Regulations

August 15, 2013 — NOAA Fisheries today announced that it has reopened an additional portion of Georges Bank to surfclam and ocean quahog fishing.

Click here to read the full press release.

 

August 13, 2013 — The Public is invited to submit comments on the Notice of Availability.   Comments must be received by October 11, 2013.   The primary goals of Amendment 14 are to implement an effective program for monitoring river herring and shad incidentally caught in these fisheries; and reduce the incidental catch of river herring and shad in the mackerel fishery.

Click here to see the Notice – Comments must be received by October 11, 2013

You may submit comments on this document, identified by NOAA-NMFS-2013-0128, by any of the following methods:

– E-Mail comments may be submitted, identified by NOAA-NMFS-2013-0128, via the Federal eRulemaking Portal http://www.regulations.gov.

– Mail comment may be submitted to:  John K. Bullard, Regional Administrator, NMFS, Northeast Regional Office, 55 Great Republic Drive, Gloucester, MA 01930.  Mark the outside of the envelope, “Comments on the MSB Amendment 14.”

– Fax comments may be submitted to (978) 281-9135; Attn: Aja Szumylo.

The comment period for the notice of availability for Amendment 14 ends on October 11, 2013.  Comments submitted on the notice of availability prior to October 11, 2013, will be considered in NOAA Fisheries’ decision to approve, partially approve, or disapprove Amendment 14.  Comments submitted by the end of the comment period for the proposed rule (not yet published) will be considered in NOAA Fisheries decision to implement measures proposed by the Council.

Read the full announcement from NOAA

August 8, 2013 — NOAA Fisheries Developing Conservation Plan to Address Data Needs & Implement Conservation Measures

NOAA Fisheries announced today that listing is not warranted at this time for alewife and blueback herring, collectively known as river herring, as either threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act. The agency has already funded and will be implementing, in conjunction with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and other partners, a coordinated coast-wide effort to continue to address data needs and proactively conserve river herring and their habitat. 

Read the full story at NOAA Fisheries 

 

August 2, 2013 — The following was released by the NOAA Northeast Regional Office:

Today, at the request of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, we published a notice establishing August 2, 2013 as the new control date for the Illex squid fishery. By establishing this control date, we are notifying the public that the Council may consider an action to limit the number of participants in the fishery.

Read the full release from NOAA

July 31, 2013 — Scientists, fishermen, fisheries regulators and environmental advocates from across the nation are meeting in Portland this week to discuss how climate change is affecting New England's waters, and how best to manage those changes. The non-profit Island Institute is hosting the event, called "A Climate of Change." Tom Porter has more.

The Institute's president, Rob Snyder, says the warming of the oceans means the appearance of new species in the Gulf of Maine and elsewhere, and raises new questions. "How do we actually create management systems before we have historical catch records? This is a big new question for how you would consider managing in a changing environment," he says.

Rodman Sykes is a commercial fishermen from Rhode Island. He's been fishing for 30 years and says he's now starting to see the emergence of new species like Cobia, for example, which he says is normally only found off Florida. He's also noticing a marked increase in the numbers of other fish which were previously only rarely seen in Rhode Island waters – for example the torpedo ray.

"Twenty years ago, we might see two or three a month – like that," Sykes says. "Now we see them every day, up to 100-pounders."

Conversely, Sykes there are other species that are vanishing as the warming oceans cause them to move further north, towards the Gulf of Maine. "There's abundance of red hake in the Gulf of Maine – we used to have abundance of red hake down in southern New England, which we don't any more."

Steve Train, who fishes for lobster out of Long Island, Maine, is also noticing changes.

Listen to the audio and read the full story at Maine Public Broadcasting Network

August 1, 2013 — The following was released by the NOAA Fisheries Northeast Regional Office:

Today, NOAA Fisheries announced proposed measures to establish herring catch limits for 2013-15, modify herring management area closure thresholds, establish a closure threshold for the entire herring fishery, establish seasons in herring management areas, and allow carryover of unharvested catch.

Read the full release and provide comments on these proposed measures.

July 29, 2013 — The following was released by NOAA:

Based on available information, we have determined that 90% of the Trimester 1 Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for Georges Bank cod has been caught by groundfish common pool vessels.

Effective 0001 hours, July 30, 2013, statistical areas 521, 522, 525, and 561 are closed for the remainder of Trimester 1, through August 31, 2013, to all common pool vessels fishing with trawl gear, sink gillnet gear, and longline/hook gear.

This area will reopen at the beginning of Trimester 2, at 0001 hours, September 1, 2013.

July 24, 2013 — NMFS proposes to amend the regulations implementing the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan (Plan).

The proposed rule revises the management measures for reducing the incidental mortality and serious injury to the North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis), humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae), and fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus) in commercial trap/pot and gillnet fisheries to meet the goals of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA). A Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) was prepared in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), to analyze impacts to the environment of the management alternatives under consideration. NMFS will hold 16 public hearings along the East coast in August and September for the purpose of answering questions and receiving public testimony on the DEIS.

Read the notice in the Federal Register

July 19, 2013 — NOAA Fisheries, on behalf of the Secretary of Commerce, has partially approved Amendment 5 to the Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan. Amendment 5 was developed to improve the Atlantic herring fishery catch monitoring program and address bycatch issues in the fishery.

A notice of availability soliciting public comments on Amendment 5 was published on April 22, 2013, with a comment period ending June 21, 2013.  A total of 115 comments were received and considered in making the decision to partially approve Amendment 5.  The proposed rule to implement Amendment 5 was published on June 3, 2013, with a comment period ending July 18, 2013.  A summary of the comments received, and NOAA Fisheries’ responses to those comments, will be published in the final rule implementing Amendment 5.

Read the full announcement from NOAA Fisheries

July 19, 2013 — This final action amends the guidelines for National Standard 2 (NS2) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) regarding scientific information. Consistent with the President’s memo on Scientific Integrity (March 9, 2009) and NOAA Administrative Order 202– 735D

Synopsis of Changes Made in the Final Action

This final action does not include substantive changes from the proposed guideline revisions. In response to public comments, changes were made to clarify the guidelines and emphasize the importance of public transparency in peer review of scientific information, as recommended by public comments. Language was added to clarify the following: Scientific information includes both established and emerging science; peer reviewers should not make formal fishing level recommendations, because this is the purview of the SSC; no individual can be appointed to a review panel if that individual has a conflict of interest that is relevant to the functions to be performed; peer reviews that require a greater degree of independence should use rotation of reviewers, recognizing that repeated service by the same reviewer may be unavoidable when there is a limited availability of expertise; SAFE reports should contain an explanation of information gaps and highlight needs for future scientific work; and for stocks managed cooperatively by Federal and State governments, the scientific information used for FMP development should include harvest information from both state and Federal waters.

Read the final rule here 

Read text from NOAA Fisheries regarding National Standard 2