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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 44 / Tuesday, March 9, 2021 / Rules and Regulations each fishery. To allow flexibility for individual commercial and charter fishery participants, the CSP also authorizes annual transfers of commercial halibut IFQ as GAF to charter halibut permit holders for harvest in the charter fishery. Under the CSP, the IPHC recommends combined catch limits CCLs for the charter and commercial halibut fisheries in Area 2C
and Area 3A. Each CCL includes estimates of discard mortality wastage for each fishery. The CSP was implemented to achieve the halibut fishery management goals of the NPFMC. More information is provided in the final rule implementing the CSP
78 FR 75844, December 12, 2013.
Implementing regulations for the CSP
are at 50 CFR 300.65. The Area 2C and Area 3A CSP allocation tables are located in Tables 1 through 4 of subpart E of 50 CFR part 300.
At its January 2021 meeting, the IPHC
recommended a CCL of 4,410,000 lb 2,000.34 mt for Area 2C. Following the CSP allocations in Tables 1 and 3 of subpart E of 50 CFR part 300, the charter fishery is allocated 810,000 lb 367.41
mt of the CCL and the remainder of the CCL, 3,600,000 lb 1,632.93 mt, is allocated to the commercial fishery.
Wastage in the amount of 70,000 lb 31.75 mt was deducted from the commercial allocation to obtain the commercial catch limit of 3,530,000 lb 1,601.18 mt. The commercial allocation including wastage increased by 120,000 lb 54.43 mt or 3.4 percent, from the 2020 allocation of 3,480,000 lb 1,578.50 mt. The charter allocation for 2021 increased by 30,000 lb 13.60 mt, or 3.8 percent more than the 2020
charter sector allocation of 780,000 lb 353.80 mt.
The IPHC recommended a CCL of 11,140,000 lb 5,053.02 mt for Area 3A.
Following the CSP allocations in Tables 2 and 4 of subpart E of 50 CFR part 300, the charter fishery is allocated 1,950,000
lb 885.51.64 mt of the CCL and the remainder of the CCL, 9,190,000 lb 4,168.51 mt, is allocated to the commercial fishery. Wastage in the amount of 240,000 lb 108.86 mt was deducted from the commercial allocation to obtain the commercial catch limit of 8,950,000 lb 4,059.65 mt.
The commercial allocation including wastage increased by about 1,850,000
lb 839.15 mt or 25.2 percent, from the 2020 allocation of 7,340,000 lb 3,329.37
mt. The charter allocation increased by 240,000 lb 108.86 mt, or 14.0 percent, from the 2020 allocation of 1,710,000 lb 775.65 mt.

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Charter Halibut Management Measures for Area 2C and Area 3A
Guided charter recreational halibut anglers are managed under different regulations than unguided recreational halibut anglers in Areas 2C and 3A in Alaska. According to Federal regulations at 50 CFR 300.61, a charter vessel angler means a person, paying or non-paying, receiving sport fishing guide services for halibut. Sport fishing guide services means assistance, for compensation or with the intent to receive compensation, to a person who is sport fishing, to take or attempt to take halibut by accompanying or physically directing the sport fisherman in sport fishing activities during any part of a charter vessel fishing trip. A
charter vessel fishing trip is the time period between the first deployment of fishing gear into the water from a charter vessel by a charter vessel angler and the offloading of one or more charter vessel anglers or any halibut from that vessel. The charter fishery regulations described below apply only to charter vessel anglers receiving sport fishing guide services during a charter vessel fishing trip for halibut in Area 2C
or Area 3A. These regulations do not apply to unguided recreational anglers in any regulatory area in Alaska, or guided anglers in areas other than Areas 2C and 3A.
The NPFMC formed the Charter Halibut Management Committee as an industry advisory body to provide recommendations for annual management measures intended to limit charter harvest to the charter catch allocation. The committee is composed of representatives from the charter fishing industry in Areas 2C and 3A.
The 2020 charter fishing season was greatly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting unexpected and substantial drop in fishing effort, which in turn affected the anticipated results of the pre-season analysis and adopted management measures for that year. In May and June of 2020, the NPFMC and IPHC responded with revised management measures that were published on June 19, 2020 85 FR
37024. The revised management measures relaxed the halibut size limits in both Area 2C and 3A, and in Area 3A
the new regulations rescinded an annual limit on retained halibut and allowed halibut retention on all days of the week. Preliminary estimates indicate that the final 2020 charter halibut harvests were 36.0 percent below the Area 2C allocation, and 6.6 percent below the Area 3A allocation.
In November 2020, the Charter Halibut Management Committee began
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the process of reviewing the analysis for various alternatives for the upcoming 2021 fishing year. Because the 2021
charter season was expected to be similarly impacted by reduced charter angler effort as the 2020 season, the Committee requested the analysis should contain elements that would allow a consideration of options that could address this likelihood. After reviewing all the analyses of the effects of the alternative measures on estimated charter removals, the committee made conservative recommendations for preferred management measures to the NPFMC for 2021 that are intended to provide harvest opportunity and stimulate charter business while also maintaining total charter harvests within the 2021 allocations for both Areas 2C and 3A. The NPFMC
considered the recommendations of the committee along with public testimony to develop its recommendation to the IPHC, and the IPHC took action consistent with the NPFMCs recommendations. The NPFMC has used this process to select and recommend annual management measures to the IPHC since 2012.
The IPHC recognizes the role of the NPFMC to develop policy and regulations that allocate the Pacific halibut resource among fishermen in and off Alaska, and that NMFS has developed numerous regulations to support the NPFMCs goals of limiting charter harvests. For 2021, the IPHC
concluded that in Area 3A, with a 14
percent increase in the catch limit from 2020, and factoring in a drop in fishing effort relative to years prior to 2020, the 2021 management measures should be similar to the revised measures adopted in 2020, with the addition of a closure to halibut retention on all Wednesdays.
For Area 2C, the 2021 charter catch limits are also higher than 2020.
However, the effect of management measures over the 20182020 period has resulted in under-harvests of the charter allocation by 18.9 percent, 11.6 percent, and 36.0 percent, respectively.
Consequently, the IPHC determined that the charter management measures in Area 2C could be slightly less restrictive than the revised 2020 measures. The IPHC determined that limiting charter harvests by implementing the management measures discussed below would meet the conservation and allocation objectives.
Management Measures for Charter Vessel Fishing in Area 2C
As noted above, the preliminary estimate of 2020 charter removals in Area 2C was below the 2020 charter allocation by 280,465 lb 127.22 mt or
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