Federal commercial fishing officials will visit Narragansett on Monday to meet with fishermen about a dramatically revised and controversial management program that began May 1.
The National Marine Fisheries Service is holding sessions around the Northeast to “solicit further feedback” from the industry and to offer training on some of its technical requirements. These include electronic systems for regulators to track the location of vessels and for vessels to instantly report fish catches.
Under the new system, vessel owners are awarded a share of how much they may catch of each industrywide quota for bottom-dwelling “groundfish.” The new system also establishes cooperatives, called “sectors,” in which fishermen pool their shares together to more efficiently harvest fish and bring their catch to market.
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