Fisheries Management: The Council Process Explained

While most fishermen who participate in federal fisheries off the State of Alaska understand how the fisheries are managed and regulated, we provide a short synopsis of this process for those of you who have asked how it all works.

 

BACKGROUND

In 1977 Congress passed what became the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, providing eight regional councils authority to develop fishery management plans in federal waters (3 ��� 200 nautical miles offshore). These councils are not regulatory bodies, rather they make management recommendations to the secretary of Commerce, based on a comprehensive and deliberate public process. The Secretary can either accept or reject these recommendations, but does not supplant them with their own management plans.

 

The public process incorporated by each of the eight regional councils is fairly similar; and off Alaska, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) essentially works like this:

 

Plan Team Recommendations

Stocks of fish and shellfish are assessed through summer surveys conducted at regular intervals. Some stocks are assessed acoustically, some by longline catch and others by trawl net. The catch is identified and usually enumerated by size and sex.

 

Stock assessment biologists evaluate the recent year���s survey against a historical data base and develop statistical models that describe the size and health of the resource. Management plans for each species or group of species proscribe safe harvest levels typically linked with abundance. The stock assessment biologists bring their annual findings of each species or species group together as a Plan Team where they make recommendations to the Council.

 

Council Advisory Bodies

The Council has two advisory bodies, a Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) made up of agency and university scientists, and an Advisory Panel (AP) made up of representative stakeholders from Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.

 

The SSC reviews the Plan Team���s extensive written and oral presentations and recommendation for acceptable biological catch (ABC) and for levels of overfishing (where harvest must stop to maintain sustained fisheries).

 

The AP receives the same Plan Team presentations and makes recommendations on the total allowable catch level (the amount that can be harvested) and considers how catch should be apportioned between gear types and areas. The public can testify before both the SSC and the AP on issues relevant to stock status or impacts of the proposed harvest levels. Both advisory bodies (SSC and AP) deliberate over the scientific and public testimony they receive before developing their independent recommendations to the Council.

 

Council Recommendations to the Secretary of Commerce

The Council is made up of 11 voting and non-voting members (six Alaskan and five non-Alaskan) and is responsible for making fishery management recommendations to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce. The council receives written and oral presentations, comments from the SSC, AP and the public before making their final recommendation to the Secretary.

 

This same process is followed for any changes to the regulatory regimes that alter current management practices. Because of the significant financial impact to the harvesters and processors and their dependent coastal communities, such regulatory changes normally take nine months. Though in some cases, such as instituting Halibut Charter Boat Regulations or Individual Fishing Quotas this may take several years as the various alternatives and impacts of these proposed alternatives are evaluated and modified until sufficient support is garnered by the stakeholders to assure concurrence of the Secretary.

 

Shared Management

Some stocks off Alaska are jointly managed with other management entities. For example, the seasons, appropriate gear and harvest levels for Pacific halibut are set by the International Pacific Halibut Commission, while the Council sets the allocation (catch and bycatch) between sectors for the halibut stocks in Alaskan waters.

 

Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands king and Tanner crab are jointly managed by the Council and the Alaska Board of Fisheries. The Council retains authority over fishery rationalization programs and levels of safe harvest and overfishing, as well as habitat protection, biological fishing seasons and non-directed fishery bycatch levels in federal waters. The Alaska Board of Fisheries sets TAC levels and implements day-to-day regulations to manage harvest and assure compliance.

 

Another category of overlap is coordinated management with the State of Alaska for groundfish in state waters. For species like Pacific cod and pollock, the Board of Fisheries and the Council keep each other informed on stock or management concerns (such as precautionary harvest closures in state waters to protect endangered Steller sea lions, or bycatch rates of salmon in federal fisheries), which both entities try to accommodate when developing management plans.

 

Fish habitat does not start and stop at the 3-mile boundary between state and federal waters. Some species are recognized to be more abundant in state waters (such as lingcod, and some rockfish and shellfish) and those species are wholly managed by the State.