National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration December 5, 2022 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

NMFS published a final rule on October 3, 2022, announcing a Federal requirement for certain vessels in the Pacific Coast Groundfish fishery target fishing for groundfish with non-trawl gear in Federal waters seaward of California, Oregon, and Washington, to complete and submit a non-trawl logbook to NMFS via an electronic application (87 FR 59724). This correction is necessary to modify a regulatory instruction so that the implementing regulations are accurate. This correction is also necessary to clarify the methods by which fishermen can record required information while on a fishing trip.

Under the authority of the Northern Pacific Halibut Act of 1982, this final rule implements a permitting system for the Pacific halibut commercial and recreational charter halibut fisheries in International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) regulatory Area 2A (Washington, Oregon, and California). This action also establishes a regulatory framework for the Area 2A Pacific halibut directed commercial fishery that, consistent with the allocations and coastwide season dates set by the IPHC, allows NMFS to annually determine dates and times the fishery will be open and set harvest limits for those periods of time. These permitting and management activities for Area 2A were previously performed by the IPHC; through this final rule, NMFS will now implement these Area 2A-specific permitting and management activities.