Annual Catch Limits and Accountability Measures for Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Bottomfish

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) proposes to implement annual catch limits (ACL) and accountability measures (AM) for bottomfish in Guam in fishing years (calendar years) 2020-2022, and in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) in 2020-2023. The Western Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) recommended the proposed measures for the bottomfish MUS (BMUS) in the Mariana Archipelago FEP in accordance with the ACL and AM process approved by NMFS, and based on the best available scientific, commercial, and other information including the most recent stock assessment for those BMUS. The Council recommended a 27,000 lb ACL for Guam, which corresponds to a 31% probability of overfishing. The Council recommended an 84,000 lb ACL and a 78,000 lb Annual Catch Target (ACT) for the CNMI, which correspond to a 39% and a 34% probability of overfishing, respectively. NMFS would count bottomfish catches from territorial waters (generally from the shoreline to 3 nm offshore) and Federal waters (i.e., the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone, EEZ) toward the Guam ACL and the CNMI ACL and ACT. Because real-time catch data are not currently available for this fishery, the Council and NMFS consider post-season AMs only. Specifically, after the end of each fishing year, if NMFS and the Council determine that the average catch of a territory from the most recent three-year period exceeds the ACL, then NMFS would reduce the ACL for that territory in the subsequent fishing years by the amount of the overage. For the CNMI, the ACT would also be subject to the same adjustment as the ACL. If the average catch exceeds the ACT but remains below the ACL, then an overage adjustment would not be applied.