Purpose and Need

In 1992, the Council committed to rationalize the groundfish and crab fisheries and begin development of a Comprehensive Rationalization Plan (CRP). The CRP was prompted by concerns that expansion of the domestic harvesting fleet, in excess of that needed to efficiently harvest the optimum yield, was burdening compliance with the Magnuson-Stevens Act and severely deteriorating the economic benefits derived from the crab and groundfish fisheries. The Council examined several management alternatives including license limitation programs, individual fishing quotas (IFQs), and more traditional measures, and determined that a limited entry program had the most potential to address the immediate overcapitalization problems of the industry. As a result, the Council approved the License Limitation Program (LLP) in 1995, recognizing the need for further rationalization in the future development of an IFQ system.

The overall purpose of the LLP is to help resolve the competing and oftentimes conflicting needs of the domestic fisheries that developed under open access and to close the gap between fishing capacity and the available fishery resource. The LLP limits the number, size, and specific operation of vessels fishing crab and groundfish in the BSAI and GOA based on historical participation. During the design and refinement of the LLP, the Vessel Moratorium Program (VMP) was implemented to provide industry stability and curtail interim increases in fishing capacity. The intent was for the LLP to replace the VMP upon implementation.

Analysis

A 98-page EA/RIR (final draft dated September 1997) with seven lengthy appendices and several supplemental analyses considered the status quo and a general license limitation alternative. Out of a comprehensive list of elements and options the Council considered during the debates on LLP, the analysis identified one option for each component of a license limitation program to create the preferred alternative described above in the final rule. A supporting document also analyzed the differences between the vessel moratorium program and the license limitation program passed by the Council. The vessel moratorium was more liberal in terms of qualification criteria and the areas a vessel could fish. Under the moratorium, a vessel was only required to make one landing of a qualifying species between 1/1/88 and 2/9/92, and having met that criteria the moratorium permit holders could fish groundfish in any federal waters off Alaska. Therefore, because the LLP had dual qualification criteria, many fewer vessels were expected to qualify than did for the moratorium.

Regulation Summary

The final rule for GOA Amendment 41 (BSAI Amendment 39, BSAI Crab Amendment 5) limited access to the commercial groundfish fisheries in the GOA and BSAI and commercial crab fisheries in the BSAI, except for demersal shelf rockfish east of 140° W. longitude, and sablefish managed under the IFQ program. The rule provided for the following: issuance of a single type of groundfish license; LLP is not applicable to waters of the State of Alaska; licenses would be issued to current owners (as of 6/17/95) of qualified vessels; licenses would be designated as catcher vessel or catcher/processor and with one of three vessel length classes; the crab and groundfish base qualifying period is 1/1/88-6/27/92 and the groundfish area endorsement qualifying period is 1/1/92-6/17/95; endorsement areas are defined as Aleutian Islands, Bering Sea, Western Gulf, Central Gulf, and Southeast Outside, or state waters shoreward of those endorsement areas;  landing requirements for general license and area endorsement qualifications by vessel class; and additional provisions addressing crossover vessels, transfers, and vessel linkages. The rule also included in CDQ allocations 7.5% of the TAC of groundfish and crab in the BSAI that was not originally included in the CDQ programs for pollock, halibut, and sablefish.

Results

The LLP continues to be refined through subsequent amendments. In 2001, the Council approved GOA Amendment 58, BSAI Amendment 60, and BSAI Crab Amendment 10 which amended the LLP to reduce the number of vessels eligible to participate in the overcapitalized crab fisheries and provided further capacity restrictions in the groundfish fisheries. Additionally, in 2009 Amendment 82 rescinded latent trawl licenses, and in 2011 Amendment 86 added a Pacific cod endorsement on eligible licenses issued under the LLP. As of 2019, there were over 1,800 groundfish LLP licenses, and 347 crab LLP licenses across the BSAI/GOA areas.

Sibling Amendments