Limited Access Management of Federal Fisheries In and Off of Alaska; Relieving Transfer Restrictions on Individual Fishing Quota Shares

Résumé

NMFS issues a proposed rule that would implement Amendment 32 to the Fishery Management Plan for the Groundfish Fishery of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Area and Amendment 36 to the Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for Groundfish of the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). These FMP amendments are necessary to facilitate full utilization of the allocated resources managed under the Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) Program for the Pacific halibut and sablefish fixed gear fisheries in and off of Alaska. This action is intended to relieve transfer restrictions on Community Development Quota compensation quota shares (CDQ compensation QS), thereby allowing transfers to persons who could use the resulting IFQ to harvest the resource.