Regulatory Impact Review for a Regulatory Amendment to Add Communities to the List of Communities Eligible for the Gulf of Alaska Community Quota Entity Program

This Regulatory Impact Review (RIR) was prepared to evaluate the economic and socioeconomic effects of a proposed Federal regulatory amendment. The proposed amendment would be a revision to the Gulf of Alaska Community Quota Entity (CQE) Program. That program was approved by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) in 2002 and implemented by NOAA Fisheries in 2004, under Amendment 66 to the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) Fishery Management Plan. The program was developed to allow a distinct set of small, remote coastal communities Gulf of Alaska communities to purchase catcher vessel quota share under the existing halibut and sablefish Individual Fishing Quota Program.

Currently, 42 communities located in southcentral and southeast Alaska are listed in Table 21 to 50 CFR Part 679 as eligible to participate in the CQE Program. The Council included this list of communities in its original motion approving the CQE Program. This analysis evaluates adding up to four new communities to the list of communities eligible to participate, based on the same criteria used to determine eligibility in the original program. If determined eligible, these new communities would be subject to the same provisions and restrictions as all other eligible communities. The communities evaluated for eligibility in this analysis are Game Creek, Naukati Bay, Kupreanof, and Cold Bay.

The proposed action indicates that the original action approving the CQE Program did not correctly identify all of the communities eligible for the program. Recognizing that, the Council included rules for new communities to be added to the list of eligible communities in the original motion approving the CQE Program. In effect, the Council required that communities that appear eligible, but are not specifically designated as such in Table 21, must petition the Council for inclusion and meet all of the original eligibility criteria for the program. Note that two communities (Naukati Bay and Game Creek) have formally petitioned the Council for inclusion. Two additional communities are evaluated in order to provide for consideration the maximum number of communities that may have met the original criteria and were not included.

The analysis examines two alternatives, one of which is the no action alternative (Alternative 1). Alternative 2 would revise Table 21 to Part 679 to add up to four new communities to the list of eligible communities in the GOA CQE Program.