Framework Adjustment 46 To The Northeast Multispecies Fmp Including An Environmental Assessment Regulatory Impact Review Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis

"Framework Adjustment 46 revises the haddock incidental catch cap for the Atlantic herring fishery; creates two haddock stock-specific caps with corresponding accountability measures; increases cap allocations; modifies monitoring methods to account for total haddock catch only by midwater trawl vessels"--Cover letter; Portfolio comprised of 5 related PDF documents digitized and organized by: NOAA Office of Program Planning and Integration (PPI) National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) staff.

In September 2010, NMFS published an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) to request public comment on potential adjustments to the regulations governing the Atlantic shark fisheries to address specific issues such as commercial landings that exceed quotas, declining numbers of fishing permits since limited access was implemented, complex regulations, derby fishing conditions due to small quotas and short seasons, increasing numbers of regulatory discards, and declining market prices and to identify specific goals for management of these fisheries in the future. Based on the comments received on the ANPR, in September 2011, NMFS published a Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare an FMP Amendment that would consider catch shares for the Atlantic shark fisheries. Based on comments received on the ANPR and NOI, in April 2014, NMFS released a Predraft for Amendment 6 to the 2006 Consolidated Highly Migratory Species (HMS) Fishery Management Plan (FMP) that included management options for changes to regional quota and permit structures. On May, 27 2014, NMFS published another NOI announcing its intent to prepare an Environmental Assessment instead of an Environmental Impact Statement and that the agency was moving away from the catch share concept for this particular Amendment. On January 20, 2015, NMFS released the Draft EA and published a proposed rule (80 FR 2648) for Amendment 6 to the 2006 Consolidated HMS FMP, and the public comment period was open until April 3, 2015. This Final EA analyzes the potential environmental impacts related to (1) permit stacking (2) adjusting the large coastal sharks (LCS) trip limit for shark directed limited access permit holders; (3) establishing a management boundary in the Atlantic region, (4) creating sub-regional quotas in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico regions for LCS and small coastal sharks (SCS); (5) modifying the LCS and SCS quota linkages; (6) implementing total allowable catches and adjusting the non-blacknose SCS commercial quotas in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico regions based on the 2013 Atlantic sharpnose and bonnethead sharks stock assessments; and (7) modifying upgrading restrictions for shark permit holders.

Papers presented: 1) Reference points for fisheries management: the western Canadian experience; 2) Reference points for fisheries management: the eastern Canadian experience; 3) Reference points for fisheries management: the ICES experience; 4) Spawning stock biomass per recruit in fisheries management: foundation and current use; 5) The development of a management procedure for the South African anchovy resource; 6) How much spawning per recruit is enough?; 7) The behaviour of Flow, Fmed and Fhigh in response to variation in parameters used for their estimation; 8) The Barents Sea capelin stock collapse: a lesson to learn; 9) Variance estimates for fisheries assessment: their importance and how best to evaluate them; 10) Evaluating the accuracy of projected catch estimates from sequential population analysis and trawl survey abundance estimates; 11) Bootstrap estimates of ADAPT parameters, their projection in risk analysis and their retrospective patterns; 12) Analytical estimates of reliability for the projected yield from commercial fisheries; 13) Risk evaluation of the 10% harvest rate procedure for capelin in NAFO Division 3L; 14) Using jackknife and Monte Carlo simulation techniques to evaluate forecast models for Atlantic salmon; 15) Monte Carlo evaluation of risks for biological reference points used in New Zealand fishery assessments; 16) A comparison of event free risk analysis to Ricker spawner-recruit simulation: an example with Atlantic menhaden; 17) Choosing a management strategy for stock rebuilding when control is uncertain; 18) Risks and uncertainties in the management of a single-cohort squid fishery: the Falkland Islands Illex fishery as an example; 19) Risks of over- and under-fishing new resources; 20) Estimation of density-dependent natural mortality in British Columbia herring stocks through SSPA and its impact on sustainable harvesting strategies; 21) The comparative performance of production-model and ad hoc tuned VPA based feedback-control management procedures for the stock of Cape hake off the west coast of Africa; 22) A proposal for a threshold stock size and maximum fishing mortality rate; 23) Biological reference points for Canadian Atlantic gadoid stocks; 24) Stochastic locally-optimal harvesting; 25) ITQ based fisheries management; 26) Bioeconomic methods for determining TACs; 27) Management strategies: fixed or variable catch quotas; 28) Bioeconomic impacts of TAC adjustment strategies: a model applied to northern cod; 29) Experimental management programs for two rockfish stocks off British Columbia; 30)A brief overview of the experimental approach to reducing uncertainty in fisheries management; 31) Fisheries management organizations: a study of uncertainty.

Responsible fisheries management is of increasing interest to the scientific community, resource managers, policy makers, stakeholders and the general public. Focusing solely on managing one species of fish stock at a time has become less of a viable option in addressing the problem. Incorporating more holistic considerations into fisheries management by addressing the trade-offs among the range of issues involved, such as ecological principles, legal mandates and the interests of stakeholders, will hopefully challenge and shift the perception that doing ecosystem-based fisheries management is unfeasible. Demonstrating that EBFM is in fact feasible will have widespread impact, both in US and international waters. Using case studies, underlying philosophies and analytical approaches, this book brings together a range of interdisciplinary topics surrounding EBFM and considers these simultaneously, with an aim to provide tools for successful implementation and to further the debate on EBFM, ultimately hoping to foster enhanced living marine resource management.

Ocean harvests have plateaued worldwide and many important commercial stocks have been depleted. This has caused great concern among scientists, fishery managers, the fishing community, and the public. This book evaluates the major models used for estimating the size and structure of marine fish populations (stock assessments) and changes in populations over time. It demonstrates how problems that may occur in fisheries dataâ€"for example underreporting or changes in the likelihood that fish can be caught with a given type of gearâ€"can seriously degrade the quality of stock assessments. The volume makes recommendations for means to improve stock assessments and their use in fishery management.

This book is open access under a CC BY-NC 2.5 license. The Gulf of Mexico is an open and dynamic marine ecosystem rich in natural resources but heavily impacted by human activities, including agricultural, industrial, commercial and coastal development. The Gulf of Mexico has been continuously exposed to petroleum hydrocarbons for millions of years from natural oil and gas seeps on the sea floor, and more recently from oil drilling and production activities located in the water near and far from shore. Major accidental oil spills in the Gulf are infrequent; two of the most significant include the Ixtoc I blowout in the Bay of Campeche in 1979 and the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in 2010. Unfortunately, baseline assessments of the status of habitats and biota in the Gulf of Mexico before these spills either were not available, or the data had not been systematically compiled in a way that would help scientists assess the potential short-term and long-term effects of such events. This 2-volume series compiles and summarizes thousands of data sets showing the status of habitats and biota in the Gulf of Mexico before the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. Volume 2 covers historical data on commercial and recreational fisheries, with an analysis of marketing trends and drivers; ecology, populations and risks to birds, sea turtles and marine mammals in the Gulf; and diseases and mortalities of fish and other animals that inhabit the Gulf of Mexico.

This publication gives an updated review of the quantity of discards in the world's marine fisheries, using information from a broad range of fisheries in all continents. A number of policy issues are discussed including a 'no discards' approach to fisheries management, the need for balance between bycatch reduction and bycatch utilisation initiatives, and concerns arising from incidental catches of marine mammals, birds and reptiles. The report also highlights the need for more robust methods of estimating discards, and the development of bycatch management plans.