View Rule

In response to a recommendation by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council), this proposed action would implement Amendment 52 to the Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for the Commercial King and Tanner Crab Fisheries of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area (BSAI) and revise Federal regulations to economic data reporting (EDR) requirements for groundfish and crab fisheries off Alaska.  If approved by the Secretary of Commerce and implemented by NMFS, this action would remove third party data verification audits and blind formatting requirements for the BSAI crab fisheries EDR, the Bering Sea American Fisheries Act (AFA) pollock fishery Chinook Salmon EDR, and the BSAI Amendment 80 fisheries EDR.  This action would also eliminate the EDR requirements for the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) trawl fisheries. The EDRs provide information for program evaluation and analysis of proposed conservation and management measures. The third party data verification audits and blind formatting provisions require a higher standard of confidentiality for proprietary business information than apply to all other confidential fisheries information.  These provisions have proven to reduce the usability of the data for analysis and to increase the cost of the data collection programs without providing additional practical protections. The GOA Trawl EDR program, implemented in 2015, was designed to collect baseline information to assess the impacts of a future catch share program.  However, no catch share program for the GOA trawl fleet has been implemented to date.  The Council initiated this action to improve the usability, efficiency, and consistency of the data collection programs and minimize cost to industry and the Federal government while still maintaining the integrity and confidentiality of the data collection program.  Owners and operators of harvesters and processors in the BSAI crab fisheries, the AFA pollock fishery, the Amendment 80 fisheries, and the GOA trawl fisheries would be affected by this action.  Section 304(b)(1)(A) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act is the rulemaking authority.