Modifications to the Commercial Individual Fishing Quota Programs
Author: Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council
Publisher:
Published: 2017
Total Pages: 198
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK"Currently, there are two commercial individual fishing quota (IFQ) programs in the Gulf of Mexico (Gulf). Amendment 261 (GMFMC 2006) established the red snapper IFQ (RS-IFQ) program, and Amendment 292 (GMFMC 2008a) established the grouper and tilefish IFQ (GT-IFQ) program. The RS-IFQ program began on January 1, 2007 and the GT-IFQ program began on January 1, 2010. As mandated by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act) and by Amendment 26, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council (Council) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) collaboratively conducted a 5-year review of the RS-IFQ program (GMFMC and NMFS 2013), which was formally approved at the April 2013 Council meeting. The conclusions of the report are provided in Appendix B. The Council proceeded to appoint an Ad Hoc Red Snapper IFQ Advisory Panel to assist in recommending improvements to the program by identifying potential changes to the RS-IFQ program (Appendix C). The Council discussed a list of issues as potential modifications to the program at its February and April 2014 meetings and made modifications to the list. At its August 2014 meeting, the Council requested development of a scoping document to begin considering potential modifications to improve the performance of the RS-IFQ program. Scoping workshops were held in March 2015 (Appendix D). At its January 2016 meeting, the Council decided to further evaluate the items under consideration in the scoping document in separate amendments (36A and 36B), and expanded the scope to apply the proposed actions to both the RS-IFQ and GT-IFQ programs. Amendment 36A addresses advanced landing notification (also known as a "hail-in") requirements for all commercial reef fish trips to enhance enforcement, returning shares held in non-activated accounts to NMFS to be distributed at a later date, and giving NMFS the authority to withhold IFQ allocation before an expected quota reduction. Amendment 36B addresses the remaining items, as well as the method for distributing the shares held in non-activated accounts. The 5-year review of the GT-IFQ program is currently underway and the Council is expected to review a draft of the 5-year review at a meeting later in 2017"--Introduction.