March 7, 2018 — The following was released by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council:
The meetings are held at the Hilton Hotel, 500 W. 3rd Avenue, in Anchorage, Alaska. The Agenda and Schedule are available, as well as a list of documents for review posted to the agenda prior to the meeting. Other meeting information follows:
- Submit and review comments at comments.npfmc.org
- Public comment deadline is March 30, 2018 at 12 noon (AST)
- Hilton Hotel offers discounted room rates HERE
- Alaska Airlines offers Discount Code: ECMZ242
- Hotel wifi / password: Hilton_Conference / summertime
- Listen Online while the Council is in session
Salmon FMP:
The Council will review comments received from stakeholders and will determine the scope of work for a Salmon Committee. A staff report will provide context about how stakeholder recommendations comport with the Magnuson-Stevens Act requirements for fishery management plans, and whether the FMP applies to state waters and the sport fishery in the EEZ. Although the Council has already received submissions for membership (which are being held on file), the Salmon Committee will not be appointed until the Council has formally issued a call for nominations, as is scheduled to occur at this meeting.
Halibut ABM:
The discussion paper on BSAI halibut abundance-based management is being prepared to help the Council refine alternatives with respect to elements of the control rule. The paper will provide: an overview of the current Council motion and suite of alternatives (the control rules aspects), a suggested restructuring of the Council’s suite of alternatives with details on their complexity, and an evaluation of these to help the Council narrow the control rule options to a more reasonable range of control rule types, stepping through each individually (as was done with indices) and then providing the Work Group’s rationale for what might be reasonable for analysis. The draft alternatives brought forward are focusing largely on linear control rules and their application in 2-3D look up table for purposes of setting a PSC limit that may be influenced by information from the trawl survey and/or the IPHC setline survey. Draft alternatives also will also explore setting PSC limits by gear type separately to one or both indices and consider formulations which address halibut stock status.
Learn more about the NPFMC here.