1 / 24

Public Hearing Results Caribbean Fishery Management Council 150 th Meeting, August 11-12, 2014

Draft Amendment/Environmental Assessment. Public Hearing Results Caribbean Fishery Management Council 150 th Meeting, August 11-12, 2014 Rio Grande, Puerto Rico. DATES AND ADDRESSES: The Public Hearings and Scoping Meetings were held on the following dates and locations:.

shelby-fuentes
Download Presentation

Public Hearing Results Caribbean Fishery Management Council 150 th Meeting, August 11-12, 2014

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Draft Amendment/Environmental Assessment Public Hearing Results Caribbean Fishery Management Council 150th Meeting, August 11-12, 2014 Rio Grande, Puerto Rico

  2. DATES AND ADDRESSES: The Public Hearings and Scoping Meetings were held on the following dates and locations: In the U.S. Virgin Islands: • June 23rd, 2014 -7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. Windward Passage Hotel, Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. • June 24th, 2014 -7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. – Buccaneer Hotel, Estate Shoys, Christiansted, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands In Puerto Rico: • June 23rd, 2014 – 7:00 p.m.- 10:00 p.m. - at the Holiday Inn Ponce & Tropical Casino, 3315 Ponce By Pass, Ponce, Puerto Rico. • June 24th, 2014 – 7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. – Doubletree by Hilton San Juan Hotel, De Diego Avenue, San Juan, Puerto Rico. • June 25th, 2014 – 7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. Club Náutico de Arecibo, Rd. 681 Km 1.4, Arecibo, Puerto Rico • June 26th, 2014 - 7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. - MayagüezHoliday Inn, 2701 Hostos Avenue, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico You added MayagüezResort & Casino • June 30th, 2014 7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. – Asociación de Pescadores Unidos de Playa Húcares de Naguabo, Naguabo, Puerto Rico.

  3. Need for Action • The proposed mechanism would adjust the buffer reduction as appropriate to reflect a change in classification of the FMUs. • This amendment will provide for a new and straightforward process that will allow for ACL revisions based on OFL status. This process will be examined annually in terms of the overfishing determination.

  4. Proposed Action: Establish a control rule to adjust the buffer reduction applied to the overfishing limit (OFL) or to the acceptable biological catch (ABC) used to derive the annual catch limit (ACL) to reflect a change in overfishing status of the stock • Alternative 1:No Action. Do not establish a control rule to adjust the buffer reduction applied to the OFL or the ABC to determine the ACL for all fishery management units (FMUs) for which harvest is allowed. The buffer reductions to the OFL or the ABC would continue to be those defined in the 2010 and 2011 Caribbean ACL Amendments

  5. Proposed Action: Establish a control rule to adjust the buffer reduction applied to the overfishing limit (OFL) or to the acceptable biological catch (ABC) used to derive the annual catch limit (ACL) to reflect a change in overfishing status of the stock • Alternative 2: For all FMUs for which harvest is allowed (or where applicable), establish an ACL Control Rule where: • ACL = [OFL (or ABC) x (0.85)] for FMUs determined to be subject to overfishing, and where • ACL = [OFL (or ABC) x (0.90)] for FMUs determined not to be subject to overfishing in a specific year.

  6. Proposed Action: Establish a control rule to adjust the buffer reduction applied to the overfishing limit (OFL) or to the acceptable biological catch (ABC) used to derive the annual catch limit (ACL) to reflect a change in overfishing status of the stock • Alternative 3: (Preferred): • Establish an ACL Control Rule where • ACL = [OFL (or ABC) x (0.85)] for FMUs determined to be subject to overfishing, and where • ACL = [OFL (or ABC) x (0.90)] for FMUs determined not to be subject to overfishing in a specific year. The ACL control rule would apply to FMUs for which harvest is allowed, with the exception of the following FMUs, for which buffer reductions to the OFL or ABC specified in the 2010 and/or 2011 Caribbean ACL amendment would continue to be applied to derive the ACL:

  7. Preferred Alternative 3: EXCEPTIONS Preferred Sub-Alt. 3a.Parrotfish FMU:ACL = [ABC x (0.85)] for the ecological role of parrotfish as herbivores in coral reefs.An additional 5.8822% reduction to the ACL of the parrotfish FMU would continue to be applied in the St. Croix management area Preferred Sub-Alt. 3b. Surgeonfish FMU: ACL = [ABC x (0.75)] for the ecological role of surgeonfish as herbivores in coral reefs. Preferred Sub-Alt. 3c.Angelfish FMU: ACL = [ABC x (0.75)] for the ecological role of angelfish as spongivores in coral reefs. Preferred Sub-Alt. 3d. Queen conch FMU: for St. Croix, ACL = ABC specified by the SSC (50,000 lbs). For Puerto Rico and St. Thomas/St. John, ACL = 0. Preferred Sub-Alt. 3e.Aquarium Trade Species FMU: ACL = [ABC x (0.75)] for aquarium trade species in the Coral and Reef Fish FMPs.

