Preliminary Management Plans for 

 Foreign Fisheries 



biological research which is already well- 

 developed by the NMFS labs. However, NMFS 

 is already buttressing each of its four regional 

 research staffs with the addition of a seven- 

 man economic and statistical team. Conflicts 

 may evolve over who does specific research 

 tasks. There is presently no framework, other 

 than informal negotiations between NMFS 

 and the councils, for resolving such conflicts. 



2. What national data and methods or 

 analysis will NMFS undertake to collect 

 and publish for the use of all councils in 

 management planning? 



When this report was written, no decisions 

 had been made within NMFS as to how 

 research and development of analytical 

 methods would be divided. There was a divi- 

 sion of opinions among NMFS professionals 

 as to whether recommended data and 

 methods should flow from NMFS to councils 

 or from the councils to NMFS. Early work was 

 of necessity under the constraints of a March 

 1, 1977, deadline undertaken by NMFS, but no 

 firm guidelines have been drawn-up yet as to 

 who, in the future, should do what specific 

 types of tasks. 



3. How will optimum yield be determined 

 and can an analytical method be applied 

 which will improve management plan- 

 ning? 



As noted earlier, it was not possible to 

 determine the optimum yield for foreign fish- 

 eries in time to include the figures in prelimi- 

 nary management plans. Some judgments 

 regarding social, economic, and ecological fac- 

 tors were used in determining optimum yield 

 for the two domestic plans which have been 

 proposed. Although a workshop is planned 

 jointly by NMFS and the councils for 

 mid-1977 to investigate methods of determin- 

 ing optimum yield, there is now — as the coun- 

 cils prepare their first domestic plans and pre- 

 pare to modify the preliminary foreign 

 plans — no agreed-upon method. 



Since the Regional Councils were not able 

 to develop management plans for those fish- 

 eries with foreign fishing in time for the 

 March 1, 1977 deadline for implementation of 

 the Act, these plans were prepared by NMFS. 

 The plans have been termed "preliminary" 

 until they are approved or modified by the 

 councils. Plans were prepared for 16 fish- 

 eries^o in four general regions covered by six 

 councils. However, only two regions have the 

 major significant foreign fishing effort — ^the 

 Northeast region, covered by New England 

 and Mid-Atlantic Councils, and the North- 

 west and Alaska Region, covered by the 

 Pacific and North Pacific Councils. Figure 20 

 lists the plans prepared for these regions. 



In the preparation of these plans, no at- 

 tempt was made to consider all the factors 

 specified in the Act or to determine optimum 

 yield which takes into account the economic, 

 social, and ecological factors. Most of the 

 preliminary plans state that the councils will 

 determine the specific factors to be used to 

 calculate optimum yield sometime in the 

 future. In the meantime, NMFS has used total- 

 allowable catch figures determined, for exam- 

 ple, by the International Commission on 

 North Atlantic Fisheries in the place of op- 

 timum yield figures which have not yet been 

 determined by the councils. 



The preliminary management plans 

 establish a total allowable catch for species 

 which are subject to foreign fishing effort, 

 estimate the share of that catch which U.S. 

 fishermen could harvest, and set a surplus 

 figure which is available to foreign fishermen. 

 It is this surplus which is allocated among 

 those countries applying for permits to fish 

 within the 200-mile zone. Allocations con- 

 tained in the preliminary management plans 

 (as of January 1977), excluding allocations for 

 species under 10,000 tons and species with no 

 allocations, are shown in figure 21. 



69 



