Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Groundfish Retention Standard; Emergency Rule Extension

Zusammenfassung

NMFS is exempting, through this emergency rule extension, trawl catcher/processor vessels (C/Ps) that are not specified in regulation as American Fisheries Act (AFA) vessels, and Amendment 80 cooperatives from the groundfish retention standard (GRS) program in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area. The GRS was implemented to increase the retention and utilization of groundfish caught by the non-AFA trawl C/Ps and to respond to bycatch reduction goals described in National Standard 9. NMFS recently discovered that the regulatory methodology used to calculate compliance with and to enforce the GRS percentages established for 2010 and 2011 effectively require the sector to meet a GRS well above that considered by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council or that implemented by NMFS. As a result, the retention requirements are expected to impose significantly higher costs due to the increased level of retention and to generate an unanticipated level of noncompliance in the Amendment 80 fleet. Further, monitoring and enforcement of the GRS have proven far more complex, challenging, and potentially costly than anticipated by NMFS. This emergency rule extension is necessa