  8. Summary of Changes to ACLs under Preferred Alternative 3 under current overfishing status scenarios*(subject to change) • ACL for all grouper and snapper units on all islands/sectors would increaseby approximately 5% • ACLs for queen conch and parrotfish (all islands/sectors) would remain the same as established in the 2010 Caribbean ACL Amendment • ACLs for surgeonfish, angelfish (all islands/sectors) and the Caribbean-wide aquarium trade species FMUs would remain the same as established in the 2011 Caribbean ACL Amendment • No change in ACL for the remainder of 2011 stocks on each island including the Caribbean-wide tilefish FMU

  9. Participation and Comments Received: *STFA: Preferred Alternative ^ Preferred Alternative **Presidents and Representatives speaking on behalf of fishing associations

  10. Comments Received:

  11. Other Comments Received: • All comments received are in the Summary Minutes of each meeting • STFA • STFA-ACLModification.pdf • EarthJustice (July 25 2014 with references) • EJ-CBD-CORALations Caribbean ACL-AM comments_FINAL_7-25-2014.pdf

  12. Codified Text: • ACL Control Rule Codified-v2.0.pdf

  13. Annual process that would be used to apply the ACL Control Rule • If unit changes in status in a particular year: - NMFS will officially notify the Council by letter regarding the status change and the corresponding change to a new buffer reduction value. - NMFS would apply the buffer reduction defined by the control rule as specified in the corresponding FMP, and the ACL for the next year for that particular FMU would be adjusted. * Notification of changes: • The NMFS SERO website will be annually updated to reflect the overfishing status and corresponding ACL for each unit per island and sector. • Fishery Bulletin

  14. Draft Timeline (with August Meeting) Council reviews PHD/EA, select preferred alternative(s) and approves for Public Hearings. Public Hearings in PR and USVI (JUNE 2014) • Amendment/EA and Proposed Rule Published • Comment Period April 22-23, 2014 November 2014 2015 2014 Today • Council discusses outcomes of Public Hearings and considers comments on Amendment/ DRAFT EA. • Council revises and approves codified text. • Council approves Amendment for Secretarial Review. NOAA publishes Comprehensive Amendment / Final EA and Final Rule. Final Rule Effective (~ March 2015) February 2015 August 12-13 2014

  15. NEXT STEPS • Motion to Approve/Disapprove FMP Amendment/EA for Secretarial Review and deem codified text • Council submits Amendment • NMFS prepares proposed rule

  16. Secretarial Review • Approved/Disapproved

  17. Table 1.6.1. Overfishing limits for stocks addressed in the 2010 and 2011 Caribbean ACL Amendments.

  18. PR commercial and recreational landings, and USVI commercial landings in pounds (lbs) for the most recent years and Caribbean-Wide OFL for 2010 stocks. 1 Queen conch landings data is provided only for informational purposes as harvest of queen conch is prohibited in Puerto Rico federal waters. Recreational landings data for queen conch is not collected, therefore is not available. 2 Commercial landings for 2012 for Puerto Rico are not provided because they were not available at the time of preparation of this PHD 3 Caribbean-wide OFLs combine the individual OFLs from all islands/island groups and both the recreational and commercial sectors. 1 Queen conch landings data is provided only for informational purposes as harvest of queen conch is prohibited in St. Thomas/St. John federal waters. 2 Caribbean-wide OFLs combine the individual OFLs from all islands/island groups and both the recreational and commercial sectors.

  19. Table 2.2.1.1.3. Puerto Rico commercial and recreational landings in pounds (lbs) for the most recent years of available information (2008-2011 Commercial sector, 2008-2012 Recreational sector) and Caribbean-Wide OFL for 2011 stocks.

  20. Table 2.2.1.1.4. St. Croix and St. Thomas/St. John commercial landings in pounds (lbs) for the most recent five years of available information (2008-2012) and individual OFLs for 2011 stocks. 1 USVI high landings of angelfish, squirrelfish, and wrasses were attributed to enhanced reporting resulting from modifications to the reporting forms that started in 2011. Landings in pounds (lbs) for the most recent five years of available information (2008-2012) and Caribbean-wide OFLs

More Related