Find amendments across Fishery Management Plans

106 Reclassifying Squid to Ecosystem Component

Reclassified the squid stock complex under the Ecosystem Component category based on the best available scientific information, reflecting the lack of a directed squid fishery, high productivity, and low incidental fishing mortality. The amendment also prohibited directed fishing for squid, established a 20% maximum retention allowance, and implemented recordkeeping requirements.

G65 Habitat Areas of Particular Concern

These amendments revise the FMPs by identifying and describing essential fish habitat (EFH) and designating habitat areas of particular concern. They also include measures to minimize, to the extent practicable, adverse effects on EFH. This action is necessary to protect important habitat features to sustain managed fish stocks.

G73 Essential Fish Habitat

These amendments revise the FMPs by identifying and describing essential fish habitat (EFH) and designating habitat areas of particular concern. They also include measures to minimize, to the extent practicable, adverse effects on EFH. This action is necessary to protect important habitat features to sustain managed fish stocks.

48 Establish Procedure for Total Allowable Catch Setting

Revised the FMP to update harvest specification and prohibited species catch (PSC) procedures, including the annual establishment and allocation of Pacific halibut PSC limits, and to remove outdated provisions related to foreign fishing and processing. The amendment also updated species and biological information, including information on skates, and clarified management procedures for TAC reserves and PSC closures.

G41 Establish License Limitation Program

This amendment, submitted by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council established the License Limitation Program (LLP). The LLP limits the number, size, and specific operation of vessels that may be deployed in the groundfish fisheries in the exclusive economic zone off Alaska, except for demersal shelf rockfish east of 140 deg. W. long. and sablefish managed under the Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) Program.

51 Inshore/Offshore III

Re-established the catcher vessel operational area in the Bering Sea and restored the allocations of pollock and Pacific cod between the inshore and offshore components of the Gulf of Alaska fisheries through 2001. The amendment also revised the 1999 interim groundfish specifications to reflect these allocations and promote the goals and objectives of the FMPs.

G55 Essential Fish Habitat

(Amendments 55/ 55/8/5/5). These amendments describe and identify essential fish habitat (EFH) in Alaska, and risks to that habitat, for groundfish, scallops, salmon, and king and Tanner crabs.

G39 Establish Forage Fish Category

This amendment created a forage fish species category and implemented associated management measures. The intended effect was to prevent the development of a commercial directed fishery for forage fish, which are a critical food source for many marine mammal, seabird, and fish species.

G46 Remove Black and Blue Rockfish from Fishery Management Plan

This amendment removed black and blue rockfish from the complex of species managed under the plan. The rule makes conforming changes to the plan implementing regulations to reflect the removal of black and blue rockfish from the complex. The State of Alaska will regulate fishing for these species by vessels registered under State law. This action was necessary to allow the State to implement more responsive, regionally based, management of these species than was currently possible under the plan. The intended effect of this action was to repeal duplicative Federal regulations, provide for more responsive State management and prevent localized overfishing of black and blue rockfish stocks.

49 Improved Retention / Improved Utilization Program

This amendment establishes the Improved Retention/Improved Utilization (IR/IU) Program for the Gulf of Alaska by requiring full retention of pollock, Pacific cod, and shallow-water flatfish and setting minimum utilization standards for at-sea processors. The action reduces discards, improves utilization of harvested groundfish, and responds to the socioeconomic needs of the fishing industry while supporting the goals of the Fishery Management Plan.

G44 Overfishing Definitions

This amendment revised definitions of acceptable biological catch and overfishing levels for groundfish species or species groups. This action was necessary to ensure that conservation and management measures continue to be based upon the best scientific information available. It is intended to advance the North Pacific Fishery Management Council's ability to achieve, on a continuing basis, the optimum yield from fisheries under its authority.

47 Authorize an Interim North Pacific Groundfish and Halibut Observer Program

These amendments establish an interim North Pacific groundfish observer program and maintain existing groundfish observer coverage requirements. They also remove references to the North Pacific Fisheries Research Plan and clarify observer requirements for groundfish vessels, processors, and crab fisheries.

G43 Individual Fishing Quota Vessel Sweep Up

This amendment was necessary to increase the consolidation levels for small quota share blocks for Pacific halibut and sablefish managed under the Individual Fishing Quota IFQ) program. This action was intended to maintain consistency with the objectives of the IFQ program (i.e., prevent excessive consolidation of quota share, maintain diversity of the fishing fleet, and allow new entrants into the fishery), while increasing the program's flexibility by allowing a moderately greater amount of quota share to be "swept-up'' into larger amounts that can be fished more economically.

G38 Revised Pacific Ocean Perch Rebuilding Plan

This amendment allowed the Council to recommend a Pacific Ocean perch total allowable catch at or below the amount dictated by the formula in the Rebuilding Plan. The regulations specify that any downward adjustments would be based on biological or resource conservation concerns about the Pacific Ocean perch stock or associated with the Pacific Ocean perch fishery that are not accounted for in the Rebuilding Plan or the annual stock assessment reports.

G42 Individual Fishing Quota Vessel Fish Down

This amendment allowed quota shares and their associated IFQ assigned to vessels in larger size categories to be used on smaller vessels. This action was necessary to increase the flexibility of QS use and transfer while maintaining the management goals of the IFQ Program. It was intended to relieve certain restrictions in the IFQ Program.

G37 Limited Processing of Non-Individual Fishing Quota Species

This amendment was necessary to allow fuller use of the fishery resources in and off of Alaska. It was intended to allow persons authorized to harvest individual fishing quota sablefish to process species other than IFQ halibut and IFQ sablefish.

G29 Salmon Retention for Food Banks

This rule authorizes a voluntary Salmon Donation Program for distribution of Pacific salmon taken as bycatch in the groundfish trawl fisheries off Alaska to economically disadvantaged individuals by tax-exempt organizations through a NOAA Fisheries-authorized distributor. This action is necessary to support industry initiatives to reduce waste from discard in the groundfish fisheries by processing salmon bycatch for human consumption.

G45 Pollock Trimester Allowances

This amendment combined the third and fourth quarterly allowances for pollock in the three statistical areas of the combined Western and Central Regulatory Area into single seasonal allowances that become available on September 1 of each fishing year. Changes to the final 1996 harvest specifications of Gulf of Alaska pollock were also made to reflect the revised seasonal allowances. These measures were necessary to address management problems that had been identified by the fishing industry.

G36 Transfer of Sablefish Community Development Quota Compensation Quota Share

This amendment was necessary to facilitate full utilization of the allocated resources managed under the Individual Fishing Quota Program for the Pacific halibut and sablefish fixed gear fisheries in and off of Alaska. It was intended to relieve transfer restrictions on Community Development Quota compensation quota shares, thereby allowing transfers to persons that could use the resulting individual fishing quota to harvest the resource.

G40 Extend Inshore/Offshore Pollock and Pacific Cod Allocations

The provisions of Amendment 23 became the basis of Amendment 40. Thus, the apportionment of pollock would be allocated entirely for processing by the inshore sector. The apportionment of Pacific cod would be allocated 90% for the inshore sector, 10% for the offshore sector.