Saving Seafood

NEFMC: NMFS Approves “Majority”of Council’s Habitat Amendment

January 8, 2018 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council: 

NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has approved – with two exceptions – the New England Fishery Management Council’s Omnibus Essential Fish Habitat Amendment 2 (OHA2), paving the way for sweeping change to the existing network of closed and management areas in the Gulf of Maine, Southern New England, and Georges Bank. The changes will provide better protection for both fish and habitat while eliminating closures that no longer serve their intended purpose. The final rule implementing the new regulations will not be published until later this winter, but NMFS informed the Council on January 3 of its decision to approve “the majority” of the amendment, which sets the stage for what’s to come.

Two of the Council’s proposed habitat management areas (HMAs) were disapproved:

  • Cox Ledge in Southern New England; and
  • Eastern Georges Bank, which called for the removal of Closed Area II as currently configured, replacing it with new management areas that would have allowed fishermen to access the abundant scallop resource on the Northern Edge.

Council Executive Director Tom Nies said, “Naturally we’re disappointed that our proposed Closed Area II changes were not approved, but the fact that the vast majority of the amendment will be implemented is a solid endorsement of the work the Council and staff did to dramatically change the closure system off New England.”

As for the disapproved measures, Nies said, “We’ll be discussing NMFS’s comments at our late-January meeting, and the Council may decide it wants to revisit these issues going forward.”

The habitat amendment has five key purposes, which are to: (A) designate essential fish habitat (EFH) by lifestage for each species managed by the Council; (B) minimize the adverse effects of fishing on EFH to the extent practicable – a monumental undertaking that took years to carry out using the state-of-the-art Swept Area Seabed Impact model known as SASI; (C) identify other actions to encourage conservation and enhancement of habitat; (D) improve protection of habitats on which juvenile groundfish depend; and (E) improve protection of spawning groundfish.

The Council used six types of management approaches to achieve these purposes: (1) the EFH designations; (2) Habitat Areas of Particular Concern (HAPCs); (3) Habitat Management Areas; (4) Spawning Management Areas; (5) Dedicated Habitat Research Areas; and (6) changes to approaches involving framework adjustments and monitoring.

NMFS approved:

  • All of the Council’s EFH designations;
  • All of the HAPC designations, including: (a) the two existing ones for Atlantic Salmon and Northern Edge Juvenile Cod, (b) four new ones called Inshore Juvenile Cod HAPC, Great South Channel Juvenile Cod HAPC, Cashes Ledge HAPC, and Jeffreys Ledge/Stellwagen Bank HAPC, (c) 11 deep-sea canyons, and (d) two offshore seamounts;
  • Most of the Habitat Management Area measures, including: (a) establishing new HMAs in Eastern Maine and on Fippennies Ledge where mobile bottom-tending gear is Hake and red crab along the slope between Heezen and Nygren Canyons. – 2013 Northeast U.S. Canyons Expedition image. prohibited, (b) maintaining the Cashes Ledge Groundfish Closure Area with current restrictions and exemptions, (c) modifying both the Cashes Ledge and Jeffreys Ledge Habitat Closure Areas, which are closed to mobile bottom-tending gear, (d) prohibiting all fishing gear except lobster pots in the Ammen Rock Area, (e) maintaining the Western Gulf of Maine (WGOM) Habitat Closure Area, which is closed to mobile bottom-tending gear, (f) aligning the boundaries of the WGOM Groundfish Closure Area to match the WGOM Habitat Closure Area, (g) exempting shrimp trawling from the northwest corner of the WGOM areas, and (g) identifying the existing Gulf of Maine Roller Gear restriction as a habitat protection measure

Also related to Habitat Management Areas, NMFS approved the Council’s proposals to open up prime scallop fishing bottom in Closed Area I and the western portion of the Nantucket Lightship Area. In short, the current Closed Area I Habitat and Groundfish Closure Area designations will be removed, as will the Nantucket Lightship Habitat and Groundfish Closure designations.

