fully allocated to other… Read More →
CDQ Ownership Caps
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… Read More →
BSAI Yellowfin Sole Trawl Limited Access Entry
At this meeting, the Council made an initial review of an analysis of management measures to limit access for trawl catcher vessels targeting Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) trawl limited access (TLA) yellowfin sole for delivery of the catch to a mothership or catcher processor. The management measures under consideration also include an option… Read More →
AFA Program Review
The MSA requires a formal and detailed review of Limited Access Privilege Programs 5 years after the implementation of the program, and thereafter to coincide with scheduled Council review of the relevant fishery management plan ( but no less frequently than once every 7 years). In December 2015, the Council reviewed a workplan for a… Read More →
