November 9, 2020 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:
As a reminder, the deadline to submit public comment on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Black Sea Bass Draft Addendum XXXIII and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s Black Sea Bass Commercial State Allocation Amendment is fast approaching – 11:59 PM (EST) on November 13, 2020. While all public hearings have been conducted, written comments on Draft Addendum XXXIII may be submitted to Caitlin Starks, FMP Coordinator, at 1050 N. Highland St., Suite 200 A-N, Arlington, Virginia 22201; 703.842.0741 (fax) or at comments@asmfc.org (Subject line: Black Sea Bass Addendum XXXIII) by the deadline of November 13th. All comments will be made available to both the Commission and Council for consideration; duplicate comments do not need to be submitted to both bodies.
The Commission initiated the Draft Addendum in October 2019 to consider adjusting the commercial black sea bass allocations based on current distribution and abundance of the stock. In December 2019, the Council initiated an amendment, which will consider including the allocations in the Council fishery management plan (FMP), modifying the state-specific allocations, and other changes to federal regulations.
Draft Addendum XXXIII proposes alternative approaches for allocating the coastwide black sea bass commercial quota among the states. The following options are proposed: A) status quo; B) increasing Connecticut’s allocation to 5%; C) dynamic allocations partially based on regional stock distribution and partially on historic allocations; D) a trigger-based approach where only coastwide quota above a certain level would be distributed according to a different allocation scheme; E) another trigger-based approach where quota above the trigger would first be used to increase Connecticut and New York’s allocations to 5% and 9%, respectively; and F) distributing a percentage of coastwide quota using initial allocations and the remaining proportion differently. A variety of sub-options are included to set the scale and pace of the allocation changes. Several options incorporate information on regional stock biomass; therefore, options are also proposed to define regions.
The Draft Addendum and Council Amendment also propose options to consider changes to federal regulations and Council management of state allocations. These options address whether the state allocations should be added to the Council’s FMP or remain only in the Commission’s FMP, whether changes should be made to the regulations regarding paybacks of state quota overages if added to the Council’s FMP, and whether to modify regulations regarding federal in-season closures.
Draft Addendum XXXIII is available at http://www.asmfc.org/files/PublicInput/BSB_DraftAddendumXXXIII_PublicComment.pdf or via the Commission’s website at http://www.asmfc.org/about-us/public-input. A recording of the hearing presentation is also available at https://youtu.be/W5-HkotpcDg. For more information, please contact Caitlin Starks, ASMFC FMP Coordinator, at cstarks@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.