Dan Hull, Chairman
Chris Oliver, Executive Director
SUBJECT: title
EM Working Group Report
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STAFF CONTACT: Diana Evans
ACTION REQUIRED: recommended action
Review report; action as necessary.
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BACKGROUND:
The Council’s Fixed Gear Electronic Monitoring (EM) Workgroup meets in Kodiak on March 28-29, 2017, and will provide a report to the Council at this meeting. One of the agenda items for the Workgroup is a review the EM Integration action proposed rule, which was recently published in the Federal Register. The Workgroup will provide a recommendation to the Council about whether the Council may wish to submit comments on the proposed rule during the public comment period (through May 22).
The Workgroup agenda also reflects planning for transition of the current EM pre-implementation program to an integrated Observer Program, where the EM pool is funded through the partial coverage observer fee. It is anticipated that this transition will occur over the next two years, with 2019 as the first year that the partial coverage fee will be used to support EM. The background materials for the meeting are available on the NPFMC website at www.npfmc.org/observer-program <http://www.npfmc.org/observer-programi>, and the meeting report will be posted during the Council meeting.