National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration May 5, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

NMFS proposes an amendment to the Pacific halibut regulations for waters in and off Alaska. This proposed action modifies the Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) Program and the Western Alaska Community Development Quota (CDQ) Program by allowing quota share holders in International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) Regulatory Area (Area) 4C to fish their Area 4C IFQ in Area 4D. This proposed action is intended to enhance harvesting opportunities for halibut by IFQ and CDQ fishermen and is necessary to promote the objectives of the Northern Pacific Halibut Act of 1982 (Halibut Act) with respect to the IFQ and CDQ Pacific halibut fisheries, consistent with the regulations and resource management objectives of the IPHC.

This emergency rule establishes routine management measure authority, under the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan (Pacific Coast Groundfish FMP), to reduce trip limits to incidental levels in the open access fishery for groundfish before the sector has taken its full target groundfish species' allocations, to minimize impacts on overfished species. This action establishes a mechanism that can be used to quickly restrict the directed open access groundfish fishery if NMFS estimates that the incidental catch of an overfished species is too high.