Alaska Rockfish Fishermen Face 3% Fee for 2025 Catch Management Costs
Published Date: 4/9/2026
Notice
Summary
If you’re part of the Central Gulf of Alaska Rockfish Program, here’s the scoop: for the 2025 fishing year, the cost recovery fee is set at 3% of the fish’s value. This fee helps cover management and enforcement costs, and payments were due by February 15, 2026. So, if you caught rockfish between April and November 2025, this notice affects you!
Analyzed Economic Effects
5 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 2 costs, 1 mixed.
Consequences for Missed Fee Payment
If a permit holder failed to pay the fee by the February 15, 2026 due date, their rockfish quota share became non-transferable and they were ineligible to receive additional rockfish quota share by transfer. Cooperative members would not receive any rockfish cooperative quota the following year until NMFS received full payment.
3.00% Cost Recovery Fee Set
If you were part of a Central Gulf of Alaska rockfish cooperative and caught rockfish between April 1 and November 15, 2025, NMFS set the cost recovery fee at 3.00 percent of the fish's ex-vessel value for the 2025 fishing year. Fee payments were due on or before February 15, 2026.
Standard Prices Used to Calculate Fees
NMFS calculates cost recovery fees using standard ex-vessel prices rather than each holder's actual sales. The notice publishes monthly standard prices by species for the 2025 season (for example, Sablefish: $1.06/lb in April and $1.15/lb in July–November; Pacific Cod: $0.32/lb in April, $0.28/lb in July–November).
Certain Vessels Not Subject to Fees
The entry level longline fishery and trawl vessels that opt out of joining a cooperative are not subject to the Rockfish Program cost recovery fees because those participants do not receive rockfish cooperative quota (CQ).
Statutory 3% Fee Cap Applied
NMFS estimated the program-costs-to-value ratio for 2025 at 3.05 percent, but applied the statutory cap so the fee percentage was set at 3.00 percent, consistent with the Magnuson-Stevens Act limit.
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