Environmental Assessment for Amendment 96 to the FMP for Groundfish of the BSAI and Amendment 87 to the FMP for Groundfish of the GOA
September 01, 2010
Analysis of Amendment 95 to move skates from the "other species" category to the "target species" category and revisions of both FMPs to meet the National Standard 1 guidelines for annual catch limits and accountability measures.
This action is necessary to comply with requirements of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act to prevent overfishing, achieve optimum yield, and to comply with statutory requirements for annual catch limits (ACLs) and accountability measures (AMs). Species and species groups must be identified in the fishery for which ACLs and AMs would be required. An ecosystem component may also be included in the FMPs for species and species groups that are not:
- targeted for harvest
- likely to become overfished or subject to overfishing
- generally retained for sale or personal use