November 29, 2018 — NOAA Fisheries is ramping up its plans to develop management strategies for the Northeast recreational groundfish fishery for 2019, beginning with three January workshops for stakeholder input.
The agency’s Gloucester-based Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office has scheduled the workshops for Jan. 8 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire; Jan. 10 in Narragansett, Rhode Island; and Jan. 12 in Plymouth. Times still are to be determined.
The workshops, beyond soliciting stakeholder comment, also will jump-start the campaign to develop new short-term and long-term management measures for the recreational fishing industry “that balance the need to prevent overfishing with enabling profitability in the for-hire fleet” and provide other opportunities for recreational anglers.
In the short term, regulators are seeking potential new management measures to achieve, but not exceed, recreational catch limits in the upcoming 2019 fishing season, including Gulf of Maine cod and haddock.
In the long term, NOAA is exploring how to use new data — such as the information culled from the Marine Recreational Information Program — in its management of recreational groundfish stocks. It also is seeking the most effective manner to use available research to reduce or avoid bycatch mortality, calculate dead discards and the best methods of release.