December 15, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
NOAA Fisheries announces final 2021 specifications for the Atlantic bluefish fishery, as recommended by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council in cooperation with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. These specifications are similar to 2020. The only change is a reduction of 1.14 million pounds in the recreational harvest limit to account for higher than projected recreational discards in 2019.
The final 2021 coastwide commercial quota is 2,767,793 pounds, and the final recreational harvest limit is reduced to 8,344,914 pounds. There is no transfer between recreational and commercial sectors because the recreational fishery is expected to fully attain this harvest limit. This action does not change any other management measures, including the daily recreational bag limit of 3 fish per person for private anglers and 5 fish per person for for-hire (charter/party) vessels. The commercial state allocations for 2021 are provided in the following table. No state exceeded its allocated quota in 2019, nor is projected to do so in 2020; therefore, no commercial accountability measures are required in 2021.