NOAA Fisheries Service is seeking public comment on proposed measures to increase the reporting frequency for Atlantic herring vessels to help prevent area quotas from being exceeded, prevent reductions in catch limits in future years and maintain a healthy and sustainable herring fishery.
NMFS proposes revising the reporting requirements for vessels issued Atlantic herring (herring) permits, because more timely catch information is necessary to monitor herring catch against the stock-wide herring annual catch limit (ACL) and herring management area sub- ACLs, to help prevent sub-ACLs overages, and to reduce the chance of premature fishery closures.
This proposal would require limited access herring vessels to report catch daily via vessel monitoring systems (VMS), open access herring vessels to report catch weekly via the interactive voice response (IVR) system, and all herring-permitted vessels to submit vessel trip reports (VTRs) weekly.
Read the entire regulation from NOAA.