660.11—General definitions.

These definitions are specific to the fisheries covered in subparts C through G of this part.
Active sampling unit means the portion of the groundfish fleet in which an observer coverage plan is being applied.
Address of Record means the business address a person has provided to NMFS for NMFS use in providing notice of agency actions and other business with that person.
Allocation. (See § 600.10 of this chapter )
Base permit, with respect to a limited entry permit stacking program, means a limited entry permit described at § 660.25(b)(3)(i), subpart C registered for use with a vessel that meets the permit length endorsement requirements appropriate to that vessel, as described at § 660.25(b)(3)(iii), subpart C.
Biennial fishing period means a 24-month period beginning at 0001 local time on January 1 and ending at 2400 local time on December 31 of the subsequent year.
B MSY means the biomass level that produces maximum sustainable yield (MSY), as stated in the PCGFMP at Section 4.2.
Calendar day means the day beginning at 0001 hours local time and continuing for 24 consecutive hours.
Calendar year. (see “fishing year”)
Catch, take, harvest. (See § 600.10 of this chapter )
Catch monitor means an individual that is certified by NMFS, is deployed to a first receiver, and whose primary duties include: monitoring and verification of the sorting of fish relative to federal requirements defined in § 660.60, subpart C; documentation of the weighing of fish relative to the requirements of § 660.13, subpart C; and verification of first receivers reporting relative to the requirements defined in § 660.113, subpart D.
Change in partnership or corporation means the addition of a new shareholder or partner to the corporate or partnership membership. This definition of a “change” will apply to any person added to the corporate or partnership membership since November 1, 2000, including any family member of an existing shareholder or partner. A change in membership is not considered to have occurred if a member dies or becomes legally incapacitated and a trustee is appointed to act on his behalf, nor if the ownership of shares among existing members changes, nor if a member leaves the corporation or partnership and is not replaced. Changes in the ownership of publicly held stock will not be deemed changes in ownership of the corporation.
Closure or closed means, when referring to closure of a fishery or a closed fishery, that taking and retaining, possessing, or landing the particular species or species group covered by the fishing closure is prohibited. Unless otherwise announced in the Federal Register or authorized in this subpart, offloading must begin before the closure time.
Commercial fishing means:
Commercial harvest guideline or commercial quota means the fishery harvest guideline minus the estimated recreational catch. Limited entry and open access allocations are derived from the commercial harvest guideline or quota.
Conservation area(s) means either a Groundfish Conservation Area (GCA), an Essential Fish Habitat Conservation Area (EFHCA), or both.
(1) Groundfish Conservation Area or GCA means a geographic area defined by coordinates expressed in degrees latitude and longitude, wherein fishing by a particular gear type or types may be prohibited. GCAs are created and enforced for the purpose of contributing to the rebuilding of overfished West Coast groundfish species. Regulations at § 660.70, Subpart C define coordinates for these polygonal GCAs: Yelloweye Rockfish Conservation Areas, Cowcod Conservation Areas, waters encircling the Farallon Islands, and waters encircling the Cordell Banks. GCAs also include Rockfish Conservation Areas or RCAs, which are areas closed to fishing by particular gear types, bounded by lines approximating particular depth contours. RCA boundaries may and do change seasonally according to the conservation needs of the different overfished species. Regulations at §§ 660.70 through 660.74, subpart C define RCA boundary lines with latitude/longitude coordinates; regulations at Tables 1 (North) and 1 (South) of subpart D, Tables 2 (North) and 2 (South) of subpart E, and Tables 3 (North) and 3 (South) of subpart F set RCA seasonal boundaries. Fishing prohibitions associated with GCAs are in addition to those associated with EFH Conservation Areas.
Continuous transiting or transit through means that a fishing vessel crosses a groundfish conservation area or EFH conservation area on a constant heading, along a continuous straight line course, while making way by means of a source of power at all times, other than drifting by means of the prevailing water current or weather conditions.
Corporation means a legal, business entity, including incorporated (INC) and limited liability corporations (LLC).
