Dan Hull, Chairman
David Witherell, Executive Director
SUBJECT: title
Charter Halibut Permits: Latent Capacity; RQE Ownership Caps - Discussion Papers
end
STAFF CONTACT: Sarah Marrinan (NPFMC)
ACTION REQUIRED: recommended action
* Review two discussion papers on charter halibut permits actions.
* Determine what future Council action is warranted for each of these proposals.
* Determine if and how actions will interact, if both proposals are moved forward.
BACKGROUND:
Two discussion papers are presented under C2. These discussion papers are presented under one action item to allow the AP and the Council the opportunity to hear both issues before deciding how to proceed.
The first, "Charter Halibut Permit (CHP) latency discussion paper", is a proposal that would add a new annual trip limit designation to each CHP. The categories would restrict the number of vessel (or angler) trips for each CHP within the year (i.e., annual CHP trip limits). This paper highlights the way CHP use can impact annual charter halibut sector management measures (e.g. bag limits, size restrictions) and demonstrates the extent of unused and underutilized (latent) capacity among CHPs. The paper scopes out the Council's initially-suggested mechanisms for establishing annual CHP trip (or angler-trip) limits, highlights additional decision points and points of clarification, and provides initial discussion of the impacts of this management change.
The second paper, "Recreational Quota Entity (RQE) ownership caps discussion paper," analyzes a proposal that would allow the RQE to purchase and hold up to 30% of the CHPs in IPHC regulatory Area 2C and regulatory Area 3A. Currently, regulations state that a person (or entity) may not own, hold, or control more than five CHPs, with some exceptions for initial recipients. It is assumed that the intent of this action would be to temporarily remove some CHPs from use, in order to limit some charter halibut effort. This paper discusses the abi...
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