Executive Summary

Amendment 85 to the BSAI Groundfish FMP addresses Pacific cod allocations in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) region. The amendment establishes a new management framework for the Pacific cod fishery creating 9 sectors. Amendment 85 was designed to balance historical dependency and use by the sectors, provide entry-level and local opportunities, and provide an improved framework for reallocating Pacific cod between sectors all while improving optimum yield of the BSAI Pacific cod resource. The implicit objectives of Amendment 85 were:

• Establish allocations that more closely reflect historical use by the sectors than previously Consider catch history, socioeconomic, and community factors to include allocations to small boat sectors to expand entry-level and local opportunities in the BSAI Pacific cod fishery.
• Reduce the need for inseason reallocations during the fishing year
• Reduce uncertainty about the availability of yearly harvests within sectors caused by reallocations
• Provide stability among sectors in the BSAI Pacific cod fishery