Fisheries of the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and South Atlantic; Comprehensive Annual Catch Limit Amendment for the U.S. Caribbean

Résumé

The Caribbean Fishery Management Council (Council) and NMFS intend to prepare a DEIS to describe and analyze management alternatives to be included in an amendment to the Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for the Reef Fish Fishery of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands (Amendment 6), an amendment to the FMP for Corals and Reef Associated Plants and Invertebrates of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands (Amendment 3), an amendment to the FMP for the Spiny Lobster Fishery of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands (Amendment 5), and an amendment to the FMP for the Queen Conch Fishery of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands (Amendment 3). These alternatives will consider measures to revise management reference points and status determination criteria, implement annual catch limits (ACLs) and accountability measures (AMs) to prevent overfishing in both the commercial and recreational sectors, revise management of aquarium trade species, establish recreational bag limits, establish exclusive economic zone sub-boundaries for purposes of applying accountability measures, and establish frameworks to adjust management measures as needed to constrain harvest to specified ACLs. The purpo