May 7, 2023 — The following was released by New England Fishery Management Council:
The New England Fishery Management Council has charged its Atlantic Herring Committee with further developing two focused items related to 2023 herring work priorities. Both requests were the result of considerable discussion during the Council’s April 18-20, 2023 meeting in Mystic, Connecticut.
The Herring Committee’s recommendations will come back to the Council in June for further consideration and may involve a change in priorities for herring. A change would require a two-thirds majority vote by the Council. The topics at hand were related to the Council’s 2023 work plan to:
Revisit the Inshore Midwater Trawl Restricted Area, also known as a buffer zone or exclusion zone, that was: (1) developed by the Council in Atlantic Herring Amendment 8; (2) implemented by NOAA Fisheries; and (3) vacated by a U.S. District Court judge on March 29, 2022, meaning it is no longer in place (see map below); and
Conduct an analysis to investigate what combination of factors may have led to the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office’s (GARFO) low 2020 to The inshore area shaded in dark gray above was implemented in Herring Amendment 8 as a zone where midwater trawlers were prohibited from fishing year-round. A court vacated the measure. • 2022 river herring and shad by catch estimates in the Atlantic herring fishery.