Pacific Island Fisheries; Annual Catch Limit and Accountability Measure for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Bottomfish in 2024-2025

Resumen

This final rule implements an annual catch limit (ACL) and annual catch target (ACT) for bottomfish in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) for fishing years 2024 and 2025. This rule does not revise, add, or remove the most recent current accountability measure (AM) in NOAA's regulations. Under that AM, NMFS will reduce the ACL and ACT in the following fishing year by the amount of the overage if the average catch from the most recent 3 years exceeds the ACL. This final rule supports the long-term sustainability of the CNMI bottomfish fishery.