Notice2026-06917
Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone off Alaska; Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area; Cost Recovery Fee Notice for the Pacific Cod Trawl Cooperative Program
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
April 10, 2026
Issuing agencies
Commerce DepartmentNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Abstract
NMFS publishes the fee percentage for cost recovery for the Pacific Cod Trawl Cooperative (PCTC) Program. The fee percentage for 2025 is 3 percent. This notice is intended to provide the 2025 fee percentage to calculate the required payment for cost recovery fees that were due by August 31, 2025.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 91 Issue 69 (Friday, April 10, 2026)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 69 (Friday, April 10, 2026)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18438-18439]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2026-06917]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
[RTID 0648-XF098]
Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone off Alaska; Bering Sea
and Aleutian Islands Management Area; Cost Recovery Fee Notice for the
Pacific Cod Trawl Cooperative Program
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of standard prices fee percentage.
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SUMMARY: NMFS publishes the fee percentage for cost recovery for the
Pacific Cod Trawl Cooperative (PCTC) Program. The fee percentage for
2025 is 3 percent. This notice is intended to provide the 2025 fee
percentage to calculate the required payment for cost recovery fees
that were due by August 31, 2025.
DATES: The fee percentage is valid on April 10, 2026.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dana Whitely, Fee Coordinator, 907-
586-7105.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
Section 304(d) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and
Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act) authorizes and requires that NMFS
collect cost recovery fees for limited access privilege programs. Cost
recovery fees include NMFS' actual costs directly related to its
management, data collection, and enforcement of the programs. Section
304(d) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act mandates that cost recovery fees not
exceed 3 percent of the annual ex-vessel value of fish harvested under
any program subject to a cost recovery fee and that the fee be
collected either at the time of landing, filing of a landing report, or
sale of such fish during a fishing season or in the last quarter of the
calendar year in which the fish is harvested.
NMFS manages the PCTC Program as a limited access privilege
program. On August 8, 2023, NMFS published a final
[[Page 18439]]
rule to implement the PCTC Program (88 FR 53704). The PCTC Program
allocates total allowable catch of Pacific cod to trawl catcher vessels
and processors in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area
(BSAI). Participants in the PCTC Program must form a cooperative and
associate with a processor. The PCTC Program includes a process for
calculating and administering cost recovery fees under 50 CFR 679.135.
The annual PCTC Program cost recovery process builds on other existing
cost recovery requirements implemented under other programs. The fee
liability is based on the ex-vessel value of fish harvested in the PCTC
Program. Each year, NMFS publishes a notice announcing the fee
percentage in the Federal Register. The Regional Administrator sends
invoices to cooperatives before July 31.
Each PCTC Program cooperative is responsible for payment of the
cost recovery fee assessed on Pacific cod landed under the PCTC
Program. Each cooperative must submit any cost recovery fee liability
payment(s) no later than August 31. The total dollar amount of the fee
due is determined by multiplying the NMFS published fee percentage by
the annual ex-vessel value of Cooperative Quota (CQ) landings under the
PCTC Program, as described in this notice.
Failure to pay cost recovery fee liabilities by August 31 will
result in NMFS disapproval of a cooperative's application to transfer
CQ or issue a CQ permit the following year until full payment of the
fee liability is received by NMFS. NMFS will not issue a CQ permit
until NMFS receives a complete application for CQ issuance and
confirmation of the full payment of any cost recovery fee liability.
Standard Price
For purposes of calculating cost recovery fees, NMFS uses a
standard ex-vessel price (standard price) for Pacific cod. A standard
price is determined using information on landings purchased (volume)
and ex-vessel value paid (value). NMFS annually receives information
used to calculate the Pacific cod standard price in the existing BSAI
Pacific cod Ex-vessel Volume and Value Report, which is submitted in
early November of each year. NMFS uses this existing data source to
calculate standard prices and thus determine the annual PCTC Program
fishery value, which, along with the direct program costs, is used to
calculate the annual PCTC Program cost recovery fee percentage. The
standard prices are described in U.S. dollars per pound for landings
made during the previous year. NMFS published the standard price of
$0.25 per pound for Pacific cod for 2025 in the Federal Register on
November 29, 2024 (89 FR 94710).
Each landing made under the PCTC Program is multiplied by the
standard price to arrive at an ex-vessel value for each landing. These
values are summed together to arrive at the ex-vessel value of Pacific
cod (i.e., fishery value).
Fee Percentage
Annually, NMFS calculates the total costs directly related to the
management, data collection, and enforcement of the program (direct
program costs). NMFS captures direct PCTC program costs through an
established accounting system that allows NMFS staff to track labor,
travel, contracts, rent, and procurement costs. For 2025, the direct
program costs for the PCTC Program were tracked from July 1, 2024, to
June 30, 2025. A more detailed explanation will be provided in the
annual Cost Recovery Report, which will be published in April of 2026.
NMFS then calculates the applicable fee percentage according to the
factors and methods described at Sec. 679.135 for the PCTC Program.
NMFS used the standard price of $0.25 to calculate the fee percentage
applied to landings made in 2025. NMFS determined the fee percentage
that applies to landings made in the A and B seasons, which extend from
January 20 to June 10, 2025, by dividing the direct program costs by
the value of the catch subject to the cost recovery fee.
Using the fee percentage formula described generally above, the
estimated percentage of direct program costs to fishery value for the
2025 calendar year is 3.56 percent for the PCTC Program; however, the
fee percentage must not exceed 3 percent pursuant to section
304(d)(2)(B) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act. Therefore, the 2025 fee
percentage is set at 3 percent. For 2025, NMFS applied the fee
percentage to each PCTC landing that was debited from a CQ allocation
between January 20 and June 10 to calculate the fee liability for each
cooperative. A PCTC Program cooperative's 2025 fee payments must be
submitted to NMFS on or before August 31, 2025. Payment must be made in
accordance with the payment methods set forth in Sec. 679.135(a)(3).
The 2025 fee percentage of 3 percent is higher than the 2024 fee
percentage of 1.92 percent. Net fishery management costs for 2025
increased by 1.02 percent when compared to 2024 and total fishery value
decreased by 54.89 percent, resulting in a capped fee percentage.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: April 7, 2026.
David R. Blankinship,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2026-06917 Filed 4-9-26; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on April 10, 2026.
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