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II. Proposed Action NMFS is proposing to continue implementation of the existing ocean salmon FMP. The ocean salmon fisheries off Washington, Oregon, and California are managed according to annual regulations promulgated under the "framework" FMP. Under the FMP, the PFMC develops management measures for the ocean fishery off the three states (see Figure 1). In developing themanagement measures, the PFMC analyzes the proposed federal management, and the proposed state management in the ocean and in estuary and freshwater areas. The PFMC makes recommendations to the Secretary of Commerce on a management regime for the ocean salmon fishery. If the Secretary approves the recommendations, he implements the management measures in federal waters. The States of Washington, Oregon and California manage their waters consistent with the management scheme approved by the Secretary of Commerce. Because the Secretary acting through NMFS has the ultimate authority for the FMP, NMFS is both the action agency and the consulting agency in this consultation. The first FMP for Pacific ocean salmon fisheries was completed in 1978 (PFMC 1978). The FMP was converted to a framework plan in 1984 (PFMC 1984) to provide more flexibility in setting preseason and in-season management measures without the need for continual plan amendments. Although provisions of the framework plan have been amended periodically since 1984, the framework still defines the key elements for current management practice as it evolved from the original 1978 FMP. The framework FMP provides the mechanism to make pre-season and in-season management adjustments to respond to changes in stock abundance, socio-economic changes and other variations in the fishery. Annual management specifications may include allowable ocean harvest levels, allocations, management boundaries and zones, minimum length restrictions, recreational daily bag limits, fishing gear restrictions, quotas, seasons, and selective fisheries. The framework plan also defines the management unit for PFMC fisheries as the stocks of salmon that are harvested off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California. The management unit is comprised of several specific stocks or stock groupings (see Table 3-1 in PFMC 1984). The framework plan affirms that the component stocks or stock groupings can be modified only by amendment of the FMP. The plan further specifies spawning escapement goals for representative stocks in the management unit (see Table A-1 in PFMC 1995 for a summary of the current goals). The framework plan constrains the PFMC to manage mixed stock salmon fisheries to "...the level of exploitation that can be sustained by the weakest natural spawning stocks for which management objectives have been defined in Section 3.5 ...". None of the currently listed species of salmon are included among the stocks with escapement goals or management objectives. As a result, the framework plan limits the options of the PFMC in recommending management actions specifically to protect listed fish from the Snake or Sacramento rivers when developing harvest regimes. |
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