May 3, 2018 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
NOAA Fisheries is implementing monkfish quotas for the 2018 fishing year that we announced on July 12, 2017. There have been no overages in 2017, and there is no new biological information, so we are now finalizing the 2018 quotas that were previously announced. The quotas are the same relative to 2017.
As shown in the table below, approved measures include Total Allowable Landings (TAL) in metric tons in both the Northern and Southern Fishery Management Areas, day-at-sea limits, and trip limits.
All other requirements remain the same.
We will provide a similar notice when the 2019 specifications are implemented prior to the May 1, 2019 start to the monkfish fishing year.
For more details, read the rule as filed in the Federal Register and the permit holder bulletin on our website.