Regulations

Deadline for Comments is June 4, 2012 NOAA Fisheries would like to invite "Public Comments" on Interim Management Measures that are to be in effect from May 1, 2012, until September 30, 2012 to manage Gulf of Maine cod.  Comments must be received by June 4, 2012.  To read the rule which contains these management measures click here.  More information on Gulf of Maine cod can be found on our Gulf of Maine Cod News website.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – April 2, 2012  – NOAA Fisheries has released its decision on new management measures for Gulf of Maine Cod for 2012.

NOAA announced today that fishermen will be allowed to catch up to 6,700 metric tons of Gulf of Maine cod in 2012. This end result of collaborative work with the fishing industry to find a solution that prevented a much larger cut to the allowable catch for the 2012 fishing year.
 
In late 2011, a new stock assessment for Gulf of Maine cod found the stock declined unexpectedly, making major reductions in catch limits necessary for the 2012 fishing year, as required under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. NOAA and the New England Fishery Management Council, which includes state officials and fishermen, worked with the fishing industry to identify flexibility within federal fisheries law that could both protect cod and provide sustained fishing opportunities. As a result, the quota for 2012 will be set at 6,700 metric tons, which is within the range recommended by the New England Fishery Management Council. Without this collaborative approach, the catch limit for this fishing year would have been set below 1,500 metric tons. 
 
"This extraordinary partnership among fishermen, members of the non-governmental organization community, federal regulators and scientists has provided us with some discretion to set higher catch limits in 2012 and a little more time for fishermen to plan and for all of us to work together to address the change in stock condition," said Sam Rauch, acting assistant NOAA administrator for NOAA's Fisheries Service. "We are committed to continued evaluation of the current cod status and to working with our partners to develop a long-term rebuilding program that includes setting catch limits in 2013 that end overfishing."
 
NOAA is granting commercial groundfish sectors (a group of fishing vessels that share an annual allocation) a carry-over of up to 10 percent of the 2011 allocation into the 2012 fishing year. The fishing industry requested this carry-over, which is part of the 6,700 metric ton catch limit. In addition, recreational fishermen who once had to discard cod smaller than 24 inches can now keep cod as small as 19 inches, decreasing the amount of fish discarded at sea. The daily bag limit will decrease from ten fish to nine.
 
NOAA will also conduct a new assessment of Gulf of Maine cod in 2012, in time to set fishing year 2013 catch limits. NOAA is exploring key science issues prioritized by the Council's scientific committee, including the appropriateness of currently defined stock boundaries (stock structure), survival rates of discarded fish, and use of new recreational survey data. 
 
"We are looking for ways to work cooperatively with fishermen in the groundfish fleet to conduct this research and, in particular, to better estimate the long-term survival of discarded cod in commercial and recreational fisheries," said Richard Merrick, chief science advisor for NOAA's Fisheries Service. "Fishermen's on-the-water experience is invaluable, and we hope that closer ties with them will improve our science and our understanding. "
 
The Gulf of Maine Research Institute has agreed to coordinate a comprehensive look at stock structure, an effort that will involve a variety of partners to evaluate what is known about the number and distribution of various cod stocks. NOAA is also developing new methodology to incorporate new marine recreational fishing data into the cod stock assessment. 

Read the release here.

Download an MP3 of the NOAA press conference on the Gulf of Maine Cod announcement.

 

Public Comments Due April 18, 2012

NOAA Fisheries Service today announced proposed a catch limit, commercial quota, and trip limit for the spiny dogfish fishery for the 2012 fishing year.  They invite Public Comments on these proposed measures.

Read the proposed measure from NOAA.

 

 

 

 

 

March 29, 2012 — NOAA Fisheries today announced final annual catch limits and accountability measures for the silver hake, red hake, and offshore hake stocks for 2012 fishing year.

Read the new measures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

NOAA Fisheries Service announces Final 2012 Recreational and Commercial Quotas for Mackerel; Final 2012 Commercial Quotas for Illex Squid and Longfin Squid; and Interim Final 2012 Commercial Quota for Butterfish.

Effective Date: April 20, 2012

Read the limits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

WASHINGTON – March 26, 2012 — NOAA today announced proposed measures for the groundfish fishery.  The measures include: annual catch limits for nine groundfish stocks and total allowable catch limits for three U.S./Canada stocks for fishing years 2012-2014, revise the yellowtail rebuilding schedule, revise accountability measures for five stocks, remove the cap on yellowtail flounder that can be caught in the scallop fishery access areas, and create an in-season mechanism to re-estimate the Georges Bank yellowtail flounder sub-annual catch limit for the scallop fishery.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING COMMENTS IS April 11, 2012.

Read the proposed rule as it appeared in today's Federal Register.

March 23, 2012 – NOAA today announced publishing of its final rule to implement measures in Amendment 17 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan which was approved on March 8, 2012. This action amends the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan to explicitly define and facilitate the effective operation of  state-operated permit banks.

Read the final rule.

 

 

 

 

 

In recent weeks, NOAA Fisheries has signaled a willingness to slide past a dire assessment of Gulf of Maine, or inshore, cod to give the industry a year of relief — with a 22 percent cut in the catch limit as a feasible interim adjustment, as opposed to one much deeper.

But for 2013, it will likely take an act of Congress to save the inshore fishery from a virtually complete shutdown due to catastrophic cutbacks — as much as 90 percent — in the Gulf of Maine cod limit, according to industry leaders and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials.

Now, industry leaders David Goethel, a New Hampshire fisherman and three-term member of the New England Fishery Management Council, and Brian Rothschild, a professor of marine science and technology at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth are pointing to the need for Congress to override the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which is said to allow just a single year of "interim" catch limits before requiring the government to align catch limits with the official assessment of the stock and end overfishing.

Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

WASHINGTON – 8 March 2012 – Effective immediately, NOAA Fisheries Service is increasing the possession limits for Georges Bank cod and Southern New England/Mid-Atlantic yellowtail flounder for Northeast multispecies common pool vessels for the remainder of the 2011 fishing year, through April 30, 2012.

If a sub-ACL is projected to be exceeded by the end of FY 2011, in-season adjustments to decrease the trip limit would be considered. The rates of harvest of all NE multispecies stocks are updated weekly on the internet at http://www.nero.noaa.gov.

Read the complete notice from NOAA.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This rule proposes catch limits and associated measures for the Northeast Skate Complex Fishery for the 2012-2013 fishing years.

The proposed action was developed by the New England Fishery Management Council pursuant to the provisions of the Northeast Skate Complex Fishery Management Plan. The proposed catch limits are supported by the best available scientific information and reflect recent increases in skate biomass.

Read the complete proposed regulation.