Regulatory Amendment to Clarify Timing of Haul Designation for Trawl Catcher Processors in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Groundfish Fisheries

This action would revise regulations to standardize the time limit in which trawl catcher/processors (C/Ps) participating in the groundfish fisheries in the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management areas must assign a management program to each haul. This proposed rule is necessary to improve consistency for when trawl C/Ps are required to assign a specific management program to a haul. It would also allow additional time for vessel operators participating in the Western Alaska Community Development Quota (CDQ) and non-CDQ fisheries on the same trip to determine which management program to assign to a haul.