The purpose of this comprehensive amendment is to establish a control rule to modify the buffer reduction that is applied to the overfishing limit or to the acceptable biological catch (if specified) to derive an annual catch limit in response to changes in the overfishing status of any U.S. Caribbean fishery management unit. The annual catch limit control rule would apply a specific buffer reduction based on the current status of the fishery management unit as determined by the National Marine Fisheries Service. The proposed rule implementing this action would apply a 15% buffer reduction to the overfishing limit or to the acceptable biological catch for units determined to be subject to overfishing, and a 10% buffer reduction to the overfishing limit or the acceptable biological catch for units determined not to be subject to overfishing in a specific year. Specific units would be exempted from the application of the control rule and buffer reductions established for those units in the 2010 and 2011 Caribbean annual catch limit Amendments would continue to be applied. Establishing this control rule would provide for a new and straightforward process that would allow for annual catch limit revisions based on overfishing status.