Hawaii FEP - Western Pacific Fishery Council

The National Standard Guidelines for National Standard 1 call for rules identifying good versusbad fishing conditions in the fishery and the stock and describing how a variable such as F willbe controlled as a function of some stock size variable such as B in order to achieve good fishingconditions. Restrepo et al. 1998 provides a number of recommended default control rules thatmay be appropriate, depending on such things as the richness of data available. For the purposeof illustrating the following discussion of approaches for fulfilling the overfishing-relatedrequirements of the MSA, a generic model that includes example MSY, target, and rebuildingcontrol rules is shown in Figure 20. The y-axis, F/F MSY , indicates the variable which managersmust control as a function of B/B MSY on the x-axis. The specific application of these guidelinesto Hawaii’s fisheries is discussed for each fishery in turn in the remainder of this chapter. ThisFEP carries forward the provisions pertaining to compliance with the Sustainable Fisheries Actwhich were recommended by the Council and subsequently approved by NMFS (68 FR 16754,April 7, 2003). Because biological and fishery data are limited for all species managed by thisFEP, MSY-based control rules and overfishing thresholds are specified for multi-species stockcomplexes.The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act of 2006(MSRA) amended the MSA to include new requirements for annual catch limits (ACLs) andaccountability measures (AMs) and other provisions regarding preventing and endingoverfishing and rebuilding fisheries as follows:SEC. 302. REGIONAL FISHERY MANAGEMENT COUNCILS(h) FUNCTIONS.--Each Council shall, in accordance with the provisions of this Act--(6) develop annual catch limits for each of its managed fisheries that may not exceed the fishinglevel recommendations of its scientific and statistical committee or the peer review processestablished under subsection g;SEC. 303. CONTENTS OF FISHERY MANAGEMENT PLANS(a) REQUIRED PROVISIONS – Any fishery management plan which is prepared by anyCouncil, or by the Secretary, with respect to any fishery, shall -(10) specify objective and measurable criteria for identifying when the fishery to which the planapplies is overfished (with an analysis of how the criteria were determined and the relationshipof the criteria to the reproductive potential of stocks of fish in that fishery) and, in the case of afishery which the Council or the Secretary has determined is approaching an overfishedcondition or is overfished, contain conservation and management measures to preventoverfishing or end overfishing and rebuild the fishery;(15) establish a mechanism for specifying annual catch limits in the plan (including a multiyearplan), implementing regulations, or annual specifications, at a level such that overfishing doesnot occur in the fishery, including measures to ensure accountability.EFFECTIVE DATES; APPLICATION TO CERTAIN SPECIES.—The amendment made bysubsection (a)(10) [and 303(a)(15) above]—(1) shall, unless otherwise provided for under an international agreement in which the UnitedStates participates, take effect—(A) in fishing year 2010 for fisheries determined by the Secretary to be subject to overfishing;and134