Final Regulatory Impact Review Cost Recovery Fee Program for Amendment 80, Groundfish and Halibut/Sablefish Community Development Quota, and American Fisheries Act and Aleutian Islands Pollock Programs

The cost recovery fee may collect up to three percent of the ex-vessel value of species allocated to participants in limited access privilege (LAP) and Community Development Quota (CDQ) programs. The fee paid by beneficiaries of each program would offset the actual costs agencies incur that are directly related to the management, data collection, and enforcement of each program that would not have been incurred had the program not been implemented.

Communities are not expected to be substantially impacted by this action. It will not change the amount of fish landed under the subject LAP programs and the CDQ Program, nor will the action change the location of deliveries. The greatest potential impact to communities would occur if the CDQ groups or the Aleut Corporation are unable to pass the cost of the fee on to their harvesters/partners. Other communities may realize very modest impacts through reduced income of residents, and therefore reduced expenditures in those communities.

The North Pacific Fisheries Management Council and NOAA Fisheries are constantly reviewing fisheries and their management and making modifications, depending on the biological and economic conditions. As the exvessel value of the fishery changes as a result of management actions, it will impact the assessed cost recovery fee percentage.