105 Bering Sea Flatfish Harvest Specifications Flexibility
Purpose and Need
Bering Sea flatfish fisheries are consistently under-harvested due to various economic, regulatory, and environmental constraints. Under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act) and the North Pacific Fishery Management Council’s (Council’s) FMP, there is a need to promote conservation while providing for the optimum yield (OY) for the BSAI groundfish fishery. The purpose of this action was to identify a flexible approach that creates additional harvest opportunities to maximize the harvest of the total allowable catches (TACs) for three target flatfish species, but still ensure that harvest remains within existing conservation thresholds: 1) to maintain catch below the acceptable biological catch (ABC) limit for each species and 2) to ensure that the 2 million metric ton maximum limit of the BSAI groundfish OY range would not be exceeded.
Analysis
A 57-page RIR was prepared for this amendment, which analyzed allocating the ABC surplus (i.e., the difference between acceptable biological catch (ABC) and total allowable catch (TAC)) for flathead sole, rock sole, and/or yellowfin sole, among the Amendment 80 cooperatives and Western Alaska Community Development Quota (CDQ) Program entities, using the same formulas that are used in the annual harvest specifications process. These entities would be able to exchange their quota share of one or two of the three species (i.e., flathead sole, rock sole, and yellowfin sole) for an equivalent amount of their allocation of the ABC surplus of the remaining species. The analysis includes three alternatives and three options. Alternative 3 was the Council’s preferred alternative, and differed from Alternative 2 only in the fact that it allowed the Council a discretionary buffer in allocating the ABC reserve to Amendment 80 and CDQ Program vessels. Option 1 was also selected as preferred, which limited participating vessels to three exchanges per year (reducing the administrative burden on NMFS) and requested an annual report to the Council on flatfish exchanges. Options 2 and 3, which were not selected, restricted flexibility in the exchange of yellowfin sole, and were analyzed to consider mitigation of potential negative impacts of the approach on users of yellowfin sole in the Bering Sea Aleutian Islands trawl limited access sector. The analysis concluded that the flatfish exchange concept had the potential to maximize flatfish TAC utilization, to the extent that additional constraint in targeting flatfish can be resolved through inseason flexibility in the choice of flatfish target.
Regulation Summary
The establishment of an ABC reserve, which is the difference between ABC and TAC, as reduced by any social, economic, and/or ecological considerations and set at the ABC surplus, allows Amendment 80 cooperatives and participants in the Western Alaska CDQ Program the ability to access the ABC reserve in exchange for harvest quota of one or two of the three flatfish species (flathead sole, rock sole, and yellowfin sole). The CDQ Program is allocated 10.7% of the flathead sole, rock sole, and yellowfin sole ABC reserves, but is subject to a discretionary buffer based on economic, social, and/or ecological considerations. Participating vessels are limited to three exchanges per year.
Results
The flatfish flexibility amendment was implemented in 2015, and in its first year, five CDQ groups and one Amendment 80 cooperative took advantage of the ability to make exchanges. No entity made more than two exchanges in the first year.