Dan Hull, Chairman
David Witherell, Executive Director
SUBJECT: title
2018 Observer Program Annual Deployment Plan - Review; OAC and EMWG reports
end
STAFF CONTACT: Diana Evans
ACTION REQUIRED: recommended action
* Review draft 2018 Annual Deployment Plan (ADP).
* Review Observer Advisory Committee (OAC) and Electronic Monitoring Workgroup Reports and take action as necessary.
BACKGROUND:
Draft 2018 Annual Deployment Plan
The Council is scheduled to review the draft 2018 Annual Deployment Plan (ADP), and provide recommendations to NMFS for the final 2018 ADP. The ADP evaluates deploying observers by gear type, with separate strata for vessels delivering to tenders, and integrates electronic monitoring (EM) implementation with a separate fixed gear EM stratum. Deployment in 2018 is funded both through the industry-assessed observer fee, as well as through additional funds obtained from NMFS. NMFS' recommendation is to deploy into 6 human observer strata in 2018, by gear type, and with separate strata for vessels delivering to tenders. Based on a minimum 15% selection rate in all strata, with an optimal allocation of remaining observer days among the strata based on discarded groundfish and halibut and Chinook PSC, the preliminary selection rates would be:
* Trawl: 19% for trawl vessels, and 15% for trawl vessels delivering to tenders
* Hook-and-line: 16%, and 15% for hook-and-line vessels delivering to tenders
* Pot: 15% for pot vessels, and 15% for pot vessels delivering to tenders
Despite regulatory integration, the EM component of the program is funded from independent funding sources in 2018, and will not be funded through the observer fee until mid-2019. Based on available funding, the ADP proposes an EM selection pool of up to 110 vessels in 2018, and the EM selection pool deployment rate is proposed at 30%.
The OAC met on September 19 and 20 in Seattle to discuss the 2018 ADP, and other issues. The OAC disagrees with the NMFS recommendations both...
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