April 26, 2022 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
The supplemental materials for the May 4th meeting of the Atlantic Striped Management Board are now available athttp://www.asmfc.org/files/
The supplemental materials for the remaining boards and committees meeting next week will be available tomorrow at http://www.asmfc.org/home/
April 21, 2022 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
The final agenda and meeting materials for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Spring Meeting (to be held May 2- 5 at the Westin Crystal City, 1800 Richmond Highway, Arlington, VA) are now available at http://www.asmfc.org/home/2022-spring-meeting; click on the relevant Board/Committee name to access the documents for that Board/Committee. For ease of access, all meeting materials have been combined into one document: Main Meeting Materials. Please note that materials for the Law Enforcement Committee are not included in the combined materials. Supplemental materials will be posted to the website on Wednesday, April 27, 2022.
This will be a hybrid meeting (both in-person and remote) to allow for remote participation by Commissioners and interested stakeholders (meeting process details are provided below). The Law Enforcement Committee meeting will not be available remotely. The agenda is subject to change. The agenda reflects the current estimate of time required for scheduled Board meetings. The Commission may adjust this agenda in accordance with the actual duration of Board meetings. Interested parties should anticipate Boards starting earlier or later than indicated herein.
Webinar Information
Board meeting proceedings will be broadcast daily via webinar beginning Monday, May 2 at 10 a.m. and continuing daily until the conclusion of the meeting (expected to be 12:30 p.m.) on Thursday, May 5. To register for the webinar, please go to
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6673024452273516048 (Webinar ID: 243-937-907).
If you are joining the webinar but will not be using voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), you can may also call in at +1 (562) 247-8422, access code 616-672-938. A PIN will be provided to you after joining the webinar; seewebinar instructions for details on how to receive the PIN. For those who will not be joining the webinar but would like to listen in to the audio portion only, press the # key when asked for a PIN.
Meeting Process
In terms of meeting process, Board chairs will ask both in-person and virtual Board members if they wish to speak. In-person members can simply raise their hands at the meeting without logging on to the webinar, while virtual members will raise their hands on the webinar. The Chair will work with staff to compile the list of speakers, balancing the flow of questions/comments between in-person and virtual attendees. The same process will be used for the public and interested stakeholders when the Board Chair provides an opportunity for public comment. Depending upon the number of commenters, the Board Chair will decide how to allocate the available time on the agenda (typically 10 minutes) to the number of people who want to speak.
Each day, the webinar will begin 15 minutes prior to the start of the first meeting so that people can troubleshoot any connectivity or audio issues they may encounter. If you are having issues with the webinar (connecting to or audio related issues), please contact Chris Jacobs at 703.842.0790.
Public Comment Guidelines
To provide a fair opportunity for public input, the ISFMP Policy Board has approved the following guidelines for use at management board meetings:
For issues that are not on the agenda, management boards will continue to provide opportunity to the public to bring matters of concern to the board’s attention at the start of each board meeting. Board chairs will ask members of the public to raise their hands to let the chair know they would like to speak. Depending upon the number of commenters, the board chair will decide how to allocate the available time on the agenda (typically 10 minutes) to the number of people who want to speak.
For topics that are on the agenda, but have not gone out for public comment, board chairs will provide limited opportunity for comment, taking into account the time allotted on the agenda for the topic. Chairs will have flexibility in deciding how to allocate comment opportunities; this could include hearing one comment in favor and one in opposition until the chair is satisfied further comment will not provide additional insight to the board.
For agenda action items that have already gone out for public comment, it is the Policy Board’s intent to end the occasional practice of allowing extensive and lengthy public comments. Currently, board chairs have the discretion to decide what public comment to allow in these circumstances.
In addition, the following timeline has been established for the submission of written comment for issues for which the Commission has NOT established a specific public comment period (i.e., in response to proposed management action).
1. Comments received three weeks prior to the start of a meeting week (April 11) have been included in the briefing materials.
2. Comments received by 5:00 PM on Tuesday, April 26th will be included in supplemental materials.
3. Comments received by 10:00 AM on Friday, April 29th will be distributed electronically to Commissioners/Board members prior to the meeting.
The submitted comments must clearly indicate the commenter’s expectation from the ASMFC staff regarding distribution. As with other public comment, it will be accepted via mail and email.
We look forward to seeing you at the Spring Meeting.
April 20, 2022 — Elver season is winding down as almost 8,000 pounds of the tiny glassine eels have been pulled from Maine waters, including the Pemaquid and Medomak rivers in Lincoln County.
