Supplemental Environmental Assessment/Regulatory Impact Review/Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis for Amendment 75 to the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Area - Changes in IR/IU Flatfish Requirements
July 01, 2003
Analysis of alternative actions to address the issue of the improved retention and improved utilization (IR/IU) of yellowfin sole and rock sole in BSAI groundfish fisheries and shallow-water flatfish in GOA groundfish fisheries (Flatfish IR/IU).
This Supplemental Environmental Assessment/Regulatory Impact Review/Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis (EA/RIR/FRFA) assesses:
- the effects of removing all flatfish IR/IU requirements from the Fishery Management Plan for the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands
- a delay in implementation of flatfish IR/IU requirements which were scheduled to go into effect in January 2003
- other alternatives which are aimed at reducing bycatch (discards) while mitigating expected negative economic impacts to vessels participating in these fisheries
As a supplement to the Environmental Assessment (EA), this document provides additional clarification of the partial approval action taken by the Secretary of Commerce on May 29, 2003. That action was not detailed in the EA submitted with Bering Sea Aleutian Islands Fishery Management Plan Amendment 75. The effects on the human environment and any impacts from that action are identical to alternatives presented in the March 2003 EA/RIR/IRFA.
The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act definition of bycatch is "fish which are harvested in a fishery, but which are not sold or kept for personal use, and includes economic discards and regulatory discards". In this document, the use of the term “bycatch” is consistent with that definition.