Table of Contents:

A. Overview

B. Management Actions

C. Recent Publications

A. OVERVIEW

Many of the North Pacific Council’s actions in 1998 were related to Bering Sea pollock allocations. It took final action on the inshore/offshore allocation of pollock in June 1998 and addressed the ramifications of the American Fisheries Act of 1998 which set Bering Sea pollock allocations and participants in legislation, allowed for the formation of offshore fishing cooperatives, and created opportunities for development of onshore co-ops. The formation of these co-ops may set aside future development of an individual fishing program for pollock. Another major issue affecting the BSAI and GOA pollock and other groundfish fisheries was a NMFS biological opinion that the BSAI and GOA pollock fisheries jeopardized the recovery of Steller sea lions in those areas. The following section describes the management actions taken in 1998 to manage the North Pacific groundfish fisheries.

B. MANAGEMENT ACTIONS

1) Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Groundfish Specifications

The Council adopted final groundfish specifications for the 1999 Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) groundfish fisheries, including Acceptable Biological Catch (ABC), Total Allowable Catch (TAC), and Prohibited Species Catch (PSC) limits and apportionments. Abundance of Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands groundfish remains high overall, but has declined for some commercially important species.

The status of pollock in the Eastern Bering Sea (EBS) remains relatively stable at the biomass level that produces maximum sustainable yield. Projected 1999 biomass of age 3+ pollock in the Eastern Bering Sea stock was estimated at 7.04 million mt. The stock was estimated to have been 5.8 million mt in 1998. Biomass is expected to remain stable in the near future with recruitment of a strong 1996 year-class. Although the maximum allowable ABC for this stock based on an MSY fishing rate is 1.37 million mt, the plan team and SSC recommended a more conservative harvest strategy for 1999. Based on this advice, the Council recommended a 992,000 mt ABC and TAC for Eastern Bering Sea pollock, a decrease of about 10% (118,000 mt) from 1998. Of the pollock TAC, 40% will be allocated to the roe seasons ("A") and 60% to the non-roe seasons ("B"). For CDQ pollock fisheries, the seasonal allocation will remain at 45% and 55%. Season dates for the "A" and "B" seasons will be established by the emergency rule to protect Steller sea lions (see related newsletter item). The pollock TAC for the Aleutian Islands area was set at bycatch amounts only (2,000 mt), and 1,000 mt for the Bogoslof district. The Council recommended that no directed fishing for pollock occur in these areas given current low abundance and the importance of pollock as prey for Steller sea lions. In addition, there will be no directed fishing for pollock using non-pelagic trawls in 1999.

The Council recommended a 177,000 mt TAC for Pacific cod, which was much lower than last year. This reduction was based on an observed biomass decline and a risk minimization analysis. The stock is expected to continue declining in the near future, because recent year classes have been below average. Under the allocations of Amendment 46, 2% of the TAC will be reserved for jig gear, 51% for fixed gear (longline and pot gear), and 47% for trawl gear. The trawl apportionment will be split between catcher vessels and catcher-processors 50/50. For the fixed gear seasonal apportionment of Pacific cod, the Council recommends that 60,000 mt be released the first trimester (January 1 - April 30), 8,500 mt for the second trimester (May 1 - September 1), and 15,000 mt for the third trimester.

Additional precaution was taken to protect other stocks that are declining and remain in low abundance. Greenland turbot has declined since 1975 due to poor recruitment. Given the status of this stock and a projected continued decline, the 1999 TAC was held at last year’s catch. Similarly, the TACs for AI sablefish and EBS Pacific ocean perch were held to last year’s quota despite projections for higher stock biomass.

PSC limits for herring, red king crab, bairdi crab, and opilio crab are based on biomass. Halibut and crab PSC limits were further reduced due to pending regulations prohibiting the use of bottom trawl gear in the pollock fishery. For 1999, crab PSC limits will be 197,000 red king crab, 730,000 bairdi crab in Zone 1 and 1,845,000 bairdi crab in Zone 2, and 4,350,000 opilio crab. Halibut PSC was established at 3,675 mt of mortality. The Council recommended that no halibut PSC be apportioned to directed trawl fisheries for turbot, sablefish, or arrowtooth flounder. This recommendation essentially prohibits directed fishing for these species with trawl gear. The Council again recommended that pot gear, jig gear, and sablefish hook-and-line fisheries be exempt from the non-trawl PSC program for 1999.

