Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands King and Tanner Crabs Fishery Management Plan Historical Amendments 21 - 30

This page contains information about amendments 21 through 30, 2000-2011. For more information, please visit the King and Tanner Crab Fisheries Fishery Management Plan page.

These actions are intended to promote the goals and objectives of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act), the FMP, and other applicable law.

Amendment 21

This action makes changes to the arbitration system in the Crab Rationalization Program by modifying the timing for harvesters and processors to match harvesting and processing shares and the timing for initiating arbitration proceedings to resolve price and other delivery disputes.

Federal Register

• Final Rule (71 FR 40030, 07/14/2006)
• Proposed Rule (71 FR 20378, 04/20/2006)
• Notice of Availability (71 FR 16278, 03/31/2006)

Supporting Materials

• Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis

Amendment 22

Amendment 23

This amendment revises the Aleutian Islands Habitat Conservation Area (AIHCA) boundary to allow nonpelagic trawling in an area historically fished and to prohibit nonpelagic trawling in an area of known coral and sponge occurrence. This action is necessary to ensure the AIHCA protects areas of coral and sponge habitat from the potential effects of nonpelagic trawling. It allows nonpelagic trawling in areas historically fished and with unknown occurrence of corals and sponges.

Federal Register

• Final Rule (73 FR 9035, 02/19/2008)
• Proposed Rule (72 FR 65539, 11/21/2007)
• Notice of Availability (72 FR 63871, 11/13/2007)

Supporting Materials

• Environmental Assessment/Regulatory Impact Review

Amendment 24

Amendment 24:

• specifies a five-tier system for determining the status of the crab stocks managed under the Plan
• establishes a process for annually assigning each crab stock to a tier and for setting the overfishing and overfished levels
• reduces the number of crab stocks managed under the plan

This amendment was necessary to establish new overfishing definitions that contain objective and measurable criteria for determining whether each managed stock is overfished or whether overfishing is occurring and to remove from the plan several crab stocks managed by the State of Alaska.

Federal Register

• Final Rule (73 FR 33925, 06/16/2008)
• Notice of Availability (73 FR 14766, 03/19/2008)

Supporting Materials

• Final Environmental Assessment

Amendment 25

Amendment 25 amends the Crab Rationalization Program and satisfies the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act of 2006 requirement for the Secretary of Commerce to amend the Fishery Management Plan to authorize conversion of catcher vessel owner quota shares and processor quota shares to newly created converted catcher processor owner quota shares. The Secretary approved Amendment 25 on April 12, 2007. The Coast Guard Act mandates that the Secretary issue processing quota shares to Blue Dutch, LLC, under specific conditions. This action is necessary to implement Amendment 25 and the Coast Guard Act.

Federal Register

• Final Rule (73 FR 29979, 05/23/2008)
• Proposed Rule (73 FR 8838, 02/15/2008)
• Notice of Availability (72 FR 5255, 02/05/2007)

Supporting Materials

• Regulatory Impact Review

Amendment 26

Amendment 26 amends the Plan to exempt permanently quota share issued to crew members, and the annual harvest privileges derived from that quota share, from requirements for delivery to specific processors, delivery within specific geographic regions, and participation in an arbitration system to resolve price disputes.

Federal Register

• Final Rule (73 FR 35084, 06/20/2008)
• Proposed Rule (73 FR 16830, 03/31/2008)
• Notice of Availability (73 FR 15118, 03/21/2008)

Supporting Materials

• Regulatory Impact Review and Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis

Amendment 27

Regulations in Amendment 27 amend the Crab Rationalization Program to:

• implement the statutory requirements of section 122(e) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act that specifically directs NOAA Fisheries to modify how individual processing quota use caps apply to a person who is custom processing Chionoecetes opilio (or C. opilio) crab in the North Region
• clarify that for other crab fisheries, IPQ crab that is processed at a facility through contractual arrangements with the facility owners will not be applied against the IPQ use cap of the facility owners provided specific conditions are met
• modify IPQ use caps that limit the amount of IPQ that may be used at a facility by persons processing Eastern Aleutian Islands golden king crab and Western Aleutian Islands red king crab

Federal Register

• Final Rule (74 FR 25449, 05/28/2009)
• Proposed Rule (73 FR 54346, 09/19/2008)

• Notice of Availability (73 FR 52806, 09/11/2008)

Supporting Materials

• RIR/FRFA for Amendment 27

Amendment 28

These regulations amend the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands Crab Rationalization Program to allow post-delivery transfers of all types of individual fishing quota and individual processing quota to cover overages. This action is necessary to improve flexibility of the fleet, reduce the number of violations for overages, reduce enforcement costs, and allow more complete harvest of crab allocations

Federal Register

• Final Rule (74 FR 41092, 08/14/2009)
• Proposed Rule (73 FR 75661, 12/12/2008)
• Notice of Availability (73 FR 71598, 11/25/2008)

Supporting Materials

• Final Regulatory Impact Review/Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis

Amendment 29

This amendment moved the northern boundary of the Plan out of the Arctic Management Area south to Bering Strait. This action was necessary to establish a management framework for commercial fishing and to provide consistent management of fish resources in the Arctic Management Area before the potential onset of unregulated commercial fishing in the area.

Federal Register

• Final Rule (74 FR 56734, 11/03/2009)
• Proposed Rule (74 FR 27498, 07/27/2009)
• Proposed Rule (74 FR 27498, 06/10/2009)
• Notice of Availability (74 FR 24757, 05/26/2009)

Supporting Materials

• Environmental Assessment/Regulatory Impact Review

Amendment 30

This amendment amended the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands Crab Rationalization Program to modify procedures for producing and submitting documents that are required under the arbitration system to resolve price, delivery, and other disputes between harvesters and processors. This action was necessary to improve the quality and timeliness of market information used to conduct arbitration proceedings.

Federal Register

• Final Rule (76 FR 68358, 11/04/2011)
• Proposed Rule (76 FR 49423, 08/10/2011)
• Notice of Availability (76 FR 44297, 07/25/2011)

Supporting Materials

• Regulatory Impact Review and Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis