Environmental Assessment/Regulatory Impact Review/Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis for Amendment 16a to the FMP for Groundfish of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands

This document analyzes two distinct bycatch management topics:

1. Augment halibut and crab bycatch management measures in the BSAI
2. Implement herring bycatch management measures in the BSAI

While these are distinct topics, they cannot be treated independently in the analyses because closure of an area due to bycatch of one species will necessarily shift fishing effort to other areas and will have implications for the bycatch of other species. The organization of this document reflects this interrelationship. 

These measures supplement the bycatch management measures adopted by the Council in June 1990 and implemented at the start of the 1991 fishing year under Amendment 16 to the BSAI Groundfish FMP. These additional measures were not included in Amendment 16, and are "off-cycle", because there was insufficient time to consider them adequately prior to the Council's adoption of Amendment 16.