Amendment 5 Fishery Ecosystem Plan for the American Samoa Archipelago : Rebuilding Plan for the American Samoa Bottomfish Fishery Including an Environmental Assessment and Regulatory Impact Review (RIN 0648-BK79) Rebuilding Plan for the American Samoa Bottomfish Fishery Including an Environmental Assessment and Regulatory Impact Review (RIN 0648-BK79)

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) proposes to implement a rebuilding plan for the bottomfish multi-species stock complex in American Samoa with an annual catch limit (ACL) and accountability measures (AM) for the bottomfish fishery. The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (Council) developed the rebuilding plan in coordination with NMFS, the American Samoa Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources (DMWR), fishermen, and other interested and affected parties. The Council initiated development of the rebuilding plan due to new information about the American Samoa bottomfish fishery from the 2019 benchmark stock assessment (Langseth et al. 2019) that found the bottomfish stock complex is overfished and experiencing overfishing.