National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration April 3, 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

NMFS proposes to implement the annual catch limit (ACL), harvest guideline (HG), and associated annual reference points for Pacific sardine in the U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ) off the Pacific coast for the fishing season of January 1, 2012, through December 31, 2012. This rule is proposed according to the Coastal Pelagic Species (CPS) Fishery Management Plan (FMP). The proposed 2012 maximum HG for Pacific sardine is 109,409 metric tons (mt). The proposed initial overall commercial fishing HG that is to be allocated across the three allocation periods for sardine management is 97,409 mt. This amount would be divided across the three seasonal allocation periods for the directed fishery the following way: January 1-June 30 33,093 mt; July 1-September 1437,964 mt; and September 15-December 3123,352 mt with an incidental set-aside of 1,000 mt for each of the three periods. This rule is intended to conserve and manage the Pacific sardine stock off the U.S. West Coast.

This temporary rule implements interim Gulf of Maine (GOM) Atlantic cod (cod) management measures for the 2012 fishing year. This action is necessary to: Establish GOM cod Annual Catch Limits (ACLs); implement recreational management measures that will constrain catch to the recreational sub-ACL; and reduce overfishing occurring on GOM cod in anticipation of further action to end overfishing in fishing year 2013.