View Rule

This rule would promote efficiency in the utilization of the reef fish and CMP resources and a potential decrease in regulatory discards by providing the owners and operators of federally permitted for-hire vessels greater flexibility in determining when to allow passengers to retain the possession limit on multi-day trips.  The rule would modify the on-board possession limit for federal for-hire trips in the Gulf of Mexico, which currently allows anglers to retain two daily bag limits on a trip more than 24 hours, after the first 24 hours of that trip. The rule would increase the required trip duration to more than 30 hours, but would allow anglers to retain the second daily bag limit at any time after the federal for-hire vessel leaves the dock.  All other requirements to retain the possession limit would be unchanged. In addition, this rule would modify the language in 622.21(a)(3)(iii) and 622.22 (a)(3)(iii). The change would remove the wording ‘sequentially coded’ from the sentence ‘NMFS will provide each Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) dealer the necessary paper forms, sequentially coded, and instructions for submission of the forms to the RA’.