In August NOAA Fisheries Service had published a rule in the Federal Register establishing a grouper and tilefish IFQ program for commercial fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico. It is said that this rule also made changes to the red snapper IFQ program to align that program with the grouper and tilefish IFQ program.
Currently, a red snapper IFQ participant can enter any location when making a notification of landing red snapper, and approval is only needed to place the location on the VMS and online drop-down menus. It is told that pre-approved landing locations must be publicly accessible by land and water and have a street address. If a particular landing location has no street address on record, global positioning system (GPS) coordinates for an identifiable geographic location must be provided. Other criteria may also be used when approving locations.
As for share transfers currently it require submission of a paper transaction. Starting January 1, 2010, share transfers must be accomplished online via the IFQ Web site. Approval will be required from both the transferor and transferee. If the information from the transferor is accepted, the online system will send an electronic message of the pending transfer to the transferee.
Two items will be eliminated to ease the administrative burden associated with dealer requirements: 1) The annual ex-vessel value report because the information in the report is readily available on the IFQ Web site, 2) the notice of annulment sent on or about the 61st day after the end of each calendar-year quarter for a dealer whose cost recovery fee payment remains delinquent.
