Commerce Department Proposed Rule

2023-15966: Magnuson-Stevens Act Provisions; Fisheries Off West Coast States; Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery; Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan; Amendment 32; Modifications to Non-Trawl Area Management Measures

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Summary

NMFS announces that the Pacific Fishery Management Council submitted Amendment 32 to the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan to the Secretary of Commerce for review. If approved, Amendment 32 would: create a new type of Essential Fish Habitat Conservation Area that prohibits fishing with non-trawl bottom contact gear for all groundfish fisheries and the non-tribal directed commercial halibut fishery; remove the Cowcod Conservation Area seaward of California for commercial and recreational groundfish non-trawl fisheries; create and authorize the use of Groundfish Exclusion Areas as a new type of Groundfish Conservation Area; authorize the use of Block Area Closures for groundfish non-trawl fisheries, and make necessary administrative changes to relevant sections of the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan. Altogether, these changes are anticipated to provide additional fishing opportunity to groundfish non-trawl fishery sectors while continuing to protect rebuilding yelloweye rockfish and mitigating fishing impacts to sensitive areas.

The agency’s own summary, as published.

What this changes

Amends 1 part of the Code of Federal Regulations — the standing rules this notice rewrites.

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