Draft Fishery Management Plan, Draft Environmental Impact Statement, and Regulatory Impact Review for the Atlantic Billfishes: White Marlin, Blue Marlin, Sailfish and Spearfish

This document is a proposed action that includes the following elements for the conservation and management of the billfish fishery. They are to determine the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) of the fishery, the optimum yield (OY) or allowable harvest level of the fishery, the expected domestic annual harvest (DAH) of the fishery, and the total allowable level of foreign fishing (TALFF) in the fishery. They are also take management measures for the conservation and management of the bill fishery such as the release of all billfishes taken incidental to foreign logline activities within the FCZ, the time and area restrictions on number of foreign logline vessels, time and area restrictions on the activities of foreign fisheries when billfish bycatch is high and significant domestic fishing occurs, limitation on the bycatch of billfishes by the domestic fishery, establishment of criteria for modification of management measures, restrictions on the types of gear which may be employed in the domestic directed fishery for billfishes, limitations on the catch of billfishes by the domestic recreational fishery, and the limited reporting user group. Other elements for conservation and management that are addressed involve alternative measures, rationale and impacts of management measures, and relationships to existing laws.