NOAA Suggests Tweaks to Pacific Groundfish Permit Rules
Published Date: 4/17/2026
Proposed Rule
Summary
This rule changes how certain fishing permits work for boats using fixed gear on the West Coast. It gives fishers more freedom with their gear, removes some old permit rules, and starts a cost recovery program to help pay for managing the sablefish fishery. Fishers and permit owners should weigh in by May 18, 2026, to help shape these updates.
Analyzed Economic Effects
5 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 3 costs, 0 mixed.
Allow any non-trawl gear (no set nets)
If you own or fish with a limited entry non-trawl (formerly “fixed gear”) permit, you would be allowed to use any legal non-trawl groundfish gear (pots, bottom longline, vertical hook-and-line, etc.) to harvest your quotas except entangling nets (which include set nets, gillnets, and trammel nets). The rule replaces “fixed gear” language with “non-trawl” and would make gear switching more like existing shorebased IFQ gear switching rules.
Sablefish cost recovery fee (up to 3%)
If you make sablefish landings in the limited entry non-trawl (tier) primary fishery, the vessel owner or authorized representative must pay an annual cost recovery fee. The fee percentage will be calculated each year (announced in the first quarter before the April 1 season start), cannot exceed 3 percent of the ex-vessel value, is billed after the season, and payment is due 30 calendar days after the bill date; failure to pay may lead to penalties, appeals, and suspension from fishing in the sablefish tier fishery until liability is satisfied.
How fees and values are calculated and paid
NMFS will calculate fishery value using the ex-vessel value from the most recent complete primary season based on PacFIN electronic fish tickets (including post-landing adjustments). The direct program costs will be compiled for the prior fiscal year, the fee amount for each landing is the landing value times the annual fee percentage, and payments are remitted electronically through pay.gov (credit card or ACH). NMFS will provide annual bills after each primary season.
New paperwork and OMB collection added
The rule adds a cost-recovery information collection to OMB Control Number 0648-0663 and a new form for making sablefish cost recovery payments. NMFS expects at most 164 additional respondents (universe of sablefish tier permit holders), likely closer to 100 due to permit stacking, with an estimated public reporting burden of 1 hour per annual response and an added 100 hours to the annual burden estimate.
Most LEFG owners are small businesses; agency certified small impact
NMFS estimates about 141 unique LEFG permit owners in 2024 and reports that the majority of permit owners are small businesses under the SBA standard (e.g., table shows 125 small owners vs. 16 large owners for all LEFG permits). NMFS certified this proposed rule would not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities and therefore did not prepare an initial regulatory flexibility analysis.
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