2) Gulf of Alaska Groundfish Specifications for 1999

The Council approved a Gulf of Alaska (GOA) total Acceptable Biological Catch (ABC) for 1999 of 532,590 mt, a 3% decrease from the total 1998 ABCs of 548,650 mt. The Total Allowable Catches (TAC) was set at 306,535 mt, a 6% decrease from the 1998 TACs of 327,046 mt. Overall, the status of the stocks in the Gulf of Alaska continues to appear relatively stable. ABC and TAC recommendations remain essentially unchanged from 1998 for flatfish, rockfish, and Atka mackerel. The pollock ABC declined from 130,000 mt in 1998 to 100,920 mt, reflecting a decline in exploitable biomass. Sablefish biomass continued to decline by about 9%, from 14,120 mt in 1998 to 12,700 mt in 1999. The Council combined the sablefish ABCs for the West Yakutat and East Yakutat/Southeast Outside (EY/SEO) areas to allow for a reallocation of the 5% eastern Gulf trawl allocation to West Yakutat due to the trawl prohibition east of 140° W longitude implemented in 1998. The fixed gear apportionment is 90% of the adjusted West Yakutat TAC and 100% of the adjusted EY/SEO TAC. The Council recommended that: (1) NMFS increase its efforts to incorporate observer data and log book information on CPUE, length, sex, and age data into the sablefish stock assessment for 1999; and (2) NMFS develop and test new assessment techniques, such as port sampling and pre-recruit surveys to improve the accuracy of the sablefish assessment under the IFQ fishing regime. Funds from the IFQ fee program should be prioritized for this work.

The Pacific cod ABC dropped to 84,400 mt and was set at the average of the Plan Team (77,900 mt) and stock assessment (90,900 mt) recommendations. The Council was concerned about uncertain 1995 year class projections and increasing the ABC and TAC amid projections of spawning stock declines for this fishery. The TAC was set below ABC to account for an expanding State waters fishery. The Alaska Board of Fisheries (BOF) initiated a state water Pacific cod fishery in the GOA in 1997 and set a three-stage phase-in of the Western and Central Gulf guideline harvest level (GHL). The 1997 state Pacific cod fishery was set at 15% of the federal TAC for the Western and Central Gulf and 25% of the Eastern Gulf TAC. The Central Gulf fishery was apportioned: Cook Inlet 15%, Kodiak 50%, and Chignik 35%. While the Kodiak subarea in the Central Gulf reached the 1997 GHL and would have automatically been raised to 20% in 1998, the BOF chose not to do so during its groundfish review cycle for the Kodiak area. The Western Gulf, and Kodiak and Chignik subareas of the Central Gulf, will automatically increase to 20% for 1999. The Kodiak subarea increases from 7.5% to 10% in 1999 and the Chignik subarea increases from 5.25% to 7% (the subarea apportionment increases from 15 to 20%, respectively).

The Team examined separating the Eastern Gulf ABC for the West Yakutat and East Yakutat/Southeast Outside subareas on a case-by-case basis for 1999, pending resolution of this issue via the 1999 NMFS Gulf of Alaska trawl survey for calculating ABCs for the year 2000. Since this in an interim year pending a possible redesign of the 1999 GOA trawl survey in 1999, the Council recommended separation for species/complexes that would be disproportionately harvested from the West Yakutat area by trawl gear. The Team did not split EGOA ABCs for species that were prosecuted by multi-gear fisheries or harvested solely as bycatch.

The final PSC limits for halibut in the Gulf are set by gear type and may be apportioned seasonally over the fishing year. Since 1995, the combined halibut PSC limit for all fisheries and gear types has been 2,300 mt. The Council recommended that NMFS release the trawl halibut PSC for the third quarter on July 11. Beginning in 1994, PSC limits for trawl gear were further apportioned by specific fishery. Apportionments of the overall cap may be made to a ‘shallow water complex’ and a ‘deep water complex.’ Species in the shallow water complex are: pollock, Pacific cod, shallow water flatfish, Atka mackerel, and other species. Deep water complex species include: deep water flatfish, rockfish, flathead sole, sablefish, and arrowtooth flounder.

