December 11, 2015 — The New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) has elected to increase fishing days at sea for the 2016/17 scallop season.
Total landings are projected to increase on the 2015/16 season, to around 47 million pounds, NEFMC told Undercurrent News.
The council chose its final preferred recommendations for ‘framework 27’, the sea scallop management plan, at its December meeting.
Days at sea have been recommended at slightly higher levels for next year — 34.55 compared to 31, per full-time vessel, this year, while the level of catch from access areas is the same as in 2015: 51,000 pounds per full-time vessel, or about 17 million pounds in total.
All limited access trips were assigned to the Mid-Atlantic access areas. The general category individual fishing quota increased from about 3m pounds this year to about 4.5m pounds.
If approved, they will be allowed to take about 1.5m pounds of that total from access areas, mostly the Mid-Atlantic access area, and around 300,000 pounds were made available from the northern part of Nantucket Lightship.
These remain recommendations; they still need to be approved. The National Marine Fisheries Service will publish a proposed rule in several months with what it plans to implement, before taking public comment and then publishing a final rule.
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