Amendment 122 to the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area; Pacific Cod Trawl Cooperative Program

NOAA Fisheries will present a public workshop on the implementation of the Pacific cod Trawl Cooperative Program (PCTC Program or Program) for potentially eligible participants and other interested parties. The workshop will provide an overview of the PCTC Program, key PCTC Program elements, and the process for participating in the Program. NOAA Fisheries is conducting this public workshop to provide assistance to fishery participants in understanding and reviewing this Program. The same workshop will be presented in Seattle and then via webinar. The first workshop will be held in-person on Wednesday, September 20, 2023 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time in Seattle, Washington and will not have a webinar option. The second workshop will be held via webinar on Wednesday, September 27, 2023 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Alaska Standard Time.

The Pacific Cod Trawl Cooperative Program (PCTC Program or Program) assigns Pacific cod harvest quota to qualifying groundfish License Limitation Program (LLP) license holders and qualifying processors (88 FR 53704, August 8, 2023). The Program is a limited access privilege program for the harvest of Pacific cod in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area (BSAI) trawl catcher vessel (CV) sector. Under the Program, participants holding quota share (QS) form harvesting cooperatives in association with a processor to harvest the annual harvest privilege of Pacific cod.