Instead of keeping these less-effective habitat/groundfish areas in place, the Council established a Great South Channel HMA, which will be closed to: (1) mobile bottom-tending gear throughout the area; and (2) clam dredge gear in the northeast section (see map on page 1). NOTE: Clam dredge gear will be allowed throughout other parts of the area for one year while the Council considers refinements through a Clam Dredge Framework, which is under development. OHA2 also created a new research area for Georges.

Learn more about how the Closed Area I and Nantucket Lightship actions will be impacting scallopers at: http://s3.amazonaws.com/nefmc.org/NEFMC-Scallop-FW-29-Advances-Following-Habitat-Decision.pdf

Two new Dedicated Habitat Research Areas (DHRAs) will be established through this habitat amendment as well, each with a three-year sunset provision. One is on Stellwagen Bank within the Western Gulf of Maine Closure Area, and the second is on Georges Bank in what is the current Closed Area I South Habitat Closure Area. These areas will be the focus of coordinated research to improve understanding of the ecological effects of fishing across a range of habitats and, ultimately improve model forecasts. The Council identified a set of priority research questions that the DHRAs should address. The questions are based on four broad focus areas: (1) gear impacts; (2) habitat recovery; (3) natural disturbance; and (4) productivity.

View the release in its entirety here.

 

Fishing officials ease restrictions in waters off New England

January 8, 2018 — After 15 years of research and deliberation, federal fishing officials this week approved a landmark set of regulations that will open a large swath of the region’s waters to fishing while maintaining other closures to protect vulnerable species.

The opening of one area east of Nantucket, closed since the 1990s, could be extremely lucrative, allowing fishermen to catch as much as $160 million worth of additional scallops in the coming fishing season, regulators estimate.

“The scallop industry is thrilled to be able to access significant scallop beds,” said Drew Minkiewicz, an attorney at the Fisheries Survival Fund in Washington D.C., which represents the scallop industry. “Allowing rotational scallop fishing on these areas will increase the scallop fishery revenue in the short term and in the long run.”

Yet many in the industry had hoped that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would go further.

Minkiewicz and others objected to the decision to maintain the ban on fishing on the northern edge of Georges Bank, where there are significant amounts of scallops but also vulnerable species such as juvenile cod.

Minkiewicz said the industry would continue to press NOAA to reconsider opening those fishing grounds.

“The scallop industry respectfully disagrees with [NOAA’s] conclusion that allowing limited scallop fishing [there] . . . was not consistent with the law,” he said.

NOAA officials said that opening such areas could be harmful to some fish.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

 

‘Groundbreaking’ fish protection plan in place in Northeast

January 5, 2018 — The following is excerpted from an article by Doug Fraser of the Cape Cod Times:

After 14 years of research, negotiations, hearings and two additional years of review, New England has a plan that uses science and the latest technology to decide which areas are important for the critical life stages of fish and shellfish species and how to protect them.

John Bullard, the regional director of NOAA’s Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office, informed New England Fishery Management Council Chairman John Quinn in a letter Wednesday that his agency had approved most of their fish habitat protection plan.

“It was a massive undertaking and your staff, especially Michelle Bachman, should be proud of their groundbreaking work that went into supporting this amendment,” Bullard wrote in the letter. The council staff, along with researchers from the National Marine Fisheries Service, state fisheries agencies, and universities, especially the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science and Technology, put together models that incorporated photographic and other surveys of the ocean bottom with known areas of fish concentration and other research on spawning and other life stages, that helped the council evaluate what should be protected and how.

“The fact that it dragged on so long, people miss how groundbreaking this really is,” said Tom Nies, the New England council’s executive director. Two decades ago, habitat closures were decided based on drawing a line around areas where fish were congregating, Nies said. Now, with a model that compares the sea bed with the impact of fishing, they can make decisions he feels will have greater significance to restoring and protecting fish stocks. Plus, the habitat plan also set aside research areas to investigate the link between habitat and fish productivity, a piece of the puzzle that has seen relatively little conclusive research.

“If you compare where we are with this amendment in terms of how they were developed and analyzed versus the original habitat areas in 2002 and 2003, we are light years ahead of where we were then,” Nies said.