Overfishing Definitions

National Standard 1 states that conservation and management measures shall prevent overfishing while achieving, on a continuing basis, the optimum yield from each fishery for the United States fishing industry. The Sustainable Fisheries Act (SFA) of 1996, which amended the Magnuson-Stevens Act, contained several provisions that affected National Standard 1 though the standard itself was not changed. The SFA added a definition of "overfishing" and "overfished," changed the definition of "optimum," required that each fishery management plan specify objective and measurable criteria for identifying when a fishery is overfished, and added a section on identifying and rebuilding overfished fisheries. On May 1, 1998, NMFS published national standard guidelines in the Federal Register to assist the Councils with amending FMPs to conform with new provisions of the Act.

To bring our groundfish, crab, scallop, and salmon plans into compliance, several plan amendment analyses examined alternative definitions of maximum sustainable yield (MSY), optimum yield (OY), and overfishing. The BSAI and GOA groundfish FMPs now treat MSY as a limit rather than a target. This means that "limit" harvest strategies (such as rules to define the overfishing level (OFL)) should result in a long-term average catch that approximates MSY, and that "target" harvest strategies (such as rules to specify acceptable biological catch (ABC)) should result in catches that are substantially more conservative than the limit. More specifically, tiers 2-4 of the current definitions will be modified, and F_35% (rather than F_30%) becomes the baseline overfishing rate.

Streamlining Groundfish TAC Specifications

The Council approved Plan Amendments 48/48 in April 1998 to revise the annual specification process. The approved action proposes to eliminate publication of proposed and interim specifications for BSAI and GOA groundfish fisheries. The previous year’s specifications would remain effective until superseded. References to foreign and joint venture fisheries would be deleted from the FMP. In-season closure authority would be revised. The preliminary Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation (SAFE) report would also be modified and no preliminary ABC recommendations would be made by the Plan Teams or Council. If approved by the Secretary, this action may be in effect for setting specifications for 2000.

3) Inshore/Offshore Pollock Allocations

In June 1998, the Council shifted 4% of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BS/AI) pollock TAC from the offshore sector to the inshore sector, while the Gulf of Alaska pollock and Pacific cod allocations were left unchanged. The BS/AI split was changed to 39% inshore and 61% offshore, after CDQs are deducted. There was no separate allocation to "True Motherships." The Council also passed a motion to begin a Fishery Management Plan (FMP) amendment that would require industry to report price and cost data. This effort will be coordinated with other related data collection efforts of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center and Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission.

These allocations were not approved by NMFS as a result of the American Fisheries Act in October 1998. The AFA set in legislation: new ownership standards for participation in U.S. fisheries; allocations in the BSAI pollock fisheries (increasing the CDQ allocation from 7.5 to 10%; 50% of remaining to the inshore component, 40% to offshore component, and 10% to motherships); a buy-out of nine catcher-processor vessels; eligible vessel in the BSAI pollock fisheries; replacement requirements for listed vessels; fishery cooperative limitations; and other related actions.

At the end of 1998, the Council was reviewing the provisions of the Act and identifying actions required to implement the provisions of that Act. A number if sideboard issues were identified and initiated by the Council for initial review in April and final action in June 1999.

4) Steller Sea Lion Measures

In 1990, the Steller sea lion was designated as threatened under the ESA. Critical habitat was designated in 1993 and includes marine areas within 20 nautical miles (nm) of all rookeries and major haulouts west of 144°W. In 1997, the species was split into two separate management populations on the basis of genetics information. The listing status of the western population (i.e., west of 144° W longitude) was changed to endangered while the status of the eastern population remained as threatened. The western population of Steller sea lions (i.e., west of Cape Suckling or 144°W longitude) has declined by 80% or more since the mid-1960s.

