Commerce Department Proposed Rule

2019-12237: Magnuson-Stevens Act Provisions; Fisheries Off West Coast States; Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery; Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan; Amendment 28

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Public comment closed .

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Summary

NMFS announces that the Pacific Fishery Management Council submitted Amendment 28 to the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan to the Secretary of Commerce for review. If approved, Amendment 28 would establish new and revised areas closed to bottom trawling to conserve and protect Pacific coast groundfish essential fish habitat, and would re-open areas that were closed to bottom trawling to rebuild previously-overfished groundfish stocks. Combined, these two changes are anticipated to increase protections for groundfish essential fish habitat and provide additional flexibility to participants fishing with bottom trawl gear in the groundfish trawl rationalization program. Amendment 28 would also close deep-water areas off the coast of California to bottom contacting gear to protect deep- water habitats, including deep-sea corals using discretionary fishery management plan provisions in the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.

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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