May 3, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The 2018 fishing season began Tuesday with nearly 60 permits aligned in Sectors VII and IX not receiving quota allocation from NOAA.
The oceanic governing agency announced the measure a day prior to the opening of the fishing season. It leaves the two sectors on the sidelines as groundfishing begins and continues the ban that was installed in November.
The announcement wasn’t surprising after NOAA attended a New England Fishery Management Council meeting in Mystic, Connecticut, last month to discuss the ban as well as the restructured enrollment in Sectors VII, VIII and IX.
Fifty-five permits stationed in Sector IX in 2017 relocated to Sector VII at the end of March. The move was done to potentially allow those permits to lease quota despite not being able to fish.
The meeting extinguished those hopes revealing neither sector would be allowed to lease or fish when the season began.
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times