Council Motion on Charter Halibut Moratorium in Area 2C and 3A

DRAFT
Council motion – Halibut charter moratorium 3/31/07
Council Motion on Charter Halibut Moratorium in Area 2C and 3A
March 31, 2007
The Council recommends the following as the final preferred alternative for the charter halibut moratorium (limited entry) action in IPHC Areas 2C and 3A.
Alternative 2. Implement a moratorium on entry into the charter halibut fisheries in Areas 2C and 3A using a control date of December 9, 2005.
Features of the proposed moratorium (limited entry) program:
Issue 1 Permits may be held by U.S. citizens or U.S. businesses with 75 percent U.S. ownership of the business. Businesses3 may receive multiple permits due to charter halibut activity by vessels reported by the businesses in ADF&G logbooks. Initial permit recipients may be “grandfathered” below the U.S. ownership level and above proposed use caps until any change in ownership of the business
occurs.
Issue 2. Permit would be designated for Area 2C or Area 3A. If a business owner qualifies for a
permit in both areas based on the history from a single vessel, he/she would be issued a separate permit
for both areas. Only one permit could be used on any given trip.
Issue 3. Permit would be issued to an ADF&G licensed fishing guide business owner.
Issue 4. Permit applicant would be required to sign an affidavit attesting that all legal requirements were met.
Issue 5. Transfers of permits (permanent) for vessels that qualified at trip levels of 15 and above in Area 2C and Area 3A would be allowed up to use caps. Permits issued below trip levels of 15 in Area 2C and Area 3A would be non-transferable.
Issue 6. Leasing of permits would not be allowed.
Issue 7. Permit Endorsement for Number of Halibut Clients on Board
Highest number on any trip in 2004 or 2005, with minimum endorsement of 4.
Permits issued under the military hardship provision would receive a halibut client endorsement of 6.
Issue 8. Permits may be stacked up to use caps.7
Issue 9. Evidence of participation is ADF&G saltwater logbook entry with bottomfish statistical
area, rods, or boat hours.8
Issue 10. Qualification period
Option 10.1. Each licensed guide business owner(s) who reported a minimum of 5 bottomfish logbook trips during 2004 or 2005 and year prior to implementation9 would be issued a permit(s) based on the number of trips summed for all vessels in his best year of the qualification period, unless an unavoidable circumstance occurred. A business would be limited to the number of permits equal to the highest number of vessels used in any one year during the qualifying period.
Example: a business owner operated 3 vessels with 6, 10, and 8 trips, respectively (summed trips = 24) in his best year. He would be issued 3 permits under a 5 trip minimum (24/5 = 4, but the maximum number of vessels in that year is 3).
Issue 11. Use caps, with grandfather11 provision. The AFA 10% ownership rule for affiliation12 will be applied to determine the number of permits associated with an entity under the use cap.
Option 2. 5 permits
Issue 12. Community provisions for Area 2C and 3A communities previously identified under
GOA FMP Amendment 66
A Community Quota Entity (CQE), representing a community in which 10 or fewer active13 charter
businesses terminated trips in the community in each of the years 2004 and 2005 may request limited
entry permits.14
Area 2C – use cap of 4 requested permits per eligible community.
Area 3A – use cap of 7 requested permits per eligible community.

Overall use caps for all CQEs in a management area are 2 times those selected for the qualifying
CQE requested permit use cap for each area. (Staff note: result is overall use cap of 8 permits for
each CQE in Area 2C and 14 permits for each CQE in Area 3A).
Provisions for CQE requested permits:
• Designated for the area in which the community represented by the CQE is located.
• Endorsed for 6 clients.
• Not allowed to be sold (i.e., permanently transferred).
• Under reporting requirements, the CQE must identify the recipient of the permit prior to issuance.
• The requested CQE permit must be used in the community represented by the CQE (the trip must originate or terminate in the CQE community).
The Council also recommends that NMFS issue interim permits to licensed fishing guide business owners appealing their permit status. (Staff note: NOAA GC will develop an approach to implement the Council’s intent with regard to interim permits and provide these recommendations as an informational report at the June 2007 Council meeting. The Council expressed an interest in limiting the issuance of interim permits only to those claims that have provided legitimate documentation and have a basis for success.)

This Post taken from the NPFMC website 4/3/07