December 17, 2013 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:
As you may be aware, the NEFMC has contracted an economic analysis this fall of the Northeast multispecies (groundfish) fishery with the economic consulting firm Compass Lexecon. The purpose is to provide the NEFMC with an analysis that would help determine whether there are excessive shares of fishery access privileges in the multispecies fishery, and if so, what form those excessive shares take. The Terms of Reference and project phases are described in the attached statement of work one-pager.
Compass Lexecon has written a draft final report for their analysis that is available for a short period for public review and comment. The draft report is also attached and will be posted to the NEFMC’s groundfish webpage shortly. Compass Lexecon is scheduled to submit the final report to the NEFMC by December 31, 2013.
Comments from the public about the analysis itself should be directed towards the project lead, Dr. Glenn Mitchell (gmitchell@compasslexecon.com, 213.416.9902), and should be submitted as soon as possible, so that the comments may be considered as they finalize the report. Any comments regarding potential use of the analysis in management should be directed towards the NEFMC.
A peer review of the final report is expected to occur early in 2014.
Please contact Rachel Feeney if you have questions (rfeeney@nefmc.org; 978-465-0492 ext. 110).
Read the draft final economic analysis here
Read the project's Terms of Reference and Project Phases here