NOAA is requesting public comments on its initiation of a Secretarial Amendment (attached) to implement annual catch limits and measures to ensure accountability in the small-mesh multispecies fishery. We are initiating the Secretarial Amendment because the New England Fishery Management Council is not able to develop and submit Amendment 19 to establish ACLs and AMs for the small-mesh multispecies fishery as required by the Magnuson Act until well past the statutory deadline of 2011.
Public meeting to solicit comments will be held as follows:
-Monday, October 3, 2011, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., at the New York
Department of Environmental Conservation Marine Resources Headquarters,
205 Belle Mead Road, Suite 1, East Setauket, NY.
-Tuesday, October 4, 2011, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., at the Ocean County
Administration Building, Room 119, 101 Hooper Avenue, Toms River, NJ.
-Tuesday, October 11, 2011, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., at the Northeast
Regional Office, 55 Great Republic Drive, Gloucester, MA.
-Wednesday, October 12, 2011, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., at Narragansett
Town Hall, 25 Fifth Avenue, Narragansett, RI.
Read the complete document released by NOAA