May 3, 2022 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:
The New England Fishery Management Council is preparing to conduct public information workshops in six different fishing ports to help fishermen and other stakeholders better understand what ecosystem-based fishery management (EBFM) is all about. These workshops, which are under development, are expected to be held later this summer or early fall.
In the meantime, the Council is encouraging people to become familiar with the extensive array of outreach materials posted on the EBFM public information outreach webpage. Here are some highlights.
The Council has been exploring ecosystem-based fishery management for several years now. The upcoming public information workshops are intended to help inform fishermen and other stakeholders about EBFM and its potential application to a Georges Bank Ecosystem Production Unit. The Council has been referring to this approach as an example Fishery Ecosystem Plan for Georges Bank, which often is simply called the eFEP.
During its April 2022 meeting, the Council received a progress report on the latest EBFM outreach efforts and workshop planning. Another update is planned for the June 2022 meeting. The Council also received an update on work being done to develop a simplified, prototype management strategy evaluation (pMSE) for EBFM. This trial, dry-run prototype is intended to demonstrate how a larger-scale MSE eventually could be used to evaluate EBFM management strategies for a Georges Bank Ecosystem Production Unit with all stakeholders involved. The Council approved the planning document for this initiative. The presentation and other meeting materials related to the April EBFM discussion are available here.