Management & Regulation Archives

Longtime NOAA staffer acting as head of fisheries agency amid Trump transition

February 14, 2025 — Longtime NOAA staffer Emily Menashes is currently leading NOAA Fisheries amid a leadership gap following the resignation of Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries Janet Coit last month.

The appointment is part of a temporary churn of leadership positions at the U.S. Department of Commerce as leaders appointed by then U.S. President Joe Biden step down to make room for U.S. President Donald Trump’s picks. As the Biden administration came to an end in January, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, NOAA Administrator Richard Spinrad, and NOAA Fisheries head Coit all resigned, leaving the nation’s top fisheries management positions needing to be filled.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Monumental Issues

February 13, 2025 — One of the requests made by the authors of Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for the Trump administration, is that President Donald Trump again shrink national monuments.

Whether he will remains to be seen, though the most likely candidates are Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, from which Trump sheared a combined 2 million acres during his first term, only to watch President Joe Biden restore the original boundaries as set by Presidents Barack Obama (Bears Ears) and Bill Clinton (Grand Staircase).

The authors of Project 2025 don’t want him to stop there. Indeed, the section on the Interior Department, written by William Perry Pendley, who was a longtime president of the conservative Mountain States Legal Foundation that worked to see federal lands turned over to states, maintains that Trump didn’t go far enough during his first term.

“Although President Trump courageously ordered a review of national monument designations, the result of that review was insufficient in that only two national monuments in one state (Utah) were adjusted,” wrote Pendley. “Monuments in Maine [Kathadin Woods and Waters] and Oregon [Cascade-Siskiyou], for example, should have been adjusted downward given the finding of Secretary Ryan Zinke’s review that they were improperly designated.”

The 5,000-square-mile Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Monument encompasses a biologically robust area located about 100 miles southeast of Cape Cod National Seashore. It became the Atlantic Ocean’s first national monument when Obama established it. President Trump during his first term removed restrictions that kept commercial fishermen out of the monument.

Read the full article at National Park Traveler

Federal Lobster Permit Holders: Lobster Trap Tag Ordering Instructions

February 12, 2025 — You must renew your federal lobster permit and order new lobster trap tags if you intend to fish for lobsters in federal waters with trap gear during the 2025 fishing year. This guide outlines how to order your trap tags. You must renew your permit through the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office’s Fish Online. Fish Online is the website where you can submit electronic vessel trip reports, check your landings data, and manage your vessel’s permits. In some cases, you may be required to order trap tags through your state fisheries agency, as explained below.

To fish with lobster traps in federal waters, you must:

Be eligible to fish in at least one lobster management area; and
Select at least one lobster management area, which your permit qualifies for, on your federal permit renewal application.

Once your federal permit is issued for fishing year 2025, we will forward the lobster management areas you select on your Federal permit renewal application to Cambridge Security Seals so they appear on your 2025 trap tags. Only fishing year 2025 tags purchased through CSS will be considered valid on or after June 1, 2025. If you purchase your trap tags through a state agency, you must choose the same lobster management areas on the state’s trap tag order forms that you have chosen on your Federal permit renewal application. You must attach a 2025 trap tag to each fished lobster trap.

The deadline for attaching the 2025 trap tags to your lobster traps is June 1, 2025. You are encouraged to renew your federal permit and apply for trap tags as soon as possible so that your tags can be authorized, manufactured, and mailed ahead of planned fishing activity.

Your federal lobster trap permit must be renewed before we will authorize CSS to issue tags for 2025.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

Stricter lobster fishing rules scrapped after complaints from fishermen about harm to industry

February 10, 2024 — Fishing industry regulators have decided to scrap stricter new lobster fishing standards off New England in the wake of months of protest from lobster fishermen that the rules were unnecessary and would bankrupt harvesters.

The regulators were planning to institute new rules this summer that increased the minimum legal harvest size for lobsters in some of the most important fishing grounds in the world. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Council, which manages the fishery, said the changes were important to preserve the future of a lobster population that has shown recent signs of decline.

Many commercial fishermen adamantly opposed the changes, which would have required them to throw back previously market-ready lobsters. An arm of the commission voted on Feb. 4 to initiate a repeal of the new rules in the face of “fervent industry concerns about the potential economic impacts” of the changes, the commission said in a statement.

Read the full article at ABC News

Most US fishery observers don’t report harassment, study claims

February 6, 2025 — Harassment of fishery observers is more prevalent than previously thought, with a new study finding that less than half of observers who experience harassment disclose any incidents.

Funded by NOAA Fisheries, the study was published in the Frontiers research journal 28 January, 2025. NOAA researchers estimated that roughly 22 to 38 percent of fishery observers in the North Pacific are harassed annually, more than twice the number that file official disclosures.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Aleutian Islands state-waters Pacific cod season opens

February 6, 2025 — The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) has announced the opening of the Aleutian Islands Subdistrict (AIS) state-waters Pacific cod season, along with the closure of the parallel season for all state waters west of 170° W longitude, effective Feb.1, 2025.

The state-waters Pacific cod season opened at 12:00 p.m. AKST on Feb. 1 for vessels 100’ or less in overall length (OAL) using pot gear, vessels 60’ or less OAL using nonpelagic trawl or jig gear, and vessels 58’ or less OAL using longline gear. Simultaneously, the parallel Pacific cod season closed for all gear types in the AIS west of 170° W longitude.

All harvested Pacific cod must be retained. The daily harvest limit per vessel is set at 150,000 pounds (round weight), with a maximum of 150,000 pounds of unprocessed cod allowed onboard at any time. The ADF&G statement noted that any overages must be reported, with proceeds surrendered to the state. Bycatch limits from the parallel Pacific cod season will remain in effect during the state-waters season.

Read the full article National Fisherman

ASMFC repeals proposed gauge increase

February 5, 2025 — The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission(ASMFC) sided with New England lobstermen and voted to repeal the proposed increase to the minimum allowable cast size of lobsters in the Gulf of Maine.

On Friday, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries announced at the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association meeting that it would join Maine and New Hampshire in rejecting the gauge increase.

Maine and New Hampshire decided to withdraw the increase following strong opposition from the fishing community in both states. New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell called for the repeal of the gauge increase. In a letter to ASMFC on Feb. 3, Mayor Mitchell warned that the rule would place U.S. lobster fishermen at a significant competitive disadvantage compared to Canadian counterparts.

New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA) COO Dustin Delano commented on the final decision, “NEFSA thanks the commission for hearing the voice of lobstermen. Raising catch sizes at this time would bankrupt many lobstermen and surrender the U.S. market to foreign competitors. NEFSA is grateful that the commission has chosen to support our historic trade, which contributes billions to New England’s economy and shapes the character of the region.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Pacific stocks hit 40-year low, cuts loom for 2025 season

February 5, 2025 — Halibut fishermen, sport charter operators, and subsistence users will all face lesser takes of the prized fish again this year as the Pacific stock continues to flounder.

That sums up the bleak news at the 101st Session of the IPHC Annual Meeting, which wrapped up on Friday in British Columbia.

“This year’s meeting was decidedly somber and tense as stakeholders grappled with the consequences of the lowest spawning biomass in 40 years,” said Maddie Lightsey of Alaska Boats and Permits in Homer. “There was consensus on the need for substantial cuts, resulting in a coastwide cut to total removals of 15.6 percent and a18 percent cut to the commercial catch limits.

The IPHC annual meeting report says that in terms of coastwide stock distribution, after increases in 2020-2021, the proportion of the stock in Biological Region 3 decreased in 2022-24 to the lowest estimate in the time series. This trend occurred in tandem with increases in Biological Region 2.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

Proposal to change catch sizes for lobster repealed

February 5, 2025 — A controversial proposal looking to increase the minimum catch sizes for lobster has officially been repealed by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

The vote happened Tuesday and came a month after the Maine Department of Marine Resources announced it wouldn’t be following the new rules due to push back from local lobstermen.

Read the full article at Fox 23

Maine and NH lobstermen celebrate reversal of lobster catch size limits

February 4, 2025 — The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission have walked back new regulations that New Hampshire and Maine lobstermen said would have dire economic consequences to their industry.

The commission voted Tuesday to repeal key elements of a proposed increase to minimum allowable catch sizes for Gulf of Maine lobster. The announcement comes after officials in Maine and New Hampshire, which together account for most of U.S. lobster landings, announced they would not cooperate with the proposal.

“New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA) thanks the commission for heeding the voice of lobstermen,” said NEFSA COO and fourth-generation lobsterman Dustin Delano. “Raising catch sizes at this time would bankrupt many lobstermen and surrender the U.S. market to foreign competitors. NEFSA is grateful that the commission has chosen to support our historic trade, which contributes billions to New England’s economy and shapes the character of the region.”

Read the full article at Fosters Daily Democrat