At their February 2019 meeting, the Council received word of vacancies on the Fishery Monitoring Advisory Committee (FMAC; formerly the Observer Advisory Committee). The FMAC convenes industry members, agency representatives, observers, and observer/EM coverage providers to advise the Council on issues related to all types of monitoring in Alaskan fisheries. There are currently two vacant… Read More →
BSAI Crab Management
The Council reviewed the BSAI Crab Plan Team’s (CPT) report and the 2019 Norton Sound red king crab (NSRKC) stock assessment. The Council made a preliminary determination to approve the NSRKC SAFE report chapter as well as the SSC recommendation that 2019 OFL be set at 0.24 million lb. (0.11 thousand t) and that ABC… Read More →
Fixed Gear CV Rockfish Retention
At the February 2019 meeting, the Council conducted a public review of the draft Regulatory Impact Review (RIR) that would require full retention of all rockfish species for fixed gear catcher vessels (CVs) in the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands (BSAI) and Gulf of Alaska (GOA). Requiring full retention of rockfish by fixed gear CVs would improve… Read More →
BSAI Trawl CV Pacific cod
The Council completed an initial review of a proposed action evaluating management measures that limit certain Amendment 80 and American Fisheries Act (AFA) catcher/processors acting as motherships when receiving Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) non-community development quota (CDQ) Pacific cod deliveries from trawl catcher vessels. Also included in the initial review document was a… Read More →
IFQ Medical & Beneficiary Transfer Provisions
The Council reaffirmed its preliminary preferred alternatives and options after reviewing the Public Review draft of proposed changes to the medical transfer and designated beneficiary transfer provisions of the halibut and sablefish IFQ programs. While this agenda item had originally been scheduled for final action at this meeting, the Federal government shutdown prevented the February… Read More →
Partial Deliveries in BSAI Crab Rationalization Fisheries
At the February 2019 meeting, the Council initiated an analysis to allow vessels participating in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) Crab Rationalization (CR) Program to make partial deliveries of crab and then continue fishing before fully offloading all harvested crab. The action would be to remove Federal regulations that prohibit the continuation of… Read More →
BSAI Crab eLogbooks
At the February 2019 meeting, the Council received a short discussion paper on the regulatory process required to allow crab harvesters to switch over to electronic logbooks (elogbooks). NMFS requires daily fishing logbooks (logbooks) for vessels 60 ft length overall or greater that participate in the Crab Rationalization Program fisheries in the Bering Sea and… Read More →
Halibut ABM Stakeholder Committee Report
The Council received a report from the Halibut abundance-based management (ABM) Stakeholder Committee and revised alternatives for the forthcoming halibut ABM PSC limit analysis. The Committee met on February 4th to review scenarios submitted by stakeholders for consideration in the forthcoming halibut ABM PSC limit analysis. There was considerable discussion at the Committee and with… Read More →
Groundfish Management Objectives
The Council conducted a comprehensive review of the Programmatic Groundfish Management Policy, highlighting Council activities in 2018 that were relevant to priorities and objectives established in the Policy. The Management Policy was added to the Groundfish FMPs in 2004 through a programmatic SEIS and established the Council’s ongoing vision for management of these fisheries within… Read More →
Staff Tasking
The Council discussed the relative priority and scheduling of new and previously tasked projects, including changes to the April and June agendas resulting from the Federal government shutdown and postponement of items from the February 2019 meeting. The Council also discussed the following issues: The Council tasked staff with developing a discussion paper to consider… Read More →
