September 27, 2012 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council today. Saving Seafood will post the full audio of the debate as well as audio highlights shortly.
PLYMOUTH, Mass. – Sept 27, The New England Fishery Management Council today took a step in the process to approve measures that could allow groundfish fishermen to harvest healthy stocks of fish from areas that have been closed to this fishery for decades.
Explicitly, the 18-member Council voted unanimously to support further analysis of a measure that calls for groundfish sectors, a type of harvesting cooperative established in 2010, to request exemptions from the longstanding prohibition on fishing in three year-round groundfish closed areas on a limited basis. These restrictions provide that:
• Access will only be granted for the parts of areas that are not defined as habitat closed areas, or that have not been identified as potential habitat management areas currently under consideration in a habitat action that is currently in development;
• Access to Closed Area I and Closed area II (on Georges Bank) will only be granted for the period May 1 through February 15; and
• Access to the Western Gulf of Maine Closed Area (off MA and NH) will only be granted during periods not subject to rolling closures that are applicable to sectors and already specified in the Groundfish Management Plan.
Despite the vote, several Council members, fishermen and some advocacy groups voiced serious concerns about the proposal during a lengthy comment period that occurred prior to the vote. As one Council member put it, “This is not a fix-all, but a mitigation measure intended to address the low levels of some fish stocks that will be available to fishermen over the next few years.”
If these and other measures receive final approval at the Council’s upcoming meeting on November 13-15, 2012 in Newport, RI, the Council will submit final documents to the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Secretary of Commerce for final approval and implementation. The plan is to have the measures in place at the start of the new fishing year that begins on May 1.