Fisheries off West Coast States and in the Western Pacific; Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery; Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking

摘要

The Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) is considering whether there is a need to impose additional management measures to further limit harvest capacity or to allocate between or within the limited entry commercial and the recreational groundfish fisheries in the U.S. exclusive economic zone off the States of Washington, Oregon, and California. If the Council determines that additional management measures are needed, the Council will recommend a rulemaking to implement those measures. Possible measures include allocating harvest of particular groundfish species (rockfish and lingcod) between limited entry gear groups and between commercial and recreational fisheries and further limiting access to certain species within the Pacific Coast groundfish complex. The Council may proceed with some or all of these measures. In order to discourage fishers from intensifying their fishing efforts for the purpose of amassing catch history for any allocation or additional limited access program developed by the Council, the Council announced on April 9, 1998, that any program proposed would not include consideration of catch landed after that date. At present, the Council is planning t