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by the Acting Under Secretary for Oceans and Atmosphere. The 

 Assistant Administrator then prepared and submitted a new 

 recoiranendation which was approved by the Acting Under Secretary. 

 This second recommendation was intended to result in a shoreside 

 allocation of 42,000 mt — approximately the same percentage of 

 the Pacific whiting harvest guideline as that sector had used in 

 1992. 



This final decision assumed that the shoreside processors 

 would receive about 12,000 mt of the 42,000 from the open 

 fishery, and the remaining 30,000 from the reserve. When it 

 became clear that this would not occur, the Assistant 

 Administrator, with the concurrence of the Acting Under Secretary 

 and 0MB, issued an emergency interim rule to preserve access up 

 to 42,000 mt (including the 30,000 mt reserve) of whiting for 

 vessels delivering to shoreside processors. This rule also 

 closed at-sea processing operations on May 5 when 100,000 mt had 

 been projected to have been harvested for at-sea processing. 



Question 2: Prior to rejecting the allocation recommendation of 

 the Pacific Fishery Management Council, what steps did the 

 Department take to communicate any reservations it had regarding 

 the analysis and allocation recommendations of the Pacific 

 Fishery Management Council? 



At the November meeting, the Northwest Regional Director 



testified that he had reservations about the draft recommendation 



and questioned its justification. However, the Department was 



unable to comment on the Council's supporting analysis prior to 



