Comment from Michele Culver

WDFW is concerned about the National Marine Fisheries Service's (NMFS) implementing regulations for Amendment 20 and the removal of the provision to allow the rollover of unused tribal whiting to the non-tribal whiting sectors. The Pacific Fishery Management Council's discussions regarding the whiting rollover provision had focused solely on the rollover of unused whiting among the non-tribal whiting sectors. Under the trawl rationalization program, the industry and the Council expected that the non-tribal whiting would be fully harvested; therefore, a provision to allow the rollover of whiting among non-tribal sectors was no longer necessary. However, when NMFS adopted the implementing regulations, NMFS removed the whiting rollover provision in its entirety, inadvertently removing the allowance for unused tribal whiting to rollove into the non-tribal whiting sectors, which is inconsistent with the Council's intent. WDFW views this action as an error that needs to be corrected. While the amount of tribal whiting set aside for 2011 may be within the tribes' treaty right, the tribes may not be able to harvest the full amount of the set aside in 2011. Allowing the unused tribal whiting to rollover into the non-tribal whiting fishery allows for full utilization of the harvestable yield of whiting, which is consistent with the West Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan and the National Standards. In addition, we are concerned about the lack of communication on the part of NMFS with WDFW about the amount of the tribal whiting set aside for 2011, the tribes' fishing plans and bycatch avoidance measures for 2011, the potential long-term tribal allocation of whiting, and a mechanism to fix the rollover problem by the fall of 2011. We view our long-standing cooperative management relationship with NMFS regarding whiting to be broken--we hope this is temporary and look forward to working together on whiting management in the near future.