The elver fishery is the second most valuable fishery in Maine despite its brief season, lasting only 11 weeks from March 22 to June 7. Recent years have seen annual income generated by the fishery exceed $20 million. And from a per pound perspective it easily tops lobsters as the most lucrative fishery in the state, and possibly in the country.
High demand for the young eels overseas spiked the price to more than $2,800 per pound in 2018. After plummeting to around $500 in 2020 due to the pandemic, prices have recovered and are averaging $2,114 per pound this year, according to the Maine Department of Marine Resources.
Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News
April 14, 2022 — Under a bill passed by the Maine Legislature on Wednesday, the state’s pogie fishery will be closed to all fishermen in 2023 except current license holders who meet certain criteria.
To be eligible, fishermen must have held a license to fish for pogies in at least two of three years from 2019-21, and have landed 25,000 pounds in at least one of those years. Those who have the required license history but have not yet met the landings requirement have until the end of 2022 to harvest 25,000 pounds.
Pogies, also known as menhaden, have returned to state waters in large numbers over the past few years. As herring landings have dwindled, many lobstermen have switched to pogies for bait. At the same time, lax licensing requirements have lured others to enter the pogie fishery.
But the fishery has a regional quota, set by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which is up for reassessment next month. State officials are concerned that the rules will be changed in ways that will limit the amount harvested from Maine coastal waters and estuaries. If the fishery remained open to additional licenses, that would mean less would be available for each fisherman, threatening the bait industry.
April 14, 2022 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has initiated a benchmark stock assessment for river herring to be completed in the summer of 2023. River herring is the collective name for two closely related species, alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) and blueback herring (Alosa aestivalis), that return to rivers from Maine through Florida to spawn every year. The goals of the assessment are to evaluate the health of stocks along the Atlantic coast and inform management of these species. The Commission’s stock assessment process and meetings are open to the public, with the exception of discussions of confidential data.
The Commission welcomes the submission of data sources that will contribute to the goals of the assessment. This includes, but is not limited to, data on abundance including run counts and surveys, stocking, biological samples (sex, maturity, age, weight, length), life history information (growth, fecundity, natural mortality, sex ratio, spawning history), stock structure (tagging data, genetics), mortality (predator diet, anthropogenic sources such as hydropower dams), and catch (harvest, discard, fishing effort). An essential need is data to inform the stock assessment of discards and bycatch in other directed fisheries (e.g. the Atlantic herring fishery). For data sets to be considered, the data must be sent in the required format, with accompanying description of methods, to the Commission by July 1, 2022.
The Commission will hold a Data Workshop July 12-14, 2022 via webinar to review all available data sources for river herring and identify datasets to be incorporated in the stock assessment. The Data Workshop is open to the public. To register for the webinar, visit https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5539956829101821456. (Webinar ID 375-897-411).
For more information on submitting data, including the appropriate format, and/or attending the River Herring Data Workshop, please contact Katie Drew, Stock Assessment Team Lead, at kdrew@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.
April 7, 2022 — All lobster and Jonah crab fishermen in federal waters will soon need electronic tracking devices on their vessels while fishing there.
On March 31, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) approved addendums to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for American Lobster and the Jonah Crab, to take effect in 2023.
First, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries must implement the new requirement through the federal rulemaking process.
The new requirement, in Addendum XXIX to the American Lobster Management Plan and Addendum IV to the Jonah Crab Management Plan, is aimed at collecting high-resolution, spatial and temporal data to help manage the fisheries, by tracking the location of vessels minute by minute for up to 90 percent of the vessel’s time in the water.
April 6, 2022 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
Atlantic Herring Management Board members from the states of Maine, New Hampshire and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will meet via webinar on April 26, 2022 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. to discuss days out measures for the 2022 Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine) fishing season. Days out measures can include specification of the number of consecutive landings days, weekly landings limits, and restrictions on at-sea transfers. The webinar and call information is included below:
Atlantic Herring Days Out Meeting
Tuesday, April 26, 2022
10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
You can join the meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone at the following link:https://meet.goto.com/763162445. If you are new to GoToMeeting, you can download the app ahead of time (click here) and be ready before the meeting starts. For audio, the meeting will be using the computer voice over internet protocol (VoIP), but if you are joining the webinar from your phone only, you can dial in at +1 (571) 317-3129 and enter access code 763-162-445 when prompted. The webinar will start at 9:45 a.m., 15 minutes early, to troubleshoot audio as necessary.
Federally-permitted Herring Category A vessels must declare into the Area 1A fishery at least 45 days prior to the start of the fishing season. Small-mesh bottom trawl vessels with a federal Herring Category C or D permit must declare into the Area 1A fishery by June 1, 2022. Vessels should check with each state of landing regarding their notification procedures.
