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Although the Magnuson-Stevens Reauthorization Act's new LAPP provisions are billed
as “national standards,” they do not constitute
national guidelines and are subject to the
interpretation of the regional fishery management councils
on a number of critical points. For instance, key
provisions on cost recovery and transferability
of limited access privileges from one individual
to another provide little in the way of guidance,
leaving it up to the councils to establish policies,
criteria, and methodologies for compliance. In the
absence of clear regulatory guidance from NMFS,
it is possible that a council may adopt
measures which lead to unwarranted consolidation
of fishing opportunities and benefits in the hands
of the most powerful and influential participants,
at the expense of coastal communities. New rules
now being drafted by NMFS must ensure that LAPPs achieve their conservation
goals and prevent consolidation of fishery benefits
at the expense of family fishermen in coastal
communities.
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