Magnuson-Stevens Act Provisions; Fisheries Off West Coast States; Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery; Seabird Bycatch Avoidance Measures

We published a final rule that requires groundfish longline vessels fishing in the exclusive economic zone (3-200 nautical miles offshore) to either use streamer lines (also called tori lines or bait savers) or night set (only deploying hooks between one hour after local sunset and one hour before local sunrise) when fishing north of 36° N. latitude.

This rulemaking is intended to fulfill the terms and conditions of the 2017 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Biological Opinion for seabirds, specifically short-tailed albatross.