The updated plan, announced on Tuesday, April 14, is for the Scientific and Statistical Committee and the Advisory Panel to meet via web conference June 1–5 in advance of the NPFMC online meeting on June 8–10.
The abbreviated agenda will include final action on the St. Matthew blue king crab rebuilding plan, the scallop OFL/ABC (overfishing limit and acceptable biological catch) specifications, Bering Sea/Aleutian Island king crab specifications, Cook Inlet salmon preliminary review, observer issue updates with respect to COVID-19 response, and staff tasking.
The council’s agenda and more details about the meeting can be found at https://meetings.npfmc.org/Meeting/Details/1443. The complete schedule is available at
https://www.npfmc.org/wp-content/PDFdocuments/meetings/SCHEDULE_0620.pdf
Everyone is welcome to review and submit comments through each agenda item. The deadline for comments is Sunday, June 7, noon (Alaska time).
More information on how to join the web conference will be posted in May on the council’s website, https://www.npfmc.org, as well as on the agenda.
Those with questions regarding the logistics of the meeting or concerns about logging in are asked to contact the council at npfmc.admin@noaa.gov.
The newsletter detailing what happened at the last council meeting in Seattle, Wash., is available at https://www.npfmc.org/tag/february-2020/
The council’s April meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, was cancelled and several other committee meetings were postponed, including the Ecosystem committee, Trawl Electronic Monitoring committee, Bering Sea FEP (fishery ecosystem plan) Climate Change Taskforce, Individual Fishing Quota committee and the Community Engagement committee, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.