Bill Tweit, Interim Chairman
David Witherell, Executive Director
SUBJECT: title
2019 Observer Program Annual Deployment Plan
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STAFF CONTACT: Elizabeth Figus
ACTION REQUIRED: recommended action
a) Review the Draft 2019 Annual Deployment Plan and provide recommendations to NMFS
b) Receive FMAC Report, action as necessary
c) Receive EMC Report, action as necessary
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BACKGROUND:
a) Draft 2019 Annual Deployment Plan
The Council is scheduled to review the draft 2019 Annual Deployment Plan (ADP), and provide recommendations to NMFS for the final 2019 ADP. The Draft 2019 ADP documents how the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) intends to assign fishery observers and electronic monitoring (EM) to groundfish and halibut vessels fishing in the partial observer coverage category in the North Pacific during the calendar year 2019. NMFS’ 2019 recommendation is to deploy, as in 2018, into an EM stratum and 5 human observer strata, by gear type (trawl-pot-longline) and with separate strata for trawl and pot vessels delivering to tenders. For 2019, NMFS recommends a deployment allocation strategy of 15% selection rate in all strata plus an optimal allocation of remaining observer days among the strata based on discarded groundfish and halibut, Chinook, and crab PSC.
The recommended deployment strata were also brought to the joint BSAI and GOA groundfish plan teams during their September meeting in Seattle. The discussion can be found in the plan team minutes under agenda item C2.
b) FMAC Report
The Council’s Fishery Monitoring Advisory Committee (FMAC; formerly the Observer Advisory Committee) met September 13-14, 2018, in Seattle, and their report will be attached here before the meeting. The FMAC reviewed the Draft 2019 ADP and discussed the status of analytical projects affecting the Observer Program, and their relative priorities, including the observer fee analysis. The FMAC also received a presentation from AFSC Observer Program staff about the NMFS Observer Safety Report. Meeting materials are all posted on the Council’s website, at <https://www.npfmc.org/observer-program/>, and the FMAC’s recommendations are included in the FMAC report.
c) EMC Report
The Council’s Trawl Electronic Monitoring Committee (EMC; formerly the EM Workgroup) met August 23-24, 2018, in Seattle. The EMC reviewed their cooperative approach to EM development and began work on a Cooperative Research Plan. They also received presentations from staff about ongoing seabird research and an Amendment to the Alaska Region Electronic Technologies Implementation Plan (to reflect a shift in focus to developing EM for trawl catcher vessels). The report from this meeting is attached.