INITIAL REGULATORY FLEXIBILITY ANALYSIS MODIFICATIONS TO COMMUNITY PROVISIONS For a proposed Regulatory Amendment to Implement Amendment __ _ to the Fishery Management Plan for

• Main Authors: Bering Sea, Aleutian Isl, S King, Tanner Crabs
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: and need statement provides; Bering Sea; Aleutian Island
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.296.5269; http://www.alaskafisheries.noaa.gov/npfmc/PDFdocuments/catch_shares/Crab/CrabROFRmods213.pdf

In August of 2005, fishing in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Island crab fisheries began under a new sharebased management program (the “program”). The program is unique in several ways, including the allocation of processing shares corresponding to a portion of the harvest share pool. These processor shares were allocated to processors based on their respective processing histories. To protect community interests, holders of most processor shares were required to enter agreements granting community designated entities a right of first refusal on certain transfers of those shares. Since implementation, community representatives and fishery participants have suggested that some aspects of the rights of first refusal may inhibit their effectiveness in protecting community interests. This amendment package considers actions intended to address the following five concerns: 1) the relatively short period of time allowed for exercising and performing under the right; 2) the lapse of the right after three consecutive years of use of the individual processing quota (IPQ) outside the community or if a community entity elects not to exercise the right on a transaction to which it applies; 3) the requirement that the right apply to all assets involved in a transaction, which could include assets outside the community; 4) the limited protection to community interests by the right of first refusal; and 5) the need for better notices to communities entities and NOAA Fisheries to track use and transfer of shares subject to the right. The Council has also included in this amendment package a sixth action intended to redress the concerns of a specific right holder, Aleutia Corporation, who asserts that a transaction subject to the right occurred without that entity being provided the opportunity to exercise the right. The action proposes to allocate to that entity an amount of processor quota shares approximately equal to the amount transferred in the transaction that triggered the right.