April 18, 2014 — The newest version of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, yet to be made public for viewing, adds subsistence users and tribal governments to the fisheries management law and also has the potential to create new Community Development Quota in the Arctic.
The draft is not yet widely available to the public for review, but the implication, but the US Senate’s discussion draft of the law indicates that subsistence fishing could be managed alongside commercial and recreational under a new version of the 1976 act, reports the Alaska Journal of Commerce. It would also add subsistence to the fishery categories eligible for representation on regional fishery management councils, and refers to Tribal governments’ role in managing fish.
The language also calls for an expansion of the Community Development Quota program if the North Pacific council amends the Arctic fishery management plan, or FMP, to allow commercial fishing there.
The draft does not provide many specifics on the CDQ program changes, but does state that 10% of the total allowable catch in the Arctic Management Area would be set aside for coastal villages north and east of the Bering Strait.