Purpose and Need

The Council intended that Amendment 10 expire at the end of 1988 due to uncertainty about fluctuations in population levels of prohibited species and development of domestic groundfish fisheries. Concern about continued crab and halibut bycatch prompted the Council to develop more comprehensive controls to replace those that were set to expire. Amendment 12, a separate from Amendment 12, specified PSC limits on Tanner crab, red king crab, and Pacific halibut in the BSAI groundfish fisheries and apportioned these limits among four specified groundfish fisheries. These PSC limits were in effect during 1989 and 1990. The Council aimed to balance the avoidance of bycatch with providing reasonable opportunities for trawl fisheries to harvest their target species. Its bycatch policy was developed because discarding crab and halibut is wasteful, may adversely affect their use as a target species in other commercial fisheries, and potentially could result in their being overfished.