Pacific Halibut Fisheries of the West Coast; 2025 Catch Sharing Plan and Recreational Fishery Management Measures

National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.

This final rule approves changes to the Pacific Halibut Catch Sharing Plan (CSP) for the International Pacific Halibut Commission's (IPHC) regulatory Area 2A off Washington, Oregon, and California. In addition, the rule implements new management measures for the 2025 recreational fisheries in Area 2A, including the recreational fishery season open dates and subarea allocations for Area 2A. This action also adds a new inseason management provision that explicitly allows for the inseason transfer of anticipated uncaught recreational fishery allocation from the Northern California subarea to the South of Point Arena subarea. These actions are intended to conserve Pacific halibut, while providing additional angler opportunity to achieve the Area 2A allocation set by the IPHC.

This rule is effective April 3, 2025.