October 17, 2023 — On September 29, NOAA Fisheries approved federal management measures for the lobster fishery that complement the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Interstate Fishery Management Plan for American lobster. These measures include:
- In Area 2, ownership caps would restrict most entities to 800 traps, effective May 1, 2025. An entity with an allocation that exceeded this limit as of May 1, 2022, would be capped at their 2022 trap allocation and may not purchase additional traps.
- In Area 3, a maximum trap cap reduction and a new aggregate ownership cap with proportionate reductions would allow entities to own five times the number of the maximum trap cap. An entity with an allocation that exceeded this limit as of May 1, 2022, would be capped at their 2022 trap allocation and may not purchase additional traps. NOAA is implementing these measures with a one-year delay.
- Beginning April 1, 2024, mandatory electronic harvester reporting using the federal electronic vessel trip report (eVTR) for all federal lobster permit holders begins April 1, 2024. This reporting requirement will include five additional lobster-specific data elements.