Regulatory Impact Review for a Regulatory Amendment to Clarify Certain Provisions Pertaining to the Harvest Specifications for Other Species

This document contains a Regulatory Impact Review of regulatory amendments in response to the new treatment of “other species” categories under Amendment 96 to the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area (BSAI) and Amendment 87 to the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish of the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). This amendment will be adopted to clarify regulations in response to new guidelines for National Standard for annual catch limit requirements. Amending the regulations involves (a) removing the words “and the ‘other species’ category” where they are no longer appropriate; (b) in the GOA, eliminating initial reserves for the “other species” grouping, and creating initial reserves for squid, octopus, sharks, and sculpins; and (c) in the GOA and BSAI, treating the remaining relevant species as a grouping for the purposes of maximum retainable amount and prohibited species catch management. The analysis in this document addresses the requirements of Executive Order 12866. 2010 NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) AKR (Alaska Region) Submitted Public Domain 1861