Five-Year Review of the Effects of Amendment 80
October 01, 2014
This document is a 5-year review of Amendment 80 to the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands groundfish Fishery Management Plan.
Amendment 80 (AM80) was approved by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council in June of 2006. It enabled the formation of fishery cooperatives for trawl catcher/processors (CPs) that are not eligible under the American Fisheries Act to participate in directed pollock fisheries. This group of Trawl CPs is hereafter referred to as the AM80 CPs or the AM80 Sector. In addition to enabling the formation of a cooperative for the AM80 CPs, AM80 also had the effect of creating a separate BSAI Trawl Limited Access fishery for yellowfin sole, Pacific cod, and Atka mackerel. It also increased the Community Development Quota allocations of target species of flatfish, Pacific Ocean Perch, Atka Mackerel, and Pacific cod from 7.5 percent to 10.7 percent.
Because AM80 created a Limited Access Privilege Program as defined under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA), a formal and detailed review to determine progress in meeting the goals of the program and of the MSA is required.
The remainder of this introduction contains a subsection that provides additional details regarding the requirements that a 5-year review be developed, and a subsection that provides the basis for inclusion of particular issues within the 5-year review.