National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration May 4, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration publishes this notice to announce the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) Workshop: Climate Science in Support of Decisionmaking, addressing the capability of science to inform decisionmaking. This workshop will include discussion of decisionmaker needs for scientific information on climate variability and change, as well as expected outcomes of CCSP's research and assessment activities that are necessary for resource management, adaptive planning, and policy formulation.

NMFS establishes fishery management measures for the 2005 ocean salmon fisheries off Washington, Oregon, and California and the 2006 salmon seasons opening earlier than May 1, 2006. Specific fishery management measures vary by fishery and by area. The measures establish fishing areas, seasons, quotas, legal gear, recreational fishing days and catch limits, possession and landing restrictions, and minimum lengths for salmon taken in the U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ)(3- 200 nm) off Washington, Oregon, and California. The management measures are intended to prevent overfishing and to apportion the ocean harvest equitably among treaty Indian, non-treaty commercial, and recreational fisheries. The measures are also intended to allow a portion of the salmon runs to escape the ocean fisheries in order to provide for spawning escapement and to provide for inside fisheries (fisheries occurring in state internal waters).

NMFS announces changes to management measures in the commercial and recreational Pacific Coast groundfish fisheries. NMFS also announces regulations for the retention of Pacific halibut landed incidentally in the limited entry longline primary sablefish fishery north of Pt. Chehalis, WA (46[deg]53.30' N. lat.). This document also contains notification of a voluntary closed area (also called an ``area to be avoided'') off Washington for salmon trollers. These actions, which are authorized by the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan (FMP), will allow fisheries to access more abundant groundfish stocks while protecting overfished and depleted stocks. This action also corrects the trawl gear regulatory language for chafing gear and selective flatfish trawl gear.