Purpose and Need

During the 1995-97 IFQ seasons, NMFS broadly interpreted the FMP and regulatory language to allow persons holding initial allocation QS to hire skippers to fish their IFQ on vessels owned by other “persons,” provided that the QS holder could show a corporate association to the owner of the vessel. This policy allows individual QS holders to hire skippers to fish their IFQ on vessels owned by corporations or partnerships in which the individual QS holders are shareholders or partners. The policy also allows corporations or partnerships holding QS to fish the collectively held QS on a vessel owned by individuals who are shareholders or partners in the corporation or partnership. At the beginning of the 1997 IFQ season, NMFS announced to the IFQ fleet that this policy of broadly interpreting the term “person” as it pertains to IFQ hired skipper provisions would continue until the Council could clarify its original intent. Two other clarifying FMP language changes were also included in this action.

Analysis

A 20-page EA/RIR/IRFA (Secretarial Review draft dated January 2001) was prepared for this amendment. Three separate management actions were considered. One status quo and one proposed alternative were considered for each action.

Regulation Summary

Three actions proposed for this plan amendment were: 

1) Revise the FMP to allow a QS holder’s association to a vessel owner, through corporate or other collective ties, to substitute for the QS holder’s vessel ownership per se for purposes of hiring a skipper to fish the QS holder’s IFQ. (This document analyzes a proposal to revise the current FMP language and pertinent regulations to authorize a QS holder’s indirect vessel ownership, through corporate or other collective ties, to serve as a substitute for direct vessel ownership per se for purposes of the IFQ program’s hired skipper provisions.)

 2) Revise the definition of “a change in the corporation or partnership” in the FMPs to include language specific to estates. Estates are included under the definition of the term “Person” in the FMPs and 50 CFR 679.2 as “corporations, partnerships, associations, or other entities.” The FMPs and IFQ implementing regulations require that upon any change in a corporation, partnership, or other entity that holds QS the QS transfer to a qualified individual. A “change” in a corporation, partnership, or other entity is defined as the addition of a shareholder or partner to the corporation, partnership, or collective entity. This definition is not applicable to estates, because estates are not collective entities which may acquire additional shareholders, partners, or members. Nevertheless, because an estate’s QS would not automatically transfer to an heir once the estate is probated, the FMPs and IFQ regulations need to define the point at which estates must transfer their QS to a qualified individual. 

3) Change sablefish use limits from percentages of the total number of QS units in the QS pool for each area to a specific number of QS units. In June 1996, the Council approved a regulatory amendment to increase the Bering Sea (Area 4) halibut use caps f rom ½ percent to the QS equivalents of 1 ½ percent based on 1996 QS pools. This amendment also revised the halibut use limits to be expressed as a fixed number of QS units rather than as a percentage, in order to provide QS holders with a more stable reference for measuring their holdings against area use caps. Sablefish IFQ use limits are set in the FMPs. Consequently, the regulatory change to the halibut use limits could not at the same time change the calculation of sablefish use limits to a fixed number of QS units for consistency. This FMP amendment would effect that revision to calculate the sablefish in QS units based on the appropriate percentage of the 1996 QS pools. This change would standardize the application of use caps for both halibut and sablefish fisheries and would provide the same level of predictability for sablefish QS holdings as currently exists for halibut QS.

Results

Aspects of this amendment will be evaluated in the forthcoming IFQ Program review in 2016