Council staff outline carryover, phase-ins and a 'green-light' option to boost groundfish flexibility
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Summary
Council staff presented five coordinated groundfish management measures — carryover of unharvested allocation, phase-in of ABC changes, a mid-biennium 'green light' to implement positive assessment results, revised accounting for off-the-top deductions, and changes to specifications frequency — intended to reduce year-to-year instability and improve access for fisheries. The council will take further action after advisory-body input.
Council staff presented a multi-part package of proposed amendments to the groundfish Fishery Management Plan designed to give managers tools to respond faster to changing stock assessments.
Jesse, the lead staffer for agenda item F5, outlined five action items: ABC/ACL carryover, phase-in of ABC changes over multiple years, a mid-biennium 'green light' to implement positive new assessments earlier in a biennium, accounting changes that move off-the-top deductions into ABC/ACL buffers, and consideration of annual versus modified biennial specification cycles. The presentation emphasized that recent assessment updates and time-varying uncertainty adjustments have reduced yield and created instability that can ripple through multispecies fisheries.
On carryover staff proposed two technical approaches: (1) ABC carryover, which would raise both ABC and ACL up to an OFL-bound maximum, and (2) ACL carryover, which would increase only the ACL up to the ABC. Staff recommended putting eligibility criteria in the FMP (e.g., not overfished; not under phase-in control rules) and choosing a prescriptive implementation pathway (stock-by-stock or default for eligible stocks) to minimize in-season workload.
Phase-in options would add explicit rules to allow ABC changes to be ramped in over up to three years, with eligibility criteria and default outcomes specified in the FMP. The green-light proposal would let the council identify stocks in year 1 of a biennium that could receive an extra implementation run so that a positive mid-cycle assessment could be implemented in year 2; staff stressed the need for a council 'checkpoint' in September to confirm whether a green light should be executed.
Staff also proposed two options to account for off-the-top deductions (research, EFPs, tribal set-asides) as part of ABC/ACL rather than deducting from the ACL, which could raise harvestable surplus for directed fisheries but requires careful consideration of rebuilding stocks and accountability measures.
The council's advisory bodies (GAP, GMT, SSC) will give detailed recommendations in the coming days; staff sought direction on a problem statement and the range of alternatives and flagged possible workload implications given reduced NMFS capacity from staff furloughs.
"Carryover could increase the risk of biological overfishing," staff warned, "but careful eligibility criteria and prescriptive implementation can limit that risk." The council did not take final action and will return to these items after advisory-body reports and further analysis.