Every FMP, amendment to an FMP, and the regulations that implement them must comply with the national standards of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. The rate or level at which fish in a given fishery are killed by human fishing activity. Modifications or restrictions on gear used in a fishery. Gear requirements can entail such modifications as less technologically advanced gear, amendments such as bycatch excluder devices, or restrictions on the size or type of vessel or gear allowed in a fishery. The degree to which a type of fishing gear catches targeted species relative to the amount of bycatch.
Selective gear catches little bycatch, while non-selective gear fishes indiscriminately.
A general term referring to fish that live on or near the sea floor, including cod, cusk, haddock, pollock, halibut, and ocean perch. Groundfish also are called bottom fish or demersal fish. The amount of fish brought back to the docks and marketed. Landings can describe the kept catch of one vessel, of an entire fishery, or of several fisheries combined. A general term for management schemes that close a fishery to access by new participants.