Scallopers from both the big boat and small boat fleets, which are often at odds, traveled to Washington in October to lobby [U.S. Rep. William] Keating and other congressmen on getting NMFS to finish its review of the habitat plan and open the area up to scalloping before that population died off. Their message was that allowing them into scallop-rich, nonessential fish habitat meant they spent far less time towing their heavy dredges through areas fish do use.

“From our perspective, it’s really heartening that they heard our concerns,” said Seth Rolbein, director of the Cape Cod Fisheries Trust, speaking for the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance.

David Frulla, an attorney and lobbyist representing limited access scallop vessels, and Fisheries Survival Fund attorney Andrew Minkiewicz agreed the council and NOAA made the right decision in closing the Great South Channel and opening the scallop grounds in what is known as Closed Area I. But they felt that there was just as much evidence to open up a portion of a second closed area on Georges Bank over 100 miles east of the Cape that had historically produced as much as 50 million pounds of harvested scallops. Bullard said more information would be needed for his agency to do that right now.

“There are only so many highly productive scallop beds, and this is one of them,” Minkiewicz said. Frulla admitted that the bottom there is more complex and may be harder to determine its value to fish, but Minkiewicz said adding another prime scallop area keeps scallopers away from the bottom where fish do congregate.

Assistant Regional Administrator Michael Pentony told Quinn in an email that his agency expected to publish the final rule containing the regulations to implement the plan this spring.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

 

NOAA to open New England scallop areas, invite record harvest

January 5, 2018 — New England sea scallop fishers can start planning now for what promises to be their best season in 14 years, thanks to a decision coming soon from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).

John Bullard, the outgoing administrator of NOAA’s greater Atlantic region, informed the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC), in a five-page letter sent late Wednesday, that the agency will follow most of its recommendations with regard to the “essential fish habitat” amendment – a long-discussed plan to reset fishing management and conservation practices in the area.

That includes opening up to scallop harvesters an expanded portion of Closed Area I and the western part of the Nantucket Lightship area, two sections of the Atlantic Ocean that have been closed for a decade and are now expected to be loaded with large scallops.

“NMFS determined that the removal of the Closed Area I designations and proposed new designations do not compromise the ability of the council’s fishery management plans to comply with the [essential fish habitat] requirements of the Magnuson-Stevens Act,” Bullard wrote in his letter, which was addressed to John Quinn, NEFMC’s chairman.

Based on surveys reported in September, Closed Area 1, including the previous off-limit “sliver” area and northern portion, contains 19.8 million pounds (9,016 metric tons) of exploitable scallop meat, referring to scallops found with shells that were at least 4 inches wide. Even better, as much as 45.6m lbs (20,670t) of exploitable scallop meat is projected to exist in the west Nantucket Lightship area.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

NOAA Partially Approves Omnibus Habitat Amendment 2

January 4, 2018 — NOAA Northeast Regional Administrator John Bullard, in a letter to New England Fishery Management Council (NEMFC) Chairman Dr. John Quinn, has stated that NOAA has partially approved Omnibus Habitat Amendment 2. This follows over 15 years of work on OHA2 by the NEFMC and regional stakeholders. The details of the decision, as well as the text of the letter, are included below.

Dear Dr. Quinn,

I am writing to inform you that we have approved the majority of the New England Fishery Management Council’s Omnibus Essential Fish Habitat Amendment 2.

We approved, as recommended, the essential fish habitat (EFH) designations, the habitat areas of particular concern (HAPC) designations, the dedicated habitat research areas (DHRA), the groundfish spawning recommendations, the framework and monitoring measures, and most of the habitat management area (HMA) recommendations. We have determined that the approved measures comply with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act requirements to identify and describe EFH and to minimize to the extent practicable the adverse effects of fishing on such habitat.

We have disapproved two of the HMA recommendations — the recommendations for eastern Georges Bank and Cox Ledge.

