Halibut Fisheries in U.S. Convention Waters Off Alaska; Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Management Measures to Reduce Seabird Bycatch in the Hook-and-Line Halibut and Groundfish Fisheries

NMFS issues regulations to require operators of vessels fishing for Pacific halibut in U.S. Convention waters off Alaska to conduct fishing operations in a specified manner and to employ specified measures intended to reduce seabird bycatch and incidental seabird mortality. This rule also amends the regulations requiring seabird bycatch avoidance measures in the hook-and-line groundfish fisheries of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area (BSAI) and the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) to exempt small vessels from some of the requirements and to clarify one of the measures. The Pacific halibut fishery measures are intended to mitigate interactions with the short- tailed albatross (Diomedea albatrus), an endangered species protected under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and with other seabird species in fisheries in and off Alaska.