Amendment 32 to the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan: Modifications to Non-Trawl Sector Area Management Measures

Amendment 32 and its implementing regulations includes a suite of changes to non-trawl sector area management measures seaward of California and Oregon for commercial and recreational groundfish fisheries and the non-tribal directed commercial Pacific halibut fishery. Specifically, Amendment 32, with its implementing regulations:

• allows increased fishing access with specific gear types to the Non-Trawl Rockfish Conservation Area for the commercial groundfish limited entry fixed gear sector and vessels that gear switch under the Trawl Individual Fishing Quota program;
• modifies gear restrictions in the Non-Trawl Rockfish Conservation Area for all non-trawl commercial groundfish sectors;
• moves the seaward boundary of the Non-Trawl Rockfish Conservation Area to 75 fathoms for all non-trawl commercial groundfish sectors and the directed commercial Pacific halibut fishery;
• creates new Groundfish Conservation Areas, including new Yelloweye Rockfish Conservation Areas seaward of Oregon and Groundfish Exclusion Areas seaward of Southern California;
• creates new Essential Fish Habitat Conservation Areas seaward of Oregon;
• removes Cowcod Conservation Area restrictions seaward of Southern California for all groundfish commercial and recreational non-trawl sectors, and;
• enables the use of Block Area Closures to control the catch of groundfish for all commercial non-trawl sectors.

The purpose of Amendment 32 and its implementing regulations is to provide fishing access to healthy groundfish stocks for non-trawl groundfish fisheries and the non-tribal directed commercial Pacific halibut fishery while still meeting the conservation objectives of the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan.