Crab Rationalization Permit Program

The Crab Rationalization Program (Program) allocates BSAI crab resources among harvesters, processors, and coastal communities. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council developed the Program over a 6-year period to accommodate the specific dynamics and needs of the BSAI crab fisheries. The Program builds on the Council's experiences with the halibut and sablefish Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) program and the American Fisheries Act (AFA) cooperative program for Bering Sea pollock. The Program is a limited access system that balances the interests of several groups who depend on these fisheries. The Program addresses conservation and management issues associated with the previous derby fishery, reduces bycatch and associated discard mortality, and increases the safety of crab fishermen by ending the race for fish. Share allocations to harvesters and processors, together with incentives to participate in fishery cooperatives, will increase efficiencies, provide economic stability, and facilitate compensated reduction of excess capacities in the harvesting and processing sectors. Community interests are protected by Community Development Quota (CDQ) allocations and regional landing and processing requirements, as well as by several community protection measures.

Program components include quota share allocation, processor quota share allocation, IFQ and individual processing quota (IPQ) issuance, quota transfers, use caps, crab harvesting cooperatives, protections for Gulf of Alaska groundfish fisheries, arbitration system, monitoring, economic data collection, and cost recovery fee collection.

Lists of all persons participating in the BSAI Crab Rationalization fishery as quota share holders, individual fishing quota, processing quota, or cooperative quota holders, registered crab receivers, vessels. Current year is updated daily.

Harvesting Cooperatives and Memberships (current year updated daily)

Harvesting Cooperatives, with Representatives and Contact Information (updated as needed)

Summary by Coop, Fishery and Member (current year updated daily)

Summary by Coop, Fishery, Member and Quota Type (current year updated daily)

IFQ and IPQ is issued annually for each crab quota fishery, after TACs are available. Data are listed by holder, fishery, sector, region and class. The date and time of first annual file posting is provided for Arbitration and share matching purposes.

NOTE: Pounds not indicated as "Permit Issued" have not been issued to the quota holder or the quota holders' assigned cooperative, pending eligibility determinations.

IFQ - Current year updated daily

IPQ - Current year updated daily

An annual RCR permit is required for the rationalized crab fisheries (CR crab, includes IFQ/IPQ fisheries; CDQ fisheries except Norton Sound king crab; and the golden king crab allocation to Adak). This permit is required to receive any unprocessed crab from the harvester; the owner/operator of a vessel that processes CR crab at sea, any person holding IPQ, and any person that is required to submit a Departure Report. For shoreside operations, an RCR permit is required for each shore facility. RCRs must use the eLandings system to report unprocessed crab landings by catcher vessels or weekly unprocessed crab harvest activity for catcher/processors.

An annual FCVP is required for owners of any vessel used in the rationalized crab fisheries (CR crab, includes IFQ/IPQ fisheries; CDQ fisheries except Norton Sound king crab; and the golden king crab allocation to Adak). Operation Type endorsements are: SFP (Stationary Floating Processor); CPR (catcher-processor); and CAT (catcher vessel). This permit has requirements for VMS and logbook reporting.

Federal Crab Vessel Permits (current year updated daily)

Registered Crab Receivers (current year updated daily)

none

NMFS- Fisheries Information Management Committee (FIMC) Standard

Contains Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and/or Business Identifiable Information (BII)

Access to sensitive data shall only be granted to an individual that meets certain criteria. Access may be granted to the data submitter. Access can only be granted to a non-submitter if a signed and effective Confidentiality Agreement, Data Access Sharing Agreement, Memorandum of Understanding, Standard Statement of Nondisclosure, or similar agreement is in place. These signed agreements shall indicate that individuals have reviewed and understand the provisions in the manual governing the legal use of sensitive data. The signed agreements are maintained by the Alaska Regional Records office. The name of each individual that has signed a statement of nondisclosure for using sensitive data will be added to the Alaska Region list of authorized confidential data users.

Data may be released if aggregated in accordance with AKRO and/or MSA confidentiality protocols. Data may be released if confidential BII or PII information are re-dacted. .

Access to sensitive data shall only be granted to an individual that meets certain criteria. Access may be granted to the data submitter. Access can only be granted to a non-submitter if a signed and effective Confidentiality Agreement, Data Access Sharing Agreement, Memorandum of Understanding, Standard Statement of Nondisclosure, or similar agreement is in place. These signed agreements shall indicate that individuals have reviewed and understand the provisions in the manual governing the legal use of sensitive data. The signed agreements are maintained by the Alaska Regional Records office. The name of each individual that has signed a statement of nondisclosure for using sensitive data will be added to the Alaska Region list of authorized confidential data users.

Data may be released if aggregated in accordance with AKRO and/or MSA confidentiality protocols. Data may be released if confidential BII or PII information are re-dacted. .

Data are sensitive under the Privacy Act, FOIA and Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act (2007) and can only be shared with authorized persons or in summary format for public dissemination.

Submitted data is reviewed by NMFS staff prior to data entry. Source data are validated against business rules when loaded into NMFS' Oracle database. Data input is reviewed against output on a routine basis to ensure quality.

Data may need to be aggregated for confidentiality before dissemination. If data does not need to be aggregated dissemination may be made daily.

IT Security and Contingency Plan for the system establishes procedures and applies to the functions, operations, and resources necessary to recover and restore data as hosted in the Alaska Region in Juneau, Alaska, following a disruption.

Information is collected from participants on paper applications or, if allowed, through on-line data submissions in NMFS/AKR eFISH on-line services. Harvest data necessary for real-time account management may also be submitted through eLandings.

Information submitted on paper forms is entered/updated through NMFS/AKR Alaska Data Entry and Retrieval System (ALDERS) by permitting staff. Data entered into ALDERS is stored in appropriate database tables for use in generating permits, reports, views, etc.