At the December 1998 meeting, the Council reviewed the Biological Opinion (Section 7 consultation) from NMFS, which concluded with a ‘Jeopardy Finding,’ meaning that the pollock fisheries in both the BSAI and the GOA jeopardize the recovery of Steller sea lions in those areas. The Council took emergency action to implement measures consistent with NMFS’ proposed Reasonable and Prudent Alternatives (RPAs) to allow these fisheries to be prosecuted in 1999. The RPAs, in summary, proposed spatial and temporal distribution of the pollock fisheries as well as additional closure areas around specific rookery and haul-out sites used by sea lions. For the BSAI, the Council’s actions include: (1) separating the pollock fisheries into four seasons (A1, A2, B, and C seasons), with a limit of 30% of the total TAC coming from any one season; (2) reducing the overall roe season fishery to 40% of the annual total TAC; (3) limiting the overall A season removals from the sea lion critical habitat area/catcher vessel operational area (CH/CVOA) to 62.5% of the total TAC for those seasons; (4) eliminating a directed pollock fishery in the Aleutian Islands subarea; and, (5) expanding closure areas around rookery and haul-out sites.

For the GOA, the Council also created four seasons with limits on the percentage of the TAC which can be taken from any one season, expanded the closure areas around rookery and haul-out sites, and established a 300,000 pound trip limit for pollock in the western and central Gulf areas.

5) Atka mackerel fishery

The Council approved a regulatory amendment to reduce the probability of localized depletion of Atka mackerel in critical habitats for Steller sea lions. The amendment will allocate the Atka mackerel TAC on a seasonal basis (50% available January 20, and 50% available September 1) for all AI regulatory areas and allocate most of the TAC in areas outside of critical habitat for the central and western AI areas. In Area 543, the proportion of the catch taken outside critical habitat will be increased from the current 15% taken outside to 35% in 1999 (with a corresponding decrease in catch within critical habitat), and will be incrementally increased over four years to reach a target of 40% inside and 60% outside critical habitat in 2002. In area 542, catch outside critical habitat will be increased from the current 5% taken outside, to 20% in 1999, again with the target of 40% inside and 60% outside critical habitat in 2002. For area 541, a 20 nm year-round closure will be implemented around the Seguam rookery. A vessel monitoring system (VMS) will be required for vessels participating in the BSAI Atka mackerel fishery. The Council also recommended that the jig fishery for Atka mackerel be exempted from these actions, and that CDQ fisheries be exempted from the seasonal allocation, but would abide by the critical habitat percentages. Further, the Council recommended that information relative to this issue should be reviewed on an annual basis. In concert with the annual review, NMFS should conduct research and develop a research plan (together with industry and other parties) to determine effects of these management measures by area.

6) License Limitation Program

The Council took final action on several amendments to the crab and groundfish license limitation programs. These changes address: 1) adding the vessel name to the license; 2) transfers of licenses earned on non-federally permitted vessels; 3) gear designations to the groundfish LLP; 4) CDQ vessel exemption; 5) recent participation requirement to the crab LLP; and 6) limited processing upgrades for catcher vessels. If approved by the Secretary of Commerce, these amendments are expected to be in place for the 2000 fishing seasons, along with the other provisions of the license limitation programs (LLP) outlined in the Final Rule published October 1, 1998.

7) Moratorium

The Council voted unanimously to extend the existing vessel moratorium for another year (through the end of 1999) to cover the interim period before implementation of the LLP. This extension applies only to the fishing period under the moratorium, i.e., the deadline for application for a moratorium permit is still December 31, 1998.

8) Community Development Quota Program

At its June 1998 meeting, the Council decided to permanently extend the pollock CDQ program. Without this action, the pollock CDQ program would expire on December 31, 1998. This action will also serve to merge the pollock CDQ program with the multi-species (MS) CDQ program after 1998. The final rule for the MS-CDQ program was published on June 4, 1998, and the MS groundfish CDQ fisheries (the remaining groundfish and prohibited species) are scheduled to commence on October 1.

The Council also stated its intent that NMFS should move forward with a technical amendment to correct a reference in regulatory language at §679.31(d) that specified crab CDQ reserves by ‘calendar’ year, to allow the State of Alaska to more effectively manage the crab CDQ fisheries. As provided in the crab fishery management plan, the actual decision on whether to allow an early opening to the CDQ opilio fishery will be up to the Board of Fisheries.

