The North Pacific Fishery Management Council will serve up an agenda filled with groundfish, crab and halibut issues when it meets at the Grand Aleutian Hotel in Dutch Harbor September 28 through October 4. The council has allocated about 12 hours each for groundfish harvest specifications and Bering Sea-Aleutian Island crab issues. Also on the agenda is an eight-hour slot for an initial review of a salmon fishery management plan, plus four hours for halibut management issues. The groundfish harvest specifications session will involve an initial review of analysis to reduce Gulf of Alaska halibut prohibited species catch limits and time to adopt proposed specifications for the upcoming 2012 season.
Under crab issues, the council plans an initial review of crab economic data, plus time to approve catch specifications and a report on the BSAI crab stock assessment and fishery evaluation, plus final action on the Pribilof blue king crab rebuilding plan and a review of alternatives for rebuilding tanner crab stocks.
Also on the agenda is an eight-hour slot for other groundfish issues, which include regulations on catch monitoring and enforcement.
The complete agenda is at http://www.fakr.noaa.gov/npfmc
The council is mandated to meet five times each year at various communities, mostly in Alaska. It’s 2011 spring meeting was in Anchorage, and its summer session in Nome. The council is also scheduled to meeting in Anchorage in December and in Seattle at the end of January.
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