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This action proposes measures recommended by the New England Fishery Management Council in Amendment 23 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan.  The Council developed this action to implement measures to improve the reliability and accountability of catch reporting in the commercial groundfish fishery to ensure there is a precise and accurate representation of catch (landings and discards).  The purpose of this action is to adjust the existing industry-funded monitoring program to improve accounting and accuracy of collected catch data.  Specifically, this action would set a fixed target coverage rate as a percentage of fishing trips to replace the current annual method for calculating a coverage target.  This action would exclude from the monitoring requirement all trips in geographic areas with low groundfish catch; allow for increased coverage when federal funding is available to reimburse industry’s costs; set a baseline coverage target for which there is no reimbursement for industry’s costs in the absence of federal funding; approve electronic monitoring technologies as an alternative to human at-sea monitors; require periodic evaluation of the monitoring program; allow for waivers from monitoring for good cause; and grant authority to the Northeast Regional Administrator to streamline industry’s reporting requirements.