May 12, 2017 — Gloucester, Massachusetts will sit at the epicenter of the national fishery management universe next week when top regulators from around the country gather here for three days of overviews of the nation’s individual fisheries.
The Council Coordination Committee, which includes chairmen and directors of the eight regional fishery management councils, is set to discuss issues such as national monuments and sanctuaries, habitat, recreational fisheries, enforcement and legislation.
The meetings at the Beauport Hotel Gloucester are being hosted by the New England Fishery Management Council, which was determined to hold them in a working commercial fishing port, according to NEFMC Executive Director Tom Nies.
Nies said the meetings give the geographically diverse regulators — who hale from Alaska to the Caribbean — the chance to discuss issues that cut across all of their councils. It also affords NOAA Fisheries the opportunity speak to the collective councils as a single group.
“We meet twice a year and it’s really the only time all eight council have the chance to discuss national-level policy issues and issues that other councils are facing that we may face ourselves in the future,” Nies said.