120 



publication in the Federal Register . The final rule becomes 

 effective after a 30-day delay required by the Administrative 

 Procedure Act, unless the delay is waived for good cause. 



The Council considered various proposals to allocate Pacific 

 whiting between the at-sea and shoreside industry sectors at its 

 July, September, and Noveriber 1992 meetings. At the November 

 1992 meeting, the Council adopted a recommendation for a 

 permanent allocation framework that guaranteed the shoreside 

 sector an initial allocation of 50,000 metric tons (mt) plus an 

 additional amount derived from an abundance-driven sliding scale. 

 In addition, the Council's recommendation set aside a 30,000 mt 

 reserve with priority for the shoreside processing sector. In 

 1993, with a total allowable harvest of 142,000 mt, the Council's 

 proposal would have allocated 105,000 mt to the shoreside 

 processing sector. 



The Council forwarded its recommendation and supporting 

 analysis to the Regional Director on Decem.ber 22, 1992. Because 

 this was an extremely controversial issue, both the regional and 

 headquarters staff of NMFS and N'OAA reviewed the documentation 

 and discussed the issue. As is customary with nearly all of 

 NOAA's regulations, the NOAA staff also consulted with the 

 General Counsel's Office of the Department of Commerce and the 

 Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the Office of 

 Management and Budget (0MB). On February 5, 1993, the Regional 



