Environmental Assessment for Revised Pacific Sardine Rebuilding Plan

"NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) declared the northern subpopulation (NSP) of Pacific sardine (Pacific sardine) overfished in June 2019. This determination was based on the results of an April 2019 stock assessment (Hill et al. 2019), which indicated that the biomass of Pacific sardine had dropped below the overfished threshold of 50,000 metric tons (mt), as defined in the Coastal Pelagic Species (CPS) Fishery Management Plan (FMP). NMFS notified the Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) about the overfished declaration on July 9, 2019. The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) requires that NMFS and the Council prepare and implement a rebuilding plan within two years of NMFS’ overfished notification to the Council that specifies a rebuilding timeframe (TTARGET) within 10 years, except where the biology of the stock or other environmental conditions dictate otherwise (see MSA 304(e)). The Council adopted a rebuilding plan (Amendment 18 to the CPS FMP) on June 15, 2020. The plan was approved by NMFS on June 14, 2021. 
On April 22, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (Court) issued a decision holding that NMFS violated the MSA in establishing the rebuilding timeframe by assuming catch levels significantly below the annual catch limit (ACL) based on historic catch data and management measures used in the fishery. The Court also held that the associated Environmental Assessment (EA) violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) due to NMFS’ reliance on flawed assumptions in comparing alternatives, and by failing to take a hard look at impacts to the humpback whale and its critical habitat. On June 28, 2024, the Court issued its order on remedy, vacating the portions of Amendment 18 (Rebuilding Plan for Pacific Sardine) that it found invalid and remanding the remainder to NMFS without vacatur. The Court also vacated the EA in its entirety. The Court required NMFS to prepare a compliant rebuilding plan and EA by June 1, 2025. In this remedy, the Court only vacated portions of Amendment 18, meaning the entire original amendment and related analysis does not need to be abandoned. Rather, the revised Pacific sardine rebuilding plan and related EA can closely follow the original amendment, making revisions as necessary, to respond to the court’s order.  In response to the court order this document analyzes new proposed alternatives for the rebuilding plan that rely on Acceptable Biological Catch (ABC)/ACLs to achieve the rebuilding target for Pacific sardine. The Council will also need to consider if TTARGET should be revised to align with the new rebuilding strategy.
Additionally, the Court found that NMFS violated the MSA in setting the overfishing limit (OFL) because NMFS relied on a scientific methodology, relying exclusively on the California Cooperative Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) temperature index, that had been shown to result in artificially high OFLs that do not reliably indicate when overfishing is occurring, without accounting for that bias.  The CPS FMP Section 4.6.4 describes the current OFL and ABC harvest control rule (HCRs) for Pacific sardine, which are also described in Section 1.4.  Changes to Emsy or the HCRs are not considered in this document and will be considered as a part of the upcoming 2025-2026 harvest specifications.  Ultimately though, the harvest specifications are dependent upon the recommendation of the Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC). Therefore, to comply with the court orders, methodology for setting the harvest specifications will be considered in April 2025.
This document is intended to meet the analytical needs and statutory requirements associated with NEPA and MSA."