Dan Hull, Chairman
Chris Oliver, Executive Director
SUBJECT: title
BSAI Tanner Crab Custom Processing Cap - Discussion Paper
end
STAFF CONTACT: Jon McCracken
ACTION REQUIRED: recommended action
Review discussion paper; action as necessary.
body
BACKGROUND:
At its June 2016 meeting, the Council took final action on Amendment 47 to the BSAI FMP for Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands King and Tanner Crabs (FMP) to exempt custom processing arrangements for Bering Sea C. bairdi Tanner crab from IPQ use cap. The Council’s preferred alternative complemented and followed the management approach the Council recommended and NMFS implemented under the emergency rule (81 FR 4206, January 26, 2016) that was effective for the 2015/2016 crab fishing season. Amendment 47 to the FMP was approved on December 6, 2016. NMFS published the final rule with implementing regulations for Amendment 47 on December 20, 2016 (81 FR 92697).
In addition to taking final action on Amendment 47 to the FMP in June 2016, the Council tasked staff to evaluate additional solutions to the C. bairdi crab IPQ use cap issue. Specifically, it requested analysis of three options: (1) raise the C. bairdi crab IPQ use cap to 40 percent; (2) convert Class A IFQ shares to Class B IFQ shares; and (3) apply exemption only in years when capacity to process is not sufficient (i.e., when there are less than four processors). The discussion paper evaluates these options under a scenario where Amendment 47 was repealed and one of these options would replace it.