News Council Actions ASMFC Horseshoe Crab Board Approves Addendum VII - Addendum Implements New Multispecies Management Framework |
ASMFC Horseshoe Crab Board Approves Addendum VII - Addendum Implements New Multispecies Management Framework |
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Alexandria, VA – The Commission’s Horseshoe Crab Management Board has approved Addendum VII to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan. The Addendum implements the Adaptive Resource Management (ARM) Framework, which incorporates both shorebird and horseshoe crab abundance levels to set optimized horseshoe crab harvest levels for the Delaware Bay area. The ARM Framework was developed by the Commission, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Geological Survey in recognition of the relationship between horseshoe crab eggs and shorebirds in the Delaware Bay Region. The ARM Framework was peer-reviewed in 2009 and accepted by the Board in 2010.
The Addendum allocates the ARM harvest output among the four states (New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, and Maryland) that harvest horseshoe crabs from the Delaware Bay population. The allocation is based upon multiple decision options, including the proportion of horseshoe crabs harvested that originate from Delaware Bay and allowance for additional male harvest by Virginia and Maryland to compensate for protecting female horseshoe crabs when the ARM harvest output includes a moratorium on female crabs. This provision will help meet bait demands and mitigate the economic impact of a moratorium on female horseshoe crabs.
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Monterey Bay's historic "wetfish" industry is under attack by extremist groups who claim overfishing is occurring. Touting studies with faulty calculations, activists are lobbying federal regulators to massively limit fishing, if not ban these fisheries outright. Apparently the facts don’t matter to groups with an anti-fishing agenda
