Purpose and Need

The continued decline of the Pacific Ocean perch (POP) stock prompted the Council to recommend a rebuilding plan for POP, established in GOA Amendment 32 (59 FR 18103; April 15, 1994). The POP Rebuilding Plan provides a specific strategy for POP stocks, based on available biological and economic information. The plan established an algorithm, or formula, to determine the annual POP total allowable catch (TAC), which is then apportioned among the regulatory areas in the Gulf of Alaska. However, the rebuilding plan neglected to allow for any flexibility to reduce the TAC below the amount specified by the formula.

Given this standard formula, it was possible for the TAC to be greater than the acceptable biological catch (ABC) determined by biological and survey data and published in the annual Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation (SAFE) reports. The TAC is determined using the formula in the Rebuilding Plan and is then apportioned to each regulatory area according to the percentage biomass distribution used for the ABC apportionment. Approving a TAC greater than the acceptable biological catch is a practice inconsistent with the current management practices for other groundfish stocks and the conservation and management objectives of the Magnuson-Stevens Act. The Council also expressed concern with the inability to lower the TAC to accommodate other potential resource conservation issues. 

The purpose of this amendment is to improve conservation and management of POP and to further the goals and objectives of the fishery management plan by providing the flexibility to lower the calculated TAC for Pacific ocean perch based on biological or resource conservation concerns.

Analysis

An 18-page EA (final draft dated June 1996) was prepared and an Interim Report on the Status of the Pacific Ocean Perch Rebuilding Plan in the Gulf of Alaska (Heifetz et al. 1995) was submitted for this amendment. Three alternatives including the status quo were considered. The other alternative would have re-evaluated the entire POP Rebuilding Plan to reconsider the Council’s intended harvest strategy. The alternative chosen would not change the general direction established by the earlier Rebuilding Plan except to allow the Council more flexibility in recommending the annual TAC if the Council identified specific biological or conservation issues that were not adequately addressed by the formula TAC level. 

Regulation Summary

The alternative adopted and approved allowed the Council to recommend a POP total allowable catch at or below the amount dictated by the formula in the Rebuilding Plan. The regulations specify that any downward adjustments would be based on biological or resource conservation concerns about the POP stock or associated with the POP fishery that are not accounted for in the Rebuilding Plan or the annual stock assessment reports. The amendment only gives the Council the alternative of recommending a lower POP TAC based on resource conservation concerns, and not socioeconomic concerns. Under Amendment 38, the formula in the Rebuilding Plan would be considered the upper bound limit for the POP TAC.

Results

In the years immediately following the approval of the amendment, the Council continued to approve conservative TACs for the POP stock in the Gulf of Alaska as it rebuilt. In 1995, the TAC for POP as determined by the Rebuilding Plan was 5,630 mt, enough to support a directed fishery. The 1996 Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation report stated that the 1996 triennial trawl surveys indicated substantially increased biomass estimates since the 1993 survey. However, in order to ensure the stock was fully recovered, the 1997 TAC was set at 80% of the Western and Central Gulf ABC and the TAC from 1996 was rolled over for the Eastern Gulf. Since then, the stock status has continued to improve, yet the annual TACs had been set below the ABCs to remain precautionary. The TACs for 1997, 1998 and 1999 increased to 9,190 mt, 10,776 mt and 12,590 mt, respectively; while the TAC from 2000 to the present has been set equal to the ABC (for 2018, TAC was 29,236 mt). GOA Amendment 41 later banned domestic trawling in Southeast Alaska starting in the year 2000.