PUBLIC LAW 108–7—FEB. 20, 2003
117 STAT. 81
(e) The Secretary shall determine, and state in the public notice published under paragraph (a), all program implementation aspects the Secretary deems relevant. (f) Any bid submitted in response to the invitation to bid issued by the Secretary under this section shall be irrevocable; the Secretary shall use a bid acceptance procedure that ranks each bid in accordance with this paragraph and with additional criteria, if any, established by the Secretary: for each bid from a qualified bidder that meets the bidding requirements in the public notice or the invitation to bid, the Secretary shall determine a bid score by dividing the bid’s dollar amount by the average annual total ex-vessel dollar value of landings of Pacific groundfish, Dungeness crab, and Pink shrimp based on the 3 highest total annual revenues earned from such stocks that the bidder’s reduction vessel landed during 1998, 1999, 2000, or 2001. For purposes of this paragraph, the term ‘‘total annual revenue’’ means the revenue earned in a single year from such stocks. The Secretary shall accept each qualified bid in rank order of bid score from the lowest to the highest until acceptance of the next qualified bid with the next lowest bid score would cause the reduction cost to exceed the reduction loan’s maximum amount. Acceptance of a bid by the Secretary shall create a binding reduction contract between the United States and the person whose bid is accepted, the performance of which shall be subject only to the conclusion of a successful referendum, except that a person whose bid is accepted by the Secretary under this section shall relinquish all permits in the reduction fishery and any Dungeness crab and Pink shrimp permits issued by Washington, Oregon, or California; except that the Secretary shall revoke the Pacific groundfish permit, as well as all Federal fishery licenses, fishery permits, area, and species endorsements, and any other fishery privileges issued to a vessel or vessels (or to persons on the basis of their operation or ownership of that vessel or vessels) removed under the program. (g) The Secretary shall establish separate reduction loan subamounts and repayment fees for fish sellers in the reduction fishery and for fish sellers in each of the fee-share fisheries by dividing the total ex-vessel dollar value during the bid scoring period of all reduction vessel landings from the reduction fishery and from each of the fee-share fisheries by the total such value of all such landings for all such fisheries; and multiplying the reduction loan amount by each of the quotients resulting from each of the divisions above. Each of the resulting products shall be the reduction loan sub-amount for the reduction fishery and for each of the fee-share fisheries to which each of such products pertains; except that, each fish seller in the reduction fishery and in each of the feeshare fisheries shall pay the fees required by the reduction loan sub-amounts allocated to it under this paragraph; except that, the Secretary may enter into agreements with Washington, Oregon, and California to collect any fees established under this paragraph. (h) Notwithstanding 46 U.S.C. App. 1279(b)(4), the reduction loan’s term shall not be less than 30 years. (i) It is the sense of the Congress that the States of Washington, Oregon, and California should revoke all relinquishment permits in each of the fee-share fisheries immediately after reduction payment, and otherwise to implement appropriate State fisheries management and conservation provisions in each of the fee-share fisheries that establishes a program that meets the requirements
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