NOAA Fisheries Service has outlined a plan to establish annual catch limits designed to help restore federally managed marine fish stocks. Annual catch limits are the amount of each type of fish allowed to be caught in a year and are required by the 2007 amendments to the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. Additionally, the act calls for measures to ensure these limits are followed and that the limits do not exceed the scientific recommendations made by the regional fishery management councils’ scientific committees.

NOAA Fisheries Service, the regional fishery management councils, and fishing communities have taken significant steps toward ending overfishing and rebuilding stocks in recent years. In 2007, seven fish stocks were removed from the overfishing list. The guidelines published in the Federal Register on June 6, 2008 propose to set up a system of catch limits and targets for each stock to prevent overfishing. The system would account for scientific uncertainty in estimating catch limits for a stock, and include accountability measures to prevent annual catch limits from being exceeded, and to address such a situation quickly if it does occur.

Annual catch limits will be required for all U.S. commercial and recreational fisheries subject to overfishing by 2010, and all other stocks by 2011. NOAA hopes to issue final guidelines on annual catch limits by the end of 2008.

Comments can be submitted (identified by 0648-AV60) by any of the following methods:

Federal e-Rulemaking portal: http://www.regulations.gov ; or Fax: 301-713-1193, Attn: Mark Millikin; or mail: Mark R. Millikin, National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, 1315 East-West Highway, Room 13357, Silver Spring, MD 20910 (mark outside of envelope “Comments on Annual Catch Limits proposed rule”).