G17 Permit Requirements, Prohibited Species Catch Limit Framework, Establish Rock Sole as Separate Target Species
Purpose and Need
Under regulations implementing the FMPs for the BSAI and GOA, vessels that are harvesting or processing in the EEZ are required to have Federal permits and are subject to Federal regulations. One of the regulations states that catcher/processor and mothership processor vessels must submit weekly weight reports of groundfish caught and processed at sea. Regulations also require all catcher vessels, including catcher/processors, to submit fish ticket reports of groundfish catches to the Alaska Dept. of Fish & Game. NMFS was using these reports to determine the ongoing reapportionments of surplus groundfish to joint venture processors and to the total allowable level of foreign fishing (TALFF). Vessels not fishing in the EEZ (but may have been fishing in State waters or beyond the 200-mile limit), were not required to have a Federal permit and are thus not subject to the Federal reporting requirements. The regulatory loophole inherent in the language of the regulations is that vessels outside the EEZ could receive and process fish that were caught in the EEZ and would not be required to report them to NMFS.
The intent of the weekly reporting regulation was to receive information from all vessels harvesting or processing fish from the EEZ so that inseason management actions, such as time/area closures and reapportionments of surplus groundfish, could be done efficiently and effectively without surpassing the quota for each species. The Council recognized this loophole and approved Amendment 17 (BSAI Amendment 12), which re-worded the weekly reporting requirement to capture all vessels harvesting and receiving EEZ-caught fish.
Analysis
A 133-page EA/RIR/IRFA (dated May 18, 1988) analyzed four amendment proposals for the BSAI FMP (the four listed above) and:
Remove the 2 million mt upper limit to the optimum yield range. The Council chose the status quo for this proposal for which it produced a separate SEIS (53 FR 16319) (this was not adopted by the Council).
Regulation Summary
Amendment 17 required all vessels receiving groundfish harvested in the EEZ to hold a federal permit and comply with federal reporting requirements;
Results
Weekly reporting from the offshore processors enhanced monitoring of quotas and overall fishery performance.