Approved Measures

We approved the following Council recommendations, as proposed:

  • All of the Council’s essential fish habitat designation updates.
  • All HAPC designations–
    • Two status quo HAPCs (Atlantic Salmon and Northern Edge Juvenile Cod); o Four additional HAPCs (Inshore Juvenile Cod, Great South Channel Juvenile Cod, Cashes Ledge, and Jeffreys Ledge/Stellwagen Bank);
    • Eleven canyons or canyon assemblages (Heezan Canyon; Lydonia, Gilbert, and Oceanographer Canyons; Hydrographer Canyon; Veatch Canyon; Alvin and Atlantis Canyons; Hudson Canyon; Toms, Middle Tom, and Hendrickson Canyon; Wilmington Canyon; Baltimore Canyon; Washington Canyon; and Norfolk Canyon); and
    • Two seamounts (Bear and Retriever).
  • Most proposed Habitat Management Area measures–
    • Establish the (Small) Eastern Maine HMA, closed to mobile bottom-tending gear;
    • Maintain Cashes Ledge (Groundfish) Closure Area, with current restrictions and exemptions;
    • Modify the Cashes Ledge Habitat Closure Area, closed to mobile bottom-tending gear;
    • Modify the Jeffreys Ledge Habitat Closure Area, closed to mobile bottom-tending gear;
    • Establish the Fippennies Ledge HMA, closed to mobile bottom-tending gear; o Maintain the Western Gulf of Maine Habitat Closure Area, closed to mobile bottom-tending gear;
    • Modify the Western Gulf of Maine Groundfish Closure Area to align with the Western Gulf of Maine Habitat Closure Area, with current restrictions and exemptions;
    • Exempt shrimp trawling from the designated portion of the northwest corner of the Western Gulf of Maine Closure Areas;
    • Add the Gulf of Maine Roller Gear restriction as a habitat protection measure; o Remove the Closed Area I Habitat and Groundfish Closure Area designations; o Remove the Nantucket Lightship Habitat and Groundfish Closure Area designations; and
    • Establish the Great South Channel HMA, closed to mobile bottom-tending gear throughout and clam dredge gear in the defined northeast section. Clam dredge gear would be permitted throughout the rest of the HMA for 1 year while the Council considers restrictions that are more refined.
  • Both proposed DHRA designations, with a 3-year sunset provision–
    • Stellwagen Bank (within the Western Gulf of Maine Closure Area); and
    • Georges Bank (i.e., the current Closed Area I South Habitat Closure Area).
  • All proposed groundfish spawning measures–
    • Gulf of Maine: Establish the Winter Massachusetts Bay Spawning Closure from November I-January 31 of each year; and close block 125 from April 15-April 30 of each year;
    • Georges Bank: Establish Closed Area I North and Closed Area II Groundfish Closure Area as spawning closures from February 1-April 15 of each year, closed to commercial and recreational gears capable of catching groundfish except scallop dredges; and remove the May Georges Bank Spawning Closure.
  • Both proposed framework adjustment and monitoring measures–
    • 10-year review requirement; and
    • Modifications to habitat management areas are frameworkable.

Disapproved Measures

Cox Ledge
On Cox Ledge, the Council recommended establishing an HMA that would have prohibited the use of ground cables on trawl vessels and prohibited hydraulic clam dredging in the area. Based on the analysis submitted, NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service determined there was insufficient information to implement the ground cable measure at this time. While there have been studies in other regions supporting the prohibition of ground cables as a method to minimize area swept, there was not enough information to determine how successful this approach would be in this region. Because it is unclear how inefficient this measure would make the gear, it is also unclear if this measure would reduce habitat impacts or actually increase them.

Further, there is insufficient information to determine the potential costs to the industry from the potential increased fishing time. As a result, the recommendation to establish the Cox Ledge HMA with these measures is disapproved because there is little rationale and evidence to demonstrate how it complies with the requirements ofthe Magnuson-Stevens Act to minimize the adverse effects of fishing if the measure would actually increase fishing time due to a reduction in fishing efficiency.

Eastern Georges Bank
On eastern Georges Bank, the Council recommended removing Closed Areas I and II and implementing the Georges Shoal and Northern Edge Mobile Bottom-Tending Gear Habitat Management Areas, both closed to mobile bottom-tending gears, and Northern Edge Reduced Impact Habitat Management Area, closed to mobile bottom-tending gears, except scallop dredges in a rotational management program and trawls west of 67° 20′ W longitude. We have partially approved this recommendation. We approved the removal ofthe Closed Area I Groundfish and Habitat Closures, but disapproved the recommendation to remove Closed Area II.

