February 12, 2021 — The New England Fishery Management Council has approved new measures for the region’s small-mesh multispecies fishery for the next three fishing years, including a significant increase in whiting possession limits for individual trips.
The council, at its meeting in late January, set the per-trip possession limits for whiting — northern silver hake and southern whiting — at 15,000 pounds per vessel to help reduce discards.
“The increase is expected to reduce discards by fishermen using less than 3-inch codend mesh trawls,” the council said. “This mesh size is often used to target other species such as herring and squid, and whiting bycatch in the squid fishery has increased in recent years.”
The 15,000-pound limit, according to the council, will allow fishermen to land more of their whiting catch as they target the other species. It is expected the new limit will help fishermen increase revenues without having a negative impact on the stock status.
The council also approved a 90% total allowable catch trigger for northern red hake. The trigger is used as an in-season adjustment to prevent overfishing.