Purpose and Need

Since foreign fishing had been curtailed, NMFS needed to augment the fisheries observer program to cover the domestic fishery. The purpose of a comprehensive data collection program for the domestic groundfish fishery is to provide adequate and reliable data on which to:

1)              base in-season and inter-season management decisions;|
(2)              efficiently carry out resource management; and
(3)              measure fishery performance against existing and proposed management measures.

Additionally, the Council identified concerns regarding sablefish bycatch and a 50% decline in the number of walrus hauled out on Round Island.

Analysis

A 193-page EA/RIR/IRFA (final draft dated July 21, 1989) was prepared for this amendment.  Alternatives examined included the preferred alternative and the status quo for four of the five actions affecting GOA groundfish management. In approving its action to allocate sablefish between fixed and trawl gear, the Council also considered an alternative to determine and allocate “true” bycatch needs, with any residual being made available to the directed fishery without regard to gear type.

Regulation Summary

BSAI Amendment 13 (GOA Amendment 18) was adopted by the Council in June 1989, and approved by the Secretary on November 1, 1989. A proposed rule (54 FR 36333) was published on September 1, 1989 and corrected on September 22, 1989 (54 FR 39022).  A final rule implementing actions in Amendments 13/18 (54 FR 50386) was published December 6, 1989. A correction to Amendment 13 was filed on January 11, 1990 (55 FR 1036). The proposed regulation to implement the Observer Program was published on December 12, 1989 (54 FR 51042) and a final rule published on February 12, 1990 (55 FR 4839). The observer program was effective February 7, 1990.

Results

The domestic observer program provides information for stock assessment and in-season management, including the ability to accurately assess catch and bycatch in the fisheries. Three problems were later identified for observer coverage payment. It was not an equitable system in that some operations paid for 100% coverage and others did not pay anything, it limited the ability of NMFS to effectively manage the observer program, and it may result in a conflict of interest that could reduce the credibility of observer data. The research plan, under Amendment 30, was designed to address these three problems.  Industry support for such a change is demonstrated by the willingness and ability of the industry to convince Congress and the President to amend the Act to allow the North Pacific Fisheries Research Plan to be established and paid for by a broad-based system of user fees.  The proposed plan was to be applicable to the groundfish, halibut, and BSAI crab fisheries. Instead, implementation was delayed one year, then replaced with a modified pay-as-you-go system adopted under Amendments 47/47. Fees were collected by NMFS in the first year of implementation, which were later returned when the research plan was repealed.