April 9, 2021 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
Atlantic Herring Management Board members from the states of Maine, New Hampshire and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will meet via webinar on April 22, 2021 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., to discuss days out measures for the 2021 Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine) fishing season. Days out measures can include specification of the number of consecutive landings days, weekly landings limits, and restrictions on at-sea transfers. The webinar and call information is included below:
Atlantic Herring Days Out Meeting
April 22, 2021
10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
You can join the meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone at the following link:
https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/916881365. If you are new to GoToMeeting, you can download the app ahead of time (click here) and be ready before the meeting starts. For audio, the meeting will be using the computer voice over internet (VoIP), but if you are joining the webinar from your phone only, you can dial in at +1 (224) 501-3412 and enter access code 916-881-365 when prompted. The webinar will start at 9:30 a.m., 30 minutes early, to troubleshoot audio as necessary.
Federally-permitted Herring Category A vessels must declare into the Area 1A fishery at least 45 days prior to the start of the fishing season. Small-mesh bottom trawl vessels with a federal Herring Category C or D permit must declare into the Area 1A fishery by June 1, 2021. States will send additional correspondence regarding the notification procedure.
The 2021 Area 1A sub-annual catch limit (sub-ACL) is 1,391 metric tons (mt). After adjusting for the 30 mt fixed gear set-aside and the 8% buffer (Area 1A closes at 92% of the sub-ACL), the Area 1A sub-ACL is 1,252 mt. There is no research-set-aside for 2021 because the participants in the RSA program will not continue their RSA project in 2021.
In October 2020, the Board established the following seasonal allocations for the 2021 Area 1A sub-ACL: 72.8% available from June 1 – September 30 and 27.2% available from October 1 – December 31. Fishermen are prohibited from landing more than 2,000 pounds of Atlantic herring per day harvested from Area 1A until June 1, 2021.
Please contact Emilie Franke, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at 703.842.0716 or efranke@asmfc.org for more information.
A copy of the meeting announcement can be found at: http://www.asmfc.org/files/AtlHerringApr2021DaysOutMeetingNotice.pdf