# North Pacific Swordfish United States Stakeholder Meeting; Meeting Announcement
**AGENCY:**
National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
**ACTION:**
Notice of public meeting.
**SUMMARY:**
NMFS announces a U.S. stakeholder meeting to discuss North Pacific swordfish (NP SWO) management. This meeting is intended to gather stakeholder input and prepare for potential discussions at the 2026 annual meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission Northern Committee (WCPFC NC) related to management of NP SWO fisheries. The meeting topics are described under the *SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION* section of this notice.
**DATES:**
The virtual meeting will be held on April 22, 2026, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. HST. You must complete the registration process by April 15, 2026, if you plan to attend the meeting (see *ADDRESSES* ).
**ADDRESSES:**
If you plan to attend the meeting, which will be held by webinar, please register at *https://forms.gle/GxM2uPBnAnq9hRhT7.* Instructions for attending the meeting will be emailed to meeting participants before the meeting occurs.
**FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:**
Valerie Post, Pacific Islands Regional Office at (808) 725-5034 or *[email protected].*
**SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:**
In 2025, the WCPFC NC agreed to initiate a management strategy evaluation (MSE) for NP SWO, and tasked itself to discuss candidate operational management objectives for western and central NP SWO in 2026 as well as tasked the International Scientific Committee on Tuna and Tuna-like Species in the North Pacific Ocean to begin technical work on an MSE for NP SWO. This stakeholder meeting is intended to provide information on the MSE process, gather stakeholder input about options for MSE objectives, and prepare for anticipated discussions at the WCPFC NC in 2026.
**NP SWO U.S. Stakeholder Meeting Topics**
The meeting agenda will be distributed to participants in advance of the meeting. The meeting agenda will include a discussion on preferences for management objectives for NP SWO, metrics to measure how potential future harvest strategies for NP SWO meet those objectives, candidate reference points and candidate harvest control rules.
**Special Accommodations**
Requests for sign language interpretation or other auxiliary aids should be indicated when registering for the meeting (see *ADDRESSES* ) by April 15, 2026.
*Authority:* 16 U.S.C. 951 *et seq.,* 16 U.S.C. 1801 *et seq.,* and 16 U.S.C. 6901 *et seq.*
Dated: March 31, 2026.
David R. Blankinship,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service.