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Under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, NMFS manages the Pacific mackerel fishery in the U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ) off the West Coast in accordance with the Coastal Pelagic Species (CPS) Fishery Management Plan (FMP). The CPS FMP and its implementing regulations require NMFS to set annual harvest specifications for the Pacific mackerel fishery based on the annual specification framework and control rules in the FMP. The Pacific mackerel fishing season runs from July 1 to June 30. NMFS plans to issue proposed and final rules to implement those harvest specifications for the 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 fishing years as recommended by the Council at its April 2025 meeting, based in large part on the results of biennial stock assessments that provide biomass estimates from which the quotas are calculated. Harvest specifications include harvest guidelines for each fishing year, which will serve as the primary commercial harvest quotas, and management measures, including incidental catch limitations in the event an annual catch target is reached. This framework and the control rules have been in place for a number of years and the affected public is widely aware of them.