Commerce Department Proposed Rule

2022-24418: Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Halibut Abundance-Based Management of Amendment 80 Prohibited Species Catch Limit

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Summary

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) submitted Amendment 123 to the Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for Groundfish of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area (BSAI FMP) to the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary) for review. If approved, Amendment 123 would amend regulations governing Pacific halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis) (halibut) prohibited species catch (PSC), or bycatch, limits in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) to link the halibut PSC limit for the Amendment 80 commercial groundfish trawl fleet in the BSAI groundfish fisheries to halibut abundance. This action is necessary to comply with the requirements of the Magnuson- Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act). In particular, National Standard 9 and National Standard 1 require fishery management plans to minimize halibut PSC to the extent practicable while achieving optimum yield in the BSAI groundfish fisheries on a continuing basis. Further, National Standard 4 requires fishery management plans to ensure that when it becomes necessary to allocate or assign fishing privileges among various U.S. fishermen, such allocation shall be fair and equitable, reasonably calculated to promote conservation, and carried out in such manner that no particular individual, corporation, or other entity acquires an excessive share of such privileges. National Standard 8 requires that conservation and management measures take into account the importance of fishery resources to fishing communities by utilizing economic and social data that are based upon the best scientific information available in order to provide for the sustained participation of such communities and, to the extent practicable, minimize adverse economic impacts on such communities. Amendment 123 is intended to promote the goals and objectives of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the BSAI FMP, and other applicable laws.

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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