This action approves the Council’s recommendation to remove the Closed Area I EFH and Groundfish Closure Area designations and replace them with a DHRA and seasonal spawning closure. NMFS determined that the removal of the Closed Area I designations and proposed new designations do not compromise the ability ofthe Council’s fishery management plans to comply with the EFH requirements of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

We determined that there was insufficient information to support the Closed Area II recommendation. The Council’s recommended HMAs on Georges Bank do not sufficiently address the impact of limited access scallop dredging on the highly vulnerable habitat within the Closed Area II Habitat Closure Area. Overall, the Council’s recommended changes to Closed Area II and eastern Georges Bank would prevent achieving the Amendment’s goals and objectives, notably to improve juvenile groundfish habitat protection, and the requirements of the Magnuson-Stevens Act to minimize the adverse effects of fishing to the extent practicable. Furthermore, the Closed Area II Habitat Closure Area has the same footprint as the Northern Edge Juvenile Cod HAPC. The area has been closed to mobile bottom-tending gear since 1995 and was designated as an HAPC in 1998. The rationale for the designation ofthe HAPC was that this is important habitat for juvenile cod that is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of fishing. The Council reaffirmed the HAPC designation in this Amendment, but the Council’s recommendation does not avoid, mitigate, or compensate for the adverse effects of the proposed action on this HAPC.

The Amendment’s focus of minimizing the total area closed to fishing, while maximizing the amount of vulnerable habitat protected, sought in part to provide more habitat for juvenile groundfish and enhance the productivity of groundfish resources. The proposed habitat management measures on eastern Georges Bank do not support these goals and objectives, however. Removing protections from, and allowing scallop dredging in, the most vulnerable portion of Closed Area II without adopting comparable protections that reasonably balance the long- and short-terms costs and benefits to EFH, associated fisheries, and the nation does not minimize the adverse effects of fishing in this area to the extent practicable. It also prevents the Council from achieving this action’s goals and objectives to improve protections of ground fish, and juvenile cod specifically. The potential benefits to habitat from the proposed closed areas do · not outweigh the potential adverse effects on highly valuable EFH and vulnerable ground fish stocks that would result from the proposed opening of the current Closed Area II Habitat Closure Area to limited access scallop dredging. The no action alternative that remains on Georges Bank, and the HMAs in other sub-regions as approved, provide a reasonable balance of EFH protection and long- and short-term costs and benefits as well as meet the Amendment’s goals and objectives to improve groundfish protection.

Further supporting the determination that the proposed areas and measures do not sufficiently offset the quality and importance of the habitat on eastern Georges Bank against the adverse impacts of fishing in this area is the lack of consideration of allowing fishing in the Northern Edge Juvenile Cod HAPC in the Closed Area II Habitat Closure Area. As noted above, the Council initially made this HAPC designation in 1998 and reaffirmed the importance of the area in this Amendment. One of the four considerations for HAPC designation is sensitivity to anthropogenic stress. The Council concluded that there are “no known anthropogenic threats to this area beyond those associated with fishing activity.” While there are no fishery restrictions automatically associated with HAPC designations themselves, the designation should result in the Council taking a more precautionary approach to management of those areas, particularly when the only noted human-induced stressor is fishing. The 2002 final rule for the EFH regulations notes, “designation of HAPCs is a valuable way to highlight priority areas within EFH for conservation and management … Proposed fishing activities that might threaten HAPCs may likewise receive a higher level of scrutiny.” This guidance suggests that councils should prioritize the protection of HAPCs where fishing is a primary or significant threat to the habitat.

The designation of an area as an HAPC does not inherently require a fishing closure in the area. However, the Council provided insufficient information to understand which aspects of the area are critical to juvenile cod survival, how those aspects of the habitat are affected by scallop dredges, the recovery time for such impacts, and the anticipated rotation periods for scallop fishing. Without more consideration and analyses of these critical components, it is not possible to determine under what conditions rotational scallop fