Regulations

May 22, 2012 – NOAA today announced final management measures for the federal spiny dogfish fishery for the 2012 fishing year, which will be implemented on June 21.

Read the regulations here.

 

NOAA has issued a Federal Register notice that new management actions over a healthy, thriving monkfish fishery that brings more than 1,000 metric tons in Gloucester may take place anytime after May 9 — which fell last Wednesday and is given as the "control date."

These "control dates" are given to put the fishing industry on notice of the potential for changes in the rules governing a species. While scoping sessions have been held, no imminent action to alter the days at sea system with a total allowable catch is in the offing.

The monkfish fishery, which covers federal waters from Maine to North Carolina, produced $19 million in vessel income in 2011, according to Nils Stolpe, who represents the unincorporated Monkfish Defense Fund.

Cod landings produced $28 million and haddock $21 million last year, making monkfish the third most important finfish on the East Coast by ex-vessel — at the dock — prices.

Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times

 

 

 

 

 

May 11, 2012 – NOAA announces today that the Delmarva Scallop Access Area will be closed to scallop fishing for the remainder of the 2012 fishing year. This closure was requested by members of the scallop industry and by the New England Fishery Management Council, and was done through the agency's authority to take emergency action. This closure prevents high levels of fishing effort in this area, which could reduce long-term scallop biomass and yield from Delmarva, and could compromise the overall success of the scallop area rotational management program.

 

May 10, 2012 – NOAA announces that at the request of the the New England  and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Councils, May 9, 2012 has been established as the ‘‘control date’’ for the monkfish fishery.  This date may be used as a reference date for future management measures related to the maintenance of a fishery with characteristics consistent with the Councils’ objectives and applicable Federal laws. Written comments must be received on or before 5 p.m., local time, June 8, 2012.

Read the regulation here.

 

May 1, 2012  – NOAA today approved Framework Adjustment 47 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan and implements the approved measures.This action also implements management measures and revises existing regulations that are not included in Framework 47, including common pool management measures for fishing year 2012, and clarification of the regulations for charter/party and recreational groundfish vessels fishing in groundfish closed areas.

Read the announcement here.

 

 

May 1, 2012 – Today NOAA announced measures to implement 19 Northeast groundfish sector operations plans and contracts for fishing year 2012, and allocates quotas of NE multispecies to the sectors.

Read the announcement here.

 

 

May 1, 2012 — NOAA has announced the Federal size and possession limits for the Northeast multispecies recreational fisheries for fishing year 2012 (May 1, 2012 – April 30, 2013).  All limits apply to both private and  charter/party recreational vessels, unless otherwise noted.  Also, please note the changes for Gulf of Maine cod and contact your local state fisheries office for information on current state regulations.

Read the regulations here.

 

April 30, 2012 — Effective May 1, several trip limits will be changed for NE multispecies vessels fishing in the common pool fishery on a Category A DAS.  These trip limit changes are as follows:

Georges Bank cod is 2,000 lb/DAS up to 20,000 lb/trip,
Gulf of Maine cod is 650 lb/DAS up to 2,000 lb/trip, and
Georges Bank yellowtail flounder is 500 lb/trip. 

All remaining multispecies trip limits are unchanged from  Fishing Year 2011 to  2012. 

The Fishing Year 2012 revised trip limits apply to fishing trips that have crossed the VMS demarcation line after 0001 hours on May 1.  Vessels that start a trip before May 1 and end the same trip in the month of May are subject to FY 11 trip limits. 

Also effective May 1, the Eastern U.S/Canada Management Area is open to common pool vessels using trawl gear.  For information on common pool trip limits or other questions, contact the Sustainable Fisheries Division at 978-281-9315. 

 

 

April 27, 2012 – It has been more than five months since Gov. Deval Patrick, backed by Sen. John Kerry and the state's heavily Democratic congressional delegation, approached the Obama administration to get a federal fisheries disaster declaration.

Notwithstanding NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco's assurance to the Senate Commerce Committee in October that "we can turn it around quickly," the governor's Nov. 15 filing has gone unanswered, with no explanation from Commerce Secretary John Bryson — or from Patrick, who agreed in February to co-chair President Obama's re-election campaign.

The state's request for the administration to recognize that transformation of the groundfishery into a catch shares quota trading system has become a government-issue economic calamity reputedly backed by two scientific studies. The first concluded that most of the groundfishing business hadn't broken even in the first year of Amendment 16, which contains the catch share framework; the other was a case study showing hardship concentrated in the smallest of owner-operated fishing boat businesses, spread throughout secondary ports between Gloucester and New Bedford.

Since then, the economic condition and prospects of the Northeast groundfishery have only worsened, with a dire Gulf of Maine cod assessment bringing on an interim 22 percent cut in the total allowable catch for the 2012 fishing cycle that begins on Tuesday, and discouraging updates of past assessments assuring widespread constrictions next year in catch limits for groundfish stocks in Georges Bank.

Combined with dramatic cuts in the coming year in Georges Bank yellowtail — a core stock and potential impediment as bycatch to scalloping, New Bedford's golden egg-laying goose — and even deeper and wider cod cuts expected in 2013, the industry finds itself propelled by government policy and science onto an accelerating downward cycle.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times.

 

 

April 26, 2012 — At the request of Northeast groundfish sector vessels, NOAA is proposing to implement an exempted fishery for trawl vessels that target skates for lobster bait, without having to use a groundfish fishing day at sea. This exemption would be allowed in a portion of southern New England waters, from July through October each year. This proposed measure will provide economic benefits to commercial fishermen without posing a risk to groundfish stocks because these vessels catch very little or no groundfish.

Read more about the proposed measures.