The 2022 Area 1A sub-annual catch limit (sub-ACL) is 1,075 metric tons (mt). The initial specification for the 2022 Area 1A sub-ACL of 1,184 mt decreased by 109 mt due to the catch overage in Area 1A in 2020. After adjusting for the 30 mt fixed gear set-aside and the 8% buffer (Area 1A closes at 92% of the sub-ACL), the Area 1A sub-ACL is 961 mt. There is no research-set-aside for 2022.
In October 2021, the Board established the following seasonal allocations for the 2022 Area 1A sub-ACL: 72.8% available from June 1 – September 30 and 27.2% available from October 1 – December 31. Fishermen are prohibited from landing more than 2,000 pounds of Atlantic herring per day harvested from Area 1A until June 1, 2022.
For more information, please contact Emilie Franke, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at 703.842.0716 orefranke@asmfc.org.
A copy of the meeting announcement can be found at http://www.asmfc.org/files/AtlHerring/AtlHerringDaysOutMeetingNotice_April2022.pdf.
April 5, 2022 — East Coast fisheries managers will host a June 21-23 workshop with fishermen and other stakeholders to develop possible scenarios for how management could adapt to shifting fishing stocks and biological and economic changes coming with climate change.
Since late 2020 the East Coast Climate Change Scenario Planning Initiative, fishery scientists and managers have been “working collaboratively and engaging diverse fishery stakeholders to explore jurisdictional and governance issues related to climate change and shifting fishery stocks,” according to the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council.
The initiative is a joint project of the Mid-Atlantic, New England and South Atlantic fishery management councils, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and NMFS.
April 4, 2022 — Maine lobstermen and their counterparts along the East Coast who fish in federal waters will have to install an electronic tracking device on their boats starting next year.
Regulators with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted Thursday to require all lobstermen and Jonah crab fishermen who fish offshore to have the devices onboard to collect and transmit spatial data. The unprecedented data from the trackers is intended to help regulators with assessing the health of the lobster and crab stocks, ocean planning and interactions with right whales and other protected species.
But lobstermen from Maine have objected to the idea, fearing the data could be used against them, particularly to aid with the siting of offshore wind turbines.
April 1, 2022 — The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s American Lobster Management Board approved Addendum XXIX to Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for American Lobster and Addendum IV to the Jonah Crab FMP. The Addenda establish electronic tracking requirements for federally-permitted vessels in the American lobster and Jonah crab fisheries, with the goal of collecting high resolution spatial and temporal effort data to support a number of ongoing efforts.
The Board initiated the Addenda in August 2021 to address several challenges facing the fishery, including stock assessment limitations, protected species interactions, marine spatial planning efforts, and enforcement in federal waters. Given the critical need for enhanced spatial and temporal data in the offshore fishery to address these issues, the Addenda require federally-permitted American lobster and Jonah crab vessels with commercial trap gear area permits to collect location data via an approved electronic tracking device. Specifically, electronic tracking devices will be required for vessels with commercial trap gear area permits for Lobster Conservation Management Areas (LCMAs) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and Outer Cape Cod. LCMA 6 (Long Island Sound) and the Area 5 waiver permit, which allows Area 5 permit holders to target black sea bass with un-baited traps, are excluded from the tracking requirements.
The data collected through electronic tracking under the Addenda will greatly improve the stock assessment’s ability to estimate exploitation and abundance for American lobster by providing size composition data at a finer resolution than what is currently available. Additionally, the models used to assess the location of vertical lines in the fishery and their associated risk to endangered right whales will be substantially improved, which could have an impact on federal risk reduction requirements for the fishery. With a better understanding of the spatial footprint of the U.S. lobster and Jonah crab fisheries, managers will be better positioned to minimize and mitigate the impacts of other ocean uses such as aquaculture, marine protected areas, and offshore energy development on the fisheries. Furthermore, vessel tracking data will enhance the efficiency and efficacy of offshore law enforcement efforts.
The Addenda establish minimum criteria that must be met by tracking devices and vendors to be approved for use in the fishery, including a data reporting rate of one ping per minute, technical specifications, and customer service standards. To identify devices and vendors that meet these criteria, the Commission will form a work group to review and approve tracking technologies, and provide information on available options to the states.
States, in conjunction with Commission staff, will work to develop an implementation plan, including a standard operating procedure and a request for quotes from vessel tracking companies. The Commission is requesting that NOAA Fisheries implement the requirements of the Addenda through the federal rulemaking process by May 1, 2023.
Answers to some frequently asked questions about the electronic tracking program can be found here. For more information, please contact Caitlin Starks, Senior Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at cstarks@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.