Background - In April of 2002
the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) passed a final
motion
recommending revisions to the existing IFQ program
regulations and policy to explicitly allow a new group of non-profit
entities to hold halibut and sablefish QS on behalf of residents of
specific rural communities located adjacent to the Gulf of Alaska.
The intent of the new program is to reverse the out-migration of IFQ
quota share from rural, Gulf of Alaska coastal communities. The Council
stated that "[a]llowing qualifying communities to purchase halibut
and sablefish quota share for used by community residents will help
minimize adverse economic impacts on these small, remote, coastal communities
in Southeast and Southcentral Alaska, and help provide for the sustained
participation of these communities in the halibut and sablefish IFQ
fisheries."
- The intent of
the new program is to reverse the out-migration
of quotas from rural Golf of Alaska communities.
- The amendment modifies the existing IFQ program to allow eligible
Gulf of Alaska communities to establish non-profit entities, Community
Quota Entities (CQEs) to hold and lease halibut and sablefish quota
share to local residents.
- NMFS published the final rule implementing Amendment 66 to the Fishery
Management Plan for Groundfish of the Gulf of Alaska on April 30, 2004.
- The final rule
will be effective June 1, 2004.
- This
amendment complies with the Magnuson-Stevens Act's national
standard for fishery conservation and management (National Standard
8) that requires fishery management programs to "take into account
the importance of fishery resources to fishing communities in order
to (A) provide for the sustained participation of such communities,
and (B) to the extent practicable, minimize adverse economic impacts
on such communities." The Council's motion was considered
as a community protection measure to address the impact of the
IFQ program
on the Fishery Management Plan for the Gulf of Alaska.
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