And

In August of 2005, fishing began under the Crab Rationalization Program (Program) for the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) crab fisheries developed by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (the Council). Under the Program, NMFS issued harvesters quota share (QS) that yield annual individual fishing quota (IFQ), that embody a privilege to harvest a portion of the total allowable catch (TAC). Ninety percent of the IFQ issued are “Class A ” IFQ, the harvest from which must be landed with the holder of unused individual processor quota. NMFS issued processor quota share (PQS) to processors that yield individual processing quota (IPQ), that embody a privilege to receive and process a portion of the TAC harvested with Class A IFQ. A one-to-one relationship exists between Class A IFQ and IPQ. The Council also included an arbitration system in the Program to facilitate the resolution of the terms of delivery (including price) in the event that holders of Class A IFQ and IPQ are unable to negotiate those terms. Under the arbitration system, after a date certain, harvesters that are not affiliated with a processor through ownership or control linkages (unaffiliated harvesters) would be permitted to unilaterally commit delivery of harvests from Class A IFQ to a processor with available IPQ. Once committed, the IFQ holder would be permitted to initiate a binding arbitration proceeding if the parties are unable to agree to th