New England Fishery Management Council members voted 12-4 Tuesday to disapprove a revised report that NOAA Fisheries had prepared at the order of Senior Judge Edward F. Harrington. Two months earlier, the council had rejected the agency’s original report, after disagreeing with its conclusion that the mixed-stock exception did not apply in the case of Framework 42.
Harrington ordered NOAA Fisheries to revise its report, taking the council’s argument into consideration. He said the new report must be reviewed by the council and submitted to court by Friday — the same day that the judge’s ban on Framework 42’s double-counting system for fishing days will expire.