Comment from Emily Burgis

Eliminating the 4(c) exemption from the BCA would be the most effective course of agency action from a conservation standpoint. While the new regulations offered by the BCA impose greater restraints than existing regulations, the 4(c) exemption of the BCA allows for the sale of billfish caught by U.S. vessels and landed in the nation’s only commercial fishery for billfish. As such, 4(c) keeps open what is likely the country’s largest market for the sale of billfish so long as the billfish are not caught in the Atlantic, by non-U.S. vessels, or outside of Hawaii and surrounding Pacific Insular Areas. Another possible restriction NMFS could impose on the transportation and sale of billfish caught by U.S. vessels and landed in Hawaii or the Pacific Insular Areas could be to limit the total number of billfish allowed for sale per vessel per year in the fishery. An example would be to allow each U.S. vessel selling billfish to sell only 40 billfish (caught meeting BCA regulation requirements) per year. The limit could be adjusted according to its effectiveness each year. Another possible restriction could be to limit the sale of billfish caught by U.S. vessels and landed in Hawaii or the Pacific and Insular Areas to certain months of the year. This would likely not be as effective as a limit on the total number of billfish allowed for sale per year, but would be more effective than no further restriction at all. A final possible restriction may be to limit the sale of billfish caught by U.S. vessels and landed in Hawaii or the Pacific and Insular Areas to certain size requirements. Ideally, these size requirements would only allow for the sale of adult billfish that have already had the opportunity to spawn, rather than juvenile billfish that have either not yet spawned or do not yet have the ability to spawn. This kind of restriction would help to ensure that the billfish population in the fishery can still reproduce itself and will not be depleted.