Fishery scientists from American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and Hawaii will join NOAA scientists next week to review last year’s performance of federally managed fisheries in the Western Pacific Region.
The scientists are members of the Plan Team of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, whose role is to assist the Council with its Fishery Ecosystem Plans (FEPs).
The April 11 to 13 meeting will be held at the Ala Moana Hotel, 410 Atkinson Dr., Honolulu.
The public is invited to participate and provide comments.
The 2015 FEP annual reports are different than previous ones produced by the Council as they include new ecosystem modules, such as protected species, essential fish habitat, human communities, traditional knowledge, climate change and marine planning.
The reports will serve as the Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation (SAFE) reports that are required by the US government.
The 2015 annual/SAFE reports will address the performance and ecosystem considerations of the Hawaii Archipelago, American Samoa Archipelago, Mariana Archipelago (Guam and CNMI), US Pacific Remote Island Areas and Pacific Pelagic FEPs.
The Plan Team will also review other relevant issues, such as data integration, catch-per-unit-effort variability, research priorities and annual catch limits
