Magnuson Act Provisions; Foreign Fishing; Fisheries off West Coast States and in the Western Pacific; Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery; Annual Specifications and Management Measures

NMFS announces the 1999 fishery specifications and management measures for groundfish, with the exception of whiting, taken in the U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and state waters off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California, as authorized by the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan (FMP). The specifications include the levels of the acceptable biological catch (ABC) and optimum yields (OYs), including the distribution between domestic and foreign fishing operations. The commercial OYs (formerly called ``harvest guidelines,'' ``HGs,'' or quotas) are allocated between the limited entry and open access fisheries. The management measures for 1999 are designed to keep landings within the OYs for those species for which there are OYs, and to achieve the goals and objectives of the FMP and its implementing regulations. The intended effect of these actions is to establish allowable harvest levels of Pacific Coast groundfish and to implement management measures designed to achieve but not exceed those harvest levels, while extending fishing and processing opportunities as long as possible during the year. NMFS also announces partial disapproval of a particular open access monthly cumulative limit for Sebastes complex species.