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G18 Domestic Observer Program, Renew Kodiak Bottom Trawl Closures, Establish Shelikof District, Reporting Requirements

Purpose and Need

Since foreign fishing had been curtailed, Amendment 18 for the GOA (Amendment 13 for the BSAI) was proposed because NMFS needed to augment the fisheries observer program to cover the domestic fishery. [SC1.1]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 Shelikof Strait was identified to contain spawning populations of pollock, and the Kodiak crab trawl closure areas established in Amendment 15 were scheduled to sunset on December 31, 1989. Pacific halibut PSC limits were also set to expire in 1989.

Analysis

A 193-page EA/RIR/IRFA (final draft dated July 21, 1989) included six actions that affected GOA groundfish management. In approving its action to delete fishing seasons from the FMPs, the Council also considered a framework procedure for annually setting fishing seasons.

Regulation Summary

Amendment 18 to the GOA groundfish FMP authorized a comprehensive domestic fishery observer program. The 1990 and 1991 Observer Plans required specific levels of observer coverage which varied with size of fishing vessel and quantity of fish processed.

The Observer Plans required that owners and operators of vessels and shoreside processing facilities participating in the groundfish fishery arrange for and pay for the cost of placing observers aboard their vessels and at their shoreside processing facilities beginning in January 1990. Each vessel or processor required to have observer coverage is responsible for the cost of obtaining the required observers from a certified contractor. The cost averaged between $5,800 and $7,100 per observer month in 1991. 

Amendment 18 also:

1) established Shelikof Strait area as a management district; 

2) closed areas around Kodiak Island to bottom trawl gear;

3) established for one year, interim Pacific halibut PSC limits for fixed gear (750 mt) and trawl gear (2,000 mt); 

4) deleted fishing season dates from the FMPs but retained them in regulation; and

5) clarified authority to recommend TACs for additional or fewer target species within the “target species” category.

*At the time the proposed regulations were published, the Observer Plan was still being developed and the dates of corresponding rules were different: The proposed rule (54 FR 51042) was published on December 12, 1989. The final rule (55 FR 4839) implementing the Observer Program was published on February 12, 1990, effective on 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 with the system of payment for observer coverage. 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 could 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 problems, which were eventually resolved when the restructured Observer Program was implemented in the GOA under Amendment 76 (after it superseded the interim North Pacific Groundfish Observer Program under Amendment 47).

The Kodiak closures became permanent with the implementation of Amendment 26, and were additionally revised under Amendment 89. Fixed and trawl gear halibut PSC limits were reduced most recently under Amendment 95. The Shelikof Strait management district was rescinded in GOA Amendment 25, when pollock management in the Western/Central Area was divided into three districts.