ii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

• Main Authors: Bering Sea, Aleutian Isl, S King, Tanner Crabs
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2008
• Subjects: Bering Sea; Aleutian Island
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.153.6194; http://alaskafisheries.noaa.gov/analyses/amd26/ktcamd26ririrfa.pdf

In August of 2005, fishing in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Island crab fisheries began under a new sharebased management program (the “rationalization program”). The program is unique in several ways, including the allocation of a portion of the harvest share pool as “C shares ” to qualified captains and crew, the allocation of processing shares in an amount corresponding to a portion of the harvest share pool, and the designation of certain harvest shares for landing in a specific region. Under the program, 90 percent of the annual catcher vessel owner harvest share allocation is issued as “Class A ” individual fishing quota (IFQ), which must be delivered in a designated region and may only be delivered to a processor holding unused individual processing quota (IPQ). Under the rationalization program, the Council exempted catcher vessel C shares from the regional and processing share landing requirements for the first three years of the program. This exemption is scheduled to expire at the beginning of the 2008-2009 fishing season. When the Council adopted the rationalization program, it also tasked staff to provide a review of landing patterns of C shares to assess whether the exemption should be extended indefinitely. At its March/April 2007 meeting, staff delivered that review to the Council and the Council elected to task staff to prepare an analysis of an action to indefinitely extend the exemption of C shares from regional and processor share landing requirements.