Differences Among Councils : Although councils share 

 common structure and objectives, their day to day workings 

 differ. 



The North Pacific Council supports about $0.5 million 

 of research annually, a large amount in comparison to other 

 councils. Council sponsored research is largely aimed at 

 data gaps in the FMPs and supports short term projects which 

 are not funded elsewhere. Alaska has 33,000 miles of coast- 

 line and a very large FCZ . Half of the dollar value of fish- 

 eries covered by implemented or drafted FMPs as of November 

 1978 came from North Pacific FCZ fisheries (see Table 1) . The 

 North Pacific Council works closely with Alaska's Board of 

 Fisheries and Board of Game which have final authority over 

 state regulations. For the crab and troll salmon management 

 plans there has been cooperation to coordinate regulations 

 from to 3 miles and 3 to 200 miles. The North Pacific 

 Council usually has draft management plans developed by con- 

 tract . 



The Pacific Council usually uses plan development teams 

 rather than contracts for drafting management plans. There 

 appears to be excellent cooperation among the state and fed- 

 eral agencies involved in fisheries management on the west 

 coast. The SSCs of the Pacific and North Pacific Councils 

 are considered by several NMFS personnel who have worked with 

 them to be exemplary, because of the quality and diversity of 

 expertise represented on those SSCs and the extent of SSC- 

 Council interactions. Those SSCs are used extensively by the 

 respective Councils so that work on the SSC is quite demanding 



The Western Pacific Council deals with the FCZ around 

 Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa, the northern Marianas and seve- 

 ral scattered uninhabited possessions . The total land area 

 is 7,450 sq. mi. The total surrounding FCZ area is over 3 

 million sq. mi. 



On the east coast, councils deal with a larger number of 

 states apiece and with state fish and game agencies which in 

 some cases are not as active as those on the west coast. 

 Consequently, operations differ. 



The Atlantic Groundfish Plan prepared by the New England 

 Council, implemented on an emergency basis in March 1977, was 

 the first FMP to be implemented under the FCMA. The draft 

 plan was prepared by council staff and NMFS staff. A new 

 long term management document for that fishery is being de- 

 veloped by the council staff, with data collection and 



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