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Published: 2009

Total Pages: 459

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"This document serves as Final Amendment 3 to the Skate FMP, the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) which updates and supplements the original EIS for the skate fishery (available at http://www.nefmc.org/skates/fmp/fmp.htm), and a Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation (SAFE) Report (Section 7.0 of this document). The purpose of the amendment is to propose and consider modifications of existing management measures or new skate fishery management measures to address the following issues: Overfished status of thorny skates; Overfishing of thorny skate; Implementation of annual catch limits (ACLs) and accountability measures (AMs), a new mandate of the reauthorized Magnuson-Stevens Act; and A baseline review process that has become obsolete and less meaningful. The amendment also includes a new discussion and quantification of maximum sustainable yield (MSY; Section 4.1.2) and optimum yield (OY; Section 4.3). Quantification of these variables was not previously possible in the Skate FMP, due to problems with catch data and missing life history information about skates. Some of these issues have been resolved, but others have not. However the analysis of rebuilding potential in Section 8.3.1.1 has implications for sustainable catches. The estimated values at the biomass targets can serve as interim estimates or proxy values for MSY and OY, at least until better information comes forth about the population dynamics of skate species and catch reporting improves"--Executive summary (p. 3).