§1862 North Pacific fisheries conservation

Summary

The North Pacific Council, working with the Secretary, can make a research plan (not for salmon) that puts observers or electronic monitors on fishing boats and U.S. processors for data needed to manage and study those fisheries, including Northern Pacific halibut. The plan must collect reliable data by covering all or a representative sample of vessels and processors, be fair, follow the law, and protect safety and fishing operations. The plan can set up fees to pay only the actual costs of placing observers or monitors, entering the data, and any risk‑pool assessments, minus money from other sources or Fund surpluses. Fees must be fair, go into a North Pacific Fishery Observer Fund, be used only for the plan, not for overhead or to replace other authorized funds, and can be a fixed amount or up to 2 percent of the unprocessed ex‑vessel value of the catch. The Secretary must review any plan within 60 days, hold public hearings in each State on proposed rules, and publish final rules within 45 days after public comment closes. The Secretary will study and can set up a risk‑sharing pool for observer‑liability claims unless good commercial insurance is available. The Council must work to reduce economic discards each year for at least four years and may propose a fines system up to $25,000 per vessel per season to reduce bycatch; fines go into the Observer Fund and can be used to cut bycatch costs or offset Alaska’s expenses. The Council may also propose annual, nontransferable allocations of regulatory discards to give vessels an incentive to lower bycatch, if those measures actually reduce discards. By June 1, 1997 the Council had to submit measures to ensure total catch measurement, and if processors don’t weigh fish the Council and Secretary had to send a plan to Congress by January 1, 1998 (unless weighing wasn’t needed). By October 1, 1998 the Council had to report on whether full retention and full use of unavoidable economic discards should be required and on ways to reduce processing waste. The Secretary must approve and put into effect the Voluntary Three‑Pie Cooperative Program for Bering Sea and Aleutian crab fisheries by January 1, 2005, and $1,000,000 per year is set aside until it is fully implemented. Defined terms (one line each): North Pacific Fishery Observer Fund — a Treasury fund that holds the fees and fines for observer programs. Processing waste — parts of a fish that could be used for people or other markets but are not used. Individual processing quota — a processor’s quota share under the crab cooperative program.