9) Observer Program

In June 1998, the Council received formal notification from NMFS and the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (PSMFC) that the third-party, joint partnership agreement (JPA) program structure was dissolved. This program structure would have established the PSMFC as the sole source through which industry would obtain observers, working as an interface between industry and the observer contracting companies. Because of contracting, liability, and other legal impediments, NMFS and PSMFC announced that the JPA cannot be established as originally envisioned. For these reasons, the Council voted to extend the current observer program structure through the year 2000. During this time, staff will continue to work on a fee-based funding mechanism, as well as examine both short and long-term adjustments to the existing program.

10) Groundfish Amendments

Sablefish rolling closures. Because of the elimination of trawl fishery interactions and reduction in longline interactions due to the reordered survey sequence, and the uncertain effects of these interactions on the sablefish stock assessment, NMFS sablefish survey and assessment scientists recommended that rolling closures in the GOA and BSAI sablefish fisheries were not necessary.

BSAI Shortraker/Rougheye Allocations. The Council approved BSAI Plan Amendment 53 which allocated shortraker/rougheye rockfish in the Aleutian Islands subarea between fixed gear and trawl fisheries. The TAC would be allocated 30% to non-trawl gear and 70% to trawl gear

Essential Fish Habitat. At the June 1998 meeting, the Council adopted plan amendments for the BSAI and GOA groundfish, salmon, crab, and scallop FMPs to incorporate EFH provisions. These provisions included identification and description of EFH including habitat areas of particular concern, identification of research and information needs, and identification of potential adverse effects on EFH due to fishing and non-fishing activities. The Council adopted an alternative that designates EFH as described by general distribution.

Cape Edgecumbe Pinnacles. The Council adopted a GOA Plan Amendment 59 to prohibit boat anchoring and fishing for groundfish, halibut, and scallops in a 4-mile by 4-mile pinnacle area off Sitka. This amendment was originally proposed by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game as a means to protect important habitat for rockfish and ling cod, and was later incorporated into the EFH amendment package. In the future, the pinnacle area will be re-evaluated for consideration as a habitat area of particular concern. An option of prohibiting recreational and commercial salmon fishing in the pinnacle area was considered, but not adopted. The Council will discuss the salmon issue with the Alaska Board of Fisheries at its committee meeting in July 1999.

Western/Central Gulf Groundfish Management. The Council approved Plan Amendments 52/52 which contained two separate actions to address at-risk fisheries in the Western and Central Gulf. The Council directed NMFS to develop a vessel registration program for "at risk" fisheries which meet certain criteria. NMFS will report back to the Council at a later meeting. The Council also approved a stand-down requirement for vessels transiting between the BSAI and GOA. Implementation of the stand-down occurred for the pollock B season in September 1998. The vessel registration program will be implemented at a later date.

Western/Central Gulf Pollock Seasonal Allocations. The Council approved a regulatory amendment to revise the Western and Central GOA pollock trimester apportionments to address the large increase in the 1998 GOA pollock ABC and TAC due to an above-average 1994 pollock year class. Concern expressed by scientists, industry, and the public over pollock availability for endangered Steller sea lions in the GOA led to this action. The trimester apportionment revision would redistribute the pollock TACs so that increases in projected pollock removals during the second season would occur during a potentially less stressful foraging period for sea lions. The benefit to sea lions comes as both potential increase in available forage and shorter fishing duration in the third quarter. The Council reapportioned 10 percent of the pollock TAC in the W/C Regulatory Areas from the third season (September 1) to the second season (June 1) resulting in a 25/35/40 split. The Council did not approve an associated plan amendment that would framework a process whereby the percentage of pollock TAC apportioned to each season would be specified during the annual harvest specification process. These allocations have been replaced by an emergency order to protect Steller sea lions.

Pollock Bottom Trawl Gear Prohibition. The Council approved BSAI Plan Amendment 57 to prohibit the use of non-pelagic trawl gear for vessels targeting pollock in the BSAI. Only pelagic trawl gear as defined in regulations (together with the performance-based bycatch standard of 20 crabs) will be allowed in the directed pollock fishery. The objective of this amendment is to address Magnuson-Stevens Act mandates to reduce bycatch. Although this action could be taken annually as part of the BSAI TAC specification process, the plan amendment will make this prohibition a permanent regulation. Total bycatch limits of prohibited species (including a 7.5% CDQ apportionment) will be reduced to reflect this gear prohibition. Prohibited species bycatch will be reduced by 100 mt of halibut mortality, 3,000 red king crab, 50,000 C. bairdi crab, and 150,000 C. opilio crab.

