January 4, 2024 — The following was released by Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (Commission) is seeking input from American lobster permit holders on NOAA Fisheries’ rulemaking to implement aggregate ownership caps in Lobster Conservation Management Areas (LCMA) 2 (Southern New England) and 3 (offshore federal waters) and a maximum trap cap reduction in Area 3. LCMA 2 and 3 permit holders are invited to participate in a public webinar meeting on Wednesday, January 10, from 4:00 – 6:00 PM.
The federal rulemaking responds to the Commission’s 2013 recommendations to NOAA to adopt the measures in Addenda XXI and XXII in federal waters. The Commission’ s 2013 approval of the Addenda was to scale the capacity of the Southern New England (SNE) fishery to the diminished size of the SNE resource. These Addenda addressed latent effort in the fishery and, by reducing trap limits to reduce harvest, allowed for potential stock rebuilding. However, over a decade has passed since the date when the Commission intended for these federal measures to be implemented. In that time, there have been significant changes in the fishery. Therefore, the American Lobster Management Board is seeking input from LCMA 2 and 3 permit holders to better understand the impacts of these measures within the context of the current fishery.
In LCMA 2, NOAA is implementing an ownership cap that would restrict an entity to 800 Area 2 traps. In LCMA 3, NOAA’s action reduces the maximum number of traps that could be allocated to a permit in Area 3 from 1,945 traps to 1,548 traps over the course of three years, and implements an aggregate ownership cap at the entity level equal to five times the maximum trap cap. These measures are scheduled to become effective on May 1, 2025.