The February NP Council Newsletter is out. Dr. Ian Stuart of IPHC was appointed to the SSC for a one-year term. The Council is currently looking at re-structuring the Gulf of Alaska groundfish trawl fisheries. They will consider: -Alternative 1 leaving the fishery continue to exist as License Limitation Program and leave the prohibited species catch (PSC) unchanged. -Alternative 2 allocating the groundfish and PSC quotas to harvester-processor cooperatives based on historical catch of LLP licenses. -Alternative 3 allocating only PSC quotas to harvester processor cooperatives based on equal share and dependency on the fishery. -Alternative 4 setting 5-15% PSC and/or groundfish for use by Community Fisheries Associations or an Adaptive Management Plan. This could be selected in addition Read more…
Day: February 24, 2016
CFEC transferred to ADF&G
The administrative and research functions of CFEC were transferred to the ADF&G by administrative order of Governor Walker. Here is the news release: http://gov.state.ak.us/admin-orders/279.html
New Survival Craft Laws Repealed
We were all notified by the USCG in January that out-of-water survival crafts would be required in February. Now, we have all been notified that law was repealed for commercial fishing vessels. The laws for survival craft requirements will remain as they were in 2015. “Section 301 of the 2015 Coast Guard Authorization Act (CGAA) removed the language in 46 USC 3104 that prevented the Coast Guard from approving in-water survival craft….Therefore, in-water survival craft approvals may resume and commercial fishing vessels may continue to use their existing in-water survival crafts…” “please recognize that if you are currently required to carry an out-of-water survival craft on your commercial fishing vessel in accordance with statue or regulation (see 46 CFR Part 28), that requirement Read more…