11) Halibut and Sablefish IFQ Program

The Council took final action on four IFQ amendments that will be implemented in time for the 1999 IFQ season to: 1) allow QS holders wishing to hire skippers to establish indirect vessel ownership through corporate ties; 2) add language to the definition of "a change in the corporation or partnership" specific to estates; 3)change use caps for fixed gear sablefish from percent to QS units based on 1996 QS units; and 4) allow QS holders to provide NMFS/RAM with the name of an immediate family member as a beneficiary to whom the existing survivorship transfer privileges will be granted in the absence of a surviving spouse. In a separate motion, the Council clarified that its intent with regard to partnerships was that, for freezer vessel QS, a partnership does not dissolve if an existing partner(s) buys out another partner.

The Council reviewed a proposal from NMFS Enforcement on a weighmaster program for IFQ fisheries. In April 1999, a committee tasked with evaluating the following: (1) adequate compliance monitoring levels; (2) the potential for involving personnel from ADF&G, USCG, NMFS and the IPHC in achieving the compliance monitoring program; and (3) proposals to address the remaining enforcement needs at adequate compliance monitoring levels recommended to the Council to not proceed, at this time, with the weighmaster program as presently described.

The Council is also developing an IFQ cost recovery fee program, initiated under a mandate of the Sustainable Fisheries Act of 1996.

12) Sitka Sound Halibut Management Plan

The Council approved the Sitka Sound local area halibut management plan. The plan was a cooperative management effort between the Council and the Alaska Board of Fisheries, its local fish and game advisory committee, and Halibut Task Force. This plan would create a local area management plan for Sitka Sound that would prohibit halibut fishing in the Sound by commercial fishing vessels greater than 35 ft and during June, July, and August, by commercial fishing vessels less than or equal to 35 ft and charter vessels. The boundaries will be specified by latitude and longitude in the regulations.

Additionally, the Council and Board adopted a protocol for the development of future local area management plans for groundfish and halibut. All community-based local area management plan proposals should be submitted during the Board’s call for proposals. When the proposal is found to meet all the requirements stated in the call for proposals and the protocol, the halibut portion of the proposal will be forwarded to the Council for review and action.

13) Halibut Charterboat Management

At the December 1997 Council meeting, NMFS notified the Council that, without accompanying regulations, the halibut charterboat guideline harvest level (GHL) could not be submitted to the Secretary for formal review and publication. Instead, NMFS published the Council’s intent of the GHL as a notice of inquiry in the Federal Register on March 10, 1998. The Council formed a Halibut GHL Committee to recommend possible management measures that would keep the halibut charter fleet under the GHL.

In April 1998, the Council received a report from its GHL Committee on possible management measures to keep the halibut charterboat fleet under the GHL. The Council revised the list of alternatives for analysis in April 1999. The Council approved the list of short-term and long-term measures for analysis. The Council further set a control date of June 24,1998, for participation in the halibut charterboat fleet for a possible moratorium on new entry into the fleet. The Council has previously set control dates of September 23, 1993, and April 17, 1997. The Council may choose from among these dates, or may choose the date of final action (February 2000) for a possible moratorium cut-off. The 1998 logbook program will generate additional information regarding participation in this fishery.

C. RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Integrating Ecosystem Considerations into Groundfish Fisheries Management off Alaska, USA (March 1999) written by David Witherell, Clarence Pautzke and David Fluharty. NOTE: draft Manuscript submitted to ICES Journal of Marine Science — A special issue on the proceedings of the ICES/SCOR Symposium on the Ecosystem Effects of Fishing. March 1999. NPFMC Summary Report 99-03.

Status and Trends of Principal Groundfish and Shellfish Stocks in the Alaska EEZ (February 1999) written by David Witherell. NPFMC Summary Report 99-02.

