View Rule

This action amended the Fishery Ecosystem Plan for Pelagic Fisheries of the Western Pacific Region. Amendment 7 established a management framework and process for specifying fishing catch and effort limits and accountability measures for pelagic fisheries in the U.S. Pacific territories (American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands). The framework authorizes the government of each territory to allocate a portion of its specified catch or effort limit to a U.S. fishing vessel or vessels through a specified fishing agreement, and establish criteria, which a specified fishing agreement must satisfy. The framework also includes measures to ensure accountability for adhering to fishing catch and effort limits. The National Marine Fisheries Service specifies an annual limit of 2,000 metric tons (mt) of longline-caught bigeye tuna for each territory, using the process described in the rule. A territory would be allowed to allocate up to 1,000 mt of that limit annually to a U.S. longline fishing vessel or vessels identified in a specified fishing agreement.