Council means the Pacific Fishery Management Council, including its Groundfish Management Team (GMT), Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC), Groundfish Advisory Subpanel (GAP), and any other advisory body established by the Council.
Date of landing means the date on which the transfer of fish or offloading of fish from any vessel to a processor or other first receiver begins.
Direct financial interest means any source of income to or capital investment or other interest held by an individual, partnership, or corporation or an individual's spouse, immediate family member or parent that could be influenced by performance or non-performance of observer or catch monitor duties.
Electronic fish ticket means a software program or data files meeting data export specifications approved by NMFS that is used to send landing data to the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission. Electronic fish tickets are used to collect information similar to the information required in state fish receiving tickets or landing receipts, but do not replace or change any state requirements.
Electronic Monitoring System or EMS means a data collection tool that uses a software operating system connected to an assortment of electronic components, including video recorders, to create a collection of data on vessel activities.
Endorsement means an additional specification affixed to the limited entry permit that further restricts fishery participation or further specifies a harvest privilege, and is non-severable from a limited entry permit.
Entity. (See “Person”)
Essential Fish Habitat or EFH. (See § 600.10 of this chapter )
First Receiver means a person who receives, purchases, or takes custody, control, or possession of catch onshore directly from a vessel.
Fish. (See § 600.10 of this chapter )
Fishery (See § 600.10 of this chapter )
Fishery harvest guideline means the harvest guideline or quota after subtracting from the OY any allocation for the Pacific Coast treaty Indian tribes, projected research catch, deductions for fishing mortality in non-groundfish fisheries, as necessary, and set-asides for EFPs.
Fishery management area means the EEZ off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California between 3 and 200 nm offshore, and bounded on the north by the Provisional International Boundary between the U.S. and Canada, and bounded on the south by the International Boundary between the U.S. and Mexico. The inner boundary of the fishery management area is a line coterminous with the seaward boundaries of the States of Washington, Oregon, and California (the “3-mile limit”). The outer boundary of the fishery management area is a line drawn in such a manner that each point on it is 200 nm from the baseline from which the territorial sea is measured, or is a provisional or permanent international boundary between the U.S. and Canada or Mexico. All groundfish possessed between 0-200 nm offshore or landed in Washington, Oregon, or California are presumed to have been taken and retained from the EEZ, unless otherwise demonstrated by the person in possession of those fish.
Fishing. (See § 600.10 of this chapter )
Fishing gear includes the following types of gear and equipment:
(10) Trap or pot See § 600.10 of this chapter, definition of “trap”. These terms are used as interchangeable synonyms.
Fishing or Calendar year means the year beginning at 0001 local time on January 1 and ending at 2400 local time on December 31 of the same year. There are two fishing years in each biennial fishing period.
Fishing trip means a period of time between landings when fishing is conducted.
Grandfathered or first generation, when referring to a limited entry sablefish-endorsed permit owner, means those permit owners who owned a sablefish-endorsed limited entry permit prior to November 1, 2000, and are, therefore, exempt from certain requirements of the sablefish permit stacking program within the parameters of the regulations at § 660.25(b), subpart C and § 660.231, subpart E.
Groundfish means species managed by the PCGFMP, specifically:
(1) Shallow nearshore rockfish consists of black and yellow rockfish, S. chrysomelas; China rockfish, S. nebulosus; gopher rockfish, S. carnatus; grass rockfish, S. rastrelliger; kelp rockfish, S. atrovirens.
(2) Deeper nearshore rockfish consists of black rockfish, S. melanops; blue rockfish, S. mystinus; brown rockfish, S. auriculatus; calico rockfish, S. dalli; copper rockfish, S. caurinus; olive rockfish, S. serranoides; quillback rockfish, S. maliger; treefish, S. serriceps.
(3) California scorpionfish, Scorpaena guttata.
