At its late April meeting, the Council addressed issues related to scallops, herring, monkfish, groundfish and management area coordination. The NEFMC also received a number of reports and presentations, including a briefing by NMFS Director Eric Schwaab which summarized the agency’s management review of fisheries in the Northeast, with a focus on relationships among the NEFMC, the NMFS Northeast Regional Office and Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC).
Other presentations addressed a range of important issues: a summary of the Department of the Interior’s “Smart from the Start” offshore wind initiative; ecosystem-based fisheries management; NEFSC recommendations for observer sea-day allocations for 2011-2012; and several Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) – related reports: one about the peer review of the Swept Area Seabed Impact model, and another on approved methods that will be used to develop ABC recommendations for the skate complex and the five hake stocks harvested under the small mesh multispecies program rules.
The Council Report summarizes major issues voted on or discussed at each regularly scheduled NEFMC meeting. The Council met most recently on April 26-28, 2011 in Mystic, CT.