Fisheries Off West Coast States and in the Western Pacific; Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery; Trip Limit Adjustments

NMFS announces changes to the restrictions for the Pacific Coast groundfish limited entry fisheries for the Sebastes complex, canary rockfish, widow rockfish, and trawl-caught sablefish coastwide; yellowtail rockfish north of Cape Mendocino; daily trip limit nontrawl sablefish north of 36 deg. N. lat.; and chilipepper and splitnose rockfish south of Cape Mendocino. NMFS announces changes to the open access restrictions for the Sebastes complex, bocaccio, widow rockfish, and chilipepper rockfish south of Cape Mendocino; and daily trip limits for nontrawl sablefish north of 36 deg. N. lat. NMFS also announces the coastwide closure for lingcod taken with any open access gear. This action also announces the last cumulative trip limit period in 1999 for the ``B'' platoon, those limited entry trawl vessels designated to take their cumulative trip limits 2 weeks out of phase with the rest of the fleet. These actions, which are authorized by the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan (FMP), are intended to extend the fisheries as long as possible during the year while keeping landings within the 1999 optimum yields (OYs) and allocations for these species.