Groundfish trawl means trawl gear that is used under the authority of a valid limited entry permit issued under subparts C and D of this part endorsed for trawl gear and which meets the gear requirements specified in subpart D of this part. It does not include any type of trawl gear listed as non-groundfish trawl gear (previously called “exempted gear”).
Harvest guideline means a specified numerical harvest objective that is not a quota. Attainment of a harvest guideline does not require closure of a fishery.
Incidental catch or incidental species means groundfish species caught while fishing for the primary purpose of catching a different species.
Initial Administrative Determination (IAD) means a formal, written determination made by NMFS on an application or permit request, that is subject to an appeal within NMFS.
Land or landing means to begin transfer of fish, offloading fish, or to offload fish from any vessel. Once transfer of fish begins, all fish aboard the vessel are counted as part of the landing.
Legal fish means fish legally taken and retained, possessed, or landed in accordance with the provisions of 50 CFR part 660, subparts C through G, the Magnuson-Stevens Act, any document issued under part 660, and any other regulation promulgated or permit issued under the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
Length overall or LOA (with respect to a vessel) means the length overall set forth in the Certificate of Documentation (CG-1270) issued by the USCG for a documented vessel, or in a registration certificate issued by a state or the USCG for an undocumented vessel; for vessels that do not have the LOA stated in an official document, the LOA is the LOA as determined by the USCG or by a marine surveyor in accordance with the USCG method for measuring LOA.
License owner means a person who is the owner of record with NMFS, SFD, Permits Office of a License issued under § 660.140, subpart D.
Limited entry fishery means the fishery composed of vessels registered for use with limited entry permits.
Limited entry gear means longline, trap (or pot), or groundfish trawl gear used under the authority of a valid limited entry permit affixed with an endorsement for that gear.
Limited entry permit means:
Mobile transceiver unit means a vessel monitoring system or VMS device, as set forth at § 660.14, subpart C installed on board a vessel that is used for vessel monitoring and transmitting the vessel's position as required by subpart C.
Non-groundfish fishery means any fishing using non-groundfish trawl gear or nontrawl gear when targeting salmon, HMS, CPS, crab, prawn, or any other species not managed under the PCGFMP. Non-groundfish fishery is sometimes referred to as the incidental open access fishery in which groundfish could be encountered with the gear used, regardless of whether groundfish is retained.
Non-groundfish trawl (previously “exempted” trawl) means any trawl gear other than the Pacific Coast groundfish trawl gear that is authorized for use with a valid groundfish limited entry permit endorsed for trawl gear. Non-groundfish trawl gear includes trawl gear used to fish for pink shrimp, ridgeback prawn, California halibut south of Pt. Arena, and sea cucumbers south of Pt. Arena.
Nontrawl fishery means
(1) For the purpose of allocations at § 660.55, subpart C, nontrawl fishery means the limited entry fixed gear fishery, the open access fishery, and the recreational fishery.
North-South management area means the management areas defined in paragraph (1) of this definition, or defined and bounded by one or more or the commonly used geographic coordinates set out in paragraph (2) of this definition for the purposes of implementing different management measures in separate geographic areas of the U.S. West Coast.
Point N. Lat. W. Long.
1 48°29.62′ 124°43.55′
2 48°30.18′ 124°47.22′
3 48°30.37′ 124°50.35′
4 48°30.23′ 124°54.87′
5 48°29.95′ 124°59.23′
6 48°29.73′ 125°00.10′
7 48°28.15′ 125°05.78′
8 48°27.17′ 125°08.42′
9 48°26.78′ 125°09.20′
10 48°20.27′ 125°22.80′
11 48°18.37′ 125°29.97′
12 48°11.08′ 125°53.80′
13 47°49.25′ 126°40.95′
14 47°36.78′ 127°11.97′
15 47°22.00′ 127°41.38′
16 46°42.08′ 128°51.93′
17 46°31.78′ 129°07.65′
Point N. lat. W. long.
1 32°35.37′ 117°27.82′
2 32°37.62′ 117°49.52′
3 31°07.97′ 118°36.30′
4 30°32.52′ 121°51.97′