Environmental Assessment of Fishery Management Plan Amendments that would Create and Manage a Forage Fish Species Category

These amendments establish a new forage fish species category and associated management measures. The intended effect of this action is to prevent the development of an unrestricted fishery for forage fish, which are a critical food source for many marine mammal, seabird, and fish species. Directed fishing for forage fish is prohibited at all times in the BSAI and GOA, but a maximum retainable bycatch (MRB) amount of 2 percent is established for forage fish. The sale, barter, trade, or processing of forage fish is prohibited, except that limited incidental harvests of forage fish may be processed into fishmeal and sold. Subsistence fishing for forage fish species is exempt from this prohibition. 1998 NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) Library Public Domain 1861