Hawaii FEP - Western Pacific Fishery Council

Refugia Westpac All: 0 (zero) --Exploratory Areas Hawaii, AmericanSamoa, Guam, CNMI,U.S. Pacific RemoteIsland Areas1,000 per area (all speciescombined except black corals)Notes:1. The final rule implementing the FMP lists the harvest quota for pink coral at Brooks Bank as 17 kg.This is a typographical error; the correct harvest quota is 444 kg.2. No fishing for coral is authorized in refugia.3. A moratorium on gold coral harvesting is in effect through June 30, 2013.1Measures to Address Overfishing and Overfished StocksAt present no stocks of precious corals have been determined to be overfished or that overfishingis occurring. The provisions of the Precious Corals FMP, including minimum sizes and harvestquotas are sufficient to prevent overfishing and these measures are carried over into this FEP.Precious coral beds are classified as Established (with fairly accurate estimated harvest levels),Conditional (with extrapolated MSY estimates) and Refugia (reproductive reserves or baselineareas). Exploratory Areas are all other EEZ waters and are available for harvesting with anExploratory Permit, subject to the above quotas.5.6 Management Program for Coral Reef Ecosystem Fisheries5.6.1 Permit and Reporting RequirementsSpecial permits are required for any directed fisheries on potentially harvested coral reef taxa(PHCRT) or to fish for any CRE MUS with any gear not normally permitted. Those issued aFederal permit to fish for non-CRE MUS but who incidentally catch CRE MUS are exempt fromthe CRE permit requirement. Those fishing for currently harvested coral reef taxa (CHCRT)outside of an MPA and do not retain any incidentally-caught PHCRT, or any person collectingmarine organisms for scientific research are also exempt from the CRE permit requirement.Permits are only valid for fishing in the fishery management subarea specified on the permit.The harvest of live rock and living corals is prohibited throughout the federally managed U.S.EEZ waters of the region; however, under special permits with conditions specified by NMFSfollowing consultation with the Council, indigenous people could be allowed to harvest live rockor coral for traditional uses, and aquaculture operations could be permitted to harvest seed stock.A Federal reporting system for all fishing under special permits is in place. Fishery participantshave the option of using NMFS approved electronic logbooks in lieu of paper logbooks.Resource monitoring systems administered by state, territorial, and commonwealth agenciescontinue to collect fishery data on the existing coral reef fisheries that do not require specialpermits.165