From the City of Morro Bay, California: We are providing these comments to update you on the formation of a Community Fishing Association (CFA) called the Central Coast Community Quota Bank or CQB in Morro Bay, and provide information on how this bank will work to achieve the community objectives established in the Magnuson Stevens Act. We strongly request that you continue development of safe harbor provisions for the CFA's to hold quota in excess of individual accumulation limits.
As you know we have been working with the PFMC, NMFS, local fishermen and NGO's to track the trawl sector conversion to Individual Transferable Quota (ITQ) and attempt to support the adjustments that will be necessary to anchor historical trawl groundfish landings in smaller coastal communities such as ours, while working to improve sustainability of the fishery as a whole.
Read the comments from the City of Morro Bay.