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In response to a recommendation by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, this proposed rule would implement electronic monitoring for catcher vessels using pelagic trawl gear to harvest pollock and tender vessels delivering to processing plants in the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea. The proposed action would implement a voluntary monitoring option that would allow a vessel to elect to use an electronic monitoring system accompanied by shoreside observers for biological data collections instead of carrying an at-sea observer under the North Pacific Observer Program. The purpose of this action is to advance cost efficiency and compliance monitoring through improved salmon accounting and reduced monitoring costs. This proposed action is needed to modify the current retention and discard requirements to allow participating catcher vessels to maximize retention of all species caught for the use of electronic monitoring as a compliance tool on trawl catcher vessels in the North Pacific Observer Program and meet monitoring objectives on trawl catcher vessels in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska. pelagic pollock fisheries. This proposed action will likely affect catcher vessels, tenders, and shoreside processors participating in the directed pelagic trawl pollock fishery in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska. For this proposed action, NMFS uses authority under Section 304(b)(1)(A) and Section 313 of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. The Council and NMFS developed the elements of this rule over several years based on feedback and public involvement in the North Pacific Fishery Management Council's Trawl Electronic Monitoring Committee process. NMFS will also hold public hearings in the states of Washington, Oregon, and Alaska to receive additional public input during the comment period on the proposed rule.