Public Review Draft REGULATORY IMPACT REVIEW and INITIAL REGULATORY FLEXIBILITY ANALYSIS OF A PROVISION EXEMPTING C SHARES FROM PROCESSOR SHARE AND REGIONAL LANDING REQUIREMENTS For a proposed Regulatory Amendment to Implement Amendment 26 to the Fishery

In August of 2005, fishing in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Island crab fisheries began under a new sharebased management program (the “rationalization program”). The program is unique in several ways, including the allocation of a portion of the harvest share pool to captains for exclusive use by captains and crew (C shares), the allocation of processing shares corresponding to a portion of the harvest share pool, and the designation of certain harvest shares for landing in a specific region. Under the program, 90 percent of the annual catcher vessel owner harvest share allocation is issued as “Class A ” individual fishing quota (IFQ), which must be delivered in a designated region and may only be delivered to a processor holding unused individual processing quota (IPQ). Under the rationalization program, the Council exempted catcher vessel C shares from the regional and processing share landing requirements for the first three years of the program. This exemption is scheduled to expire at the beginning of the 2008-2009 fishing season. When the Council adopted the rationalization program, it also tasked staff to provide a review of landing patterns of C shares to assess whether the exemption should be extended indefinitely. At its March/April 2007 meeting, staff delivered that review to the Council and the Council elected to task staff to prepare an analysis of an action to extend the exemption of C shares from regional and processor share landing requirements indefinitely