Essential fish habitat and closed areas in federal waters of the North Pacific (January 1999) written by Jane DiCosimo. This paper was presented at the 1998 William R. and Lenore Mote International Symposium: Essential Fish Habitat and Marine Reserves, November 4 - 6, 1998. Sarasota, Florida. The paper describes the closed areas in the BSAI and GOA, the recent designations of essential fish habitat in the Council's five fishery management plans, and the closure of the Cape Edgecumbe pinnacles near Sitka, Alaska to all federal fishing and anchoring. NPFMC Summary Report 99-01.

Groundfish of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI): Species Profile (December 17, 1998) A concise, informative overview of the major BSAI groundfish species written by David Witherell (NPFMC staff). The profile for each species includes information on biology, stock assessment, population status, fishery (gear types), management under the FMP, economics and a catch history. NPFMC Summary Report 98-05.

King and Tanner Crabs of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Area: Species Profile (October 28, 1998) A concise, informative overview of the BSAI crab species. The profile for each species includes information on biology, management (state and federal), stock structure, and stock history by area and total harvest. NPFMC Summary Report 98-04.

Regulatory and Closure Areas for the Groundfish Fisheries in the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands (September 1998). NPFMC Summary Report 98-03.

Groundfish of the Gulf of Alaska (GOA): Species Profile (June 5, 1998) A concise, informative overview of the major GOA groundfish species written by Jane DiCosimo (NPFMC staff). The profile for each species includes information on biology, stock assessment, population status, fishery (gear types), management under the FMP, economics and a catch history. NPFMC Summary Report 98-02.

Summary of the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) Groundfish Fishery Management Plan (April 1998) summarizes the current management of the domestic groundfish fisheries in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) and includes a history of plan amendments. NPFMC Summary Report 98-01.

Summary of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) Groundfish Fishery Management Plan (March 1997) summarizes the current management of the domestic groundfish fisheries in the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands (BSAI) and includes a history of plan amendments. NPFMC Summary Report 97-01.

A Brief History of Bycatch Management Measures for Eastern Bering Sea Groundfish Fisheries: a draft version of this paper (dated June 1997) written by David Witherell and Clarence Pautzke. NPFMC Summary Report 97-02.

A Guide to Stock Assessment of Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Groundfish (September 1997) written by David Witherell (NPFMC) and James Ianelli (NMFS, AFSC). This article provides the layman with a general understanding of how quotas for groundfish in the BS/AI are established and the various tools used by the scientists to assess fish stocks. NPFMC Summary Report 97-03.

Russian Far East Fisheries Management (September 30, 1997) Report to Congress as mandated by the Magnuson- Stevens Act, written by Clarence Pautzke, Ph.D., Executive Director of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council. Summarizes institutional structures of fisheries management in the Russian Far East and how those relate to management of U.S. fisheries. NPFMC Summary Report 97-04.

A Summary of Current Stock Assessment Information Used in Managing Alaska Groundfish Stocks (October 1997) written by Jane DiCosimo. This paper was originally presented as a poster at the 15th Lowell Wakefield Fisheries Symposium in Anchorage, Alaska, focusing on the NPFMC's precautionary approach in applying stock assessment results to commercial fisheries and an increasing reliance on its scientific advisors in setting quotas. NPFMC Summary Report 97-05.

Development of the Individual Fishing Quota Program for Sablefish and Halibut Longline Fisheries off Alaska (Revised October 8, 1997) written by Clarence Pautzke and Chris Oliver (NPFMC's Executive Director and Deputy Director, respectively) and presented to the National Research Council's Committee to Review Individual Fishing Quotas, September 4, 1997, Anchorage, Alaska. Reviews the policy setting and development of the NPFMC's IFQ program. NPFMC Summary Report 97-06.

Twenty Years In Review (December 1996) highlights the major issues before the Council from 1976 through 1996. A fascinating glimpse of Council issues/events over the past twenty years. NPFMC Summary Report 96-01.

Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation (SAFE) Report for the Groundfish Resources of the Gulf of Alaska (November 1998).

Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation (SAFE) Report for the Groundfish Resources of the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands (November 1998).

Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation (SAFE) Report for the King and Tanner Crab Fisheries of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Regions (September 1998).

Economic Status of the Groundfish Fisheries off Alaska 1997. (November 1998).

Ecosystem Considerations for 1999. (November 1998).