December 14, 2013 — The New England Fisheries Management Council will meet for three days next week in Danvers in deliberations that ultimately will lead to new policies for the Northeast multispecies fishery, including which specific areas will be open to fishing beginning around the winter of 2015.
The council, one of the eight regional councils created by the Magnuson Stevens Fishery and Conservation Act, is scheduled to spend much of Monday discussing its management priorities for the next year before delving into issues related to the region’s scallop fishery.
That discussion on management priorities is expected to include a recommendation by the Northeast Seafood Coalition that the council adopt alternative management strategies beyond the existing stock assessment models the coalition believes contribute to the instability and difficulties in managing the fishery through the industry’s current economic disaster.