Management & Regulation

NOAA Fisheries Service Announces That Effective 0001 hour April 21, 2010, The Winter I Scup Possession Limit Will Be Reduced To 1,000 lb For The Remainder Of The Winter I Period (through April 30, 2010).

[View the PDF document]

 

 

 

NOAA has released a compliance guide about regulations implementing measures approved under Amendment 16 and Framework Adjustment 44 (FW 44) to the NE Multispecies Fishery Management Plan (FMP) that become effective on May 1, 2010.

[click here to view the PDF document]

 

 

 

MRAG Americas, the environmental services firm headed by Andrew Rosenberg, who helped Jane Lubchenco write the nation's catch share policy as vice-chair of the Environmental Defense Fund board before she became head of NOAA, prematurely announced winning a contract to provide monitors on groundfishing boats when the policy comes to the groundfishery, a federal contract officer said Tuesday.

Although the award and probable sharing of a contract worth at least $6.5 million in New England's first year under the catch share program remains to be made, MRAG Americas had posted on its Web site Monday that it had been chosen by Lubchenco's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and had a contract.

"MRAG Americas is contracted to provide sector and dockside monitors for sectors within the New England multispecies groundfish fishery," the company announced on its Web site.

[read the Gloucester Daily Times story in full]

 

 

 

MRAG Americas, the environmental services firm headed by Andrew Rosenberg, who helped Jane Lubchenco write the nation's catch share policy as vice-chair of the Environmental Defense Fund board before she became head of NOAA, prematurely announced winning a contract to provide monitors on groundfishing boats when the policy comes to the groundfishery, a federal contract officer said Tuesday.

Although the award and probable sharing of a contract worth at least $6.5 million in New England's first year under the catch share program remains to be made, MRAG Americas had posted on its Web site Monday that it had been chosen by Lubchenco's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and had a contract.

"MRAG Americas is contracted to provide sector and dockside monitors for sectors within the New England multispecies groundfish fishery," the company announced on its Web site.

[read the Gloucester Daily Times story in full]

 

 

 

Congress strengthened Magnuson with the “Fishery Conservation and Management Amendments.” Delaying recovery was made more difficult by the requirement that annual, sustainable catch limits be in place by 2010 for depleted stocks and by 2011 for other stocks. The amendments also strengthen the role of scientists in council decision-making, provide for National Environmental Policy Act compliance in management plans, expand research, improve data and enhance habitat protection. The new law isn’t perfect; it retains the “stake-holder” councils, for example. But it’s a huge step forward.

And it’s working.

“Closing the fishery with almost no advance warning last October was bad enough,” Olander writes in his January 2010 editorial, “but to announce such a closure during the last days of the very popular annual fishing rodeo in Destin, Florida, simply reiterates how out of touch and some fishery council members seem to be with the recreational fishing community.”

On October 27, 2009, Jane Lubchenco—chief of NMFS’s parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration—made this declaration to the American Sportfishing Association at its annual meeting in San Diego: “It is my intention to improve our relationship. I look forward to a new era of cooperative relations between NOAA and anglers across the country.”

The Magnuson Act and our marine fish would be a lot safer if Lubchenco would get on with that.

Read the complete story at Fly Rod and Reel Magazine.

 

 

 

 

 

New federal regulations that take effect May first will fundamentally change fishing in New Hampshire and the rest of New England.

The rules are designed to rebuild depleted stocks of groundfish, such as cod and flounder. But fishermen say the new management policy hits New Hampshire fishermen particularly hard – and could put half the state’s fishing boats out of business.

Dozens of New Hampshire fisherman packed into a small conference room recently in Portsmouth. They came to hear details about new groundfish rules set by the New England Fishery Management Council. Those rules, for the first time, place a cap on the amount of groundfish that fisherman can catch off New England.

Read the complete story at NH Public Radio.

 

 

 

 

 

NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is closing the Eastern U.S./Canada Area, effective immediately, to limited access NE multispecies days-at-sea (DAS) vessels and prohibiting the harvest, possession, and landing of GB yellowtail flounder by all federally-permitted vessels within the entire U.S./Canada Management Area for the remainder of the 2009 fishing year (through April 30, 2010).

NE multispecies DAS vessels that have declared their intent to fish exclusively in the U.S./Canada Management Area, departed on a trip, and crossed the vessel monitoring system (VMS) demarcation line to start their trip prior to 1615 hr April 20, 2010, may possess and land yellowtail flounder up to 5,000 lb per trip, on that trip.

For more information see attached permit holder letter which was issued today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Addition to Council meeting Agenda, April 27-29, 2010, Hilton Mystic Hotel, Mystic, CT

Please note the Council will add another item of business under its Herring Committee Report, scheduled to begin at 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, April 27. Following the issues listed already, the Council will discuss measures proposed in Draft Addendum III to ASMFC’s Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Herring. The action includes measures to address days out of the fishery and landing limits for small mesh bottom trawl vessels operating in the Gulf of Maine.

 

 

 

 

 

As groundfishermen across the northeast prepare for the shift to sector management, they had a chance to ask last-minute questions of fishery regulators before the 2010 fishing year opens on May 1.

In a telephone conference call, set up on April 13 for the industry by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, some fishermen reiterated concerns regarding the new management system’s potential impact on the sustainability of the small-boat fleet and fishing communities.

National Marine Fisheries Service policy analysts Doug Christel and Mark Grant provided a brief overview of Amendment 16 and sector operating regulations. Joined by policy analyst Tom Warren, they followed up with a question-and-answer period designed, Christel said, to help fishermen work out what they need to do to comply with Amendment 16.

Fishermen expressed concern about the mechanics of the allocation system and the data that drives how much fish will be allocated to sectors and to the common pool.

Read the complete story at The Bar Harbor Times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Each week, on WBSM in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Bob Vanasse of Saving Seafood joins host Phil Paleologos to discuss issues related to the fisheries with news-making guests.

April 15, 2010: GUESTS: Douglas Christel, Groundfish Policy Analyst, NOAA Fisheries Service, Northeast Regional Office; Tom Nies, Senior Fishery Analyst, New England Fisheries Management Council.

[click here to listen now]