Subsistence Halibut: Federal Register Rules and Notices

NOAA Fisheries issues a final rule to revise the criteria for rural residents to participate in the subsistence fishery for Pacific halibut in waters in and off Alaska. This action is necessary to allow subsistence halibut fishing opportunities for rural residents who reside in locations outside the legal boundaries of specified communities and who were prohibited from participating in the subsistence halibut fishery by previous regulations. This action is intended to allow these inadvertently-excluded rural residents to participate in the subsistence halibut fishery and to support the conservation and management provisions of the Northern Pacific Halibut Act of 1982.

The subsistence halibut regulations authorize eligible persons to conduct subsistence halibut fishing in waters in and off Alaska. Currently, a person is eligible to harvest subsistence halibut if he or she is a rural resident of a community with customary and traditional uses of halibut that is listed in the tables at § 300.65(g)(1) (hereafter “listed community”), or a member of an Alaska Native tribe with customary and traditional uses of halibut that is listed in the tables at § 300.65(g)(2). Persons eligible to fish must possess a subsistence halibut registration certificate (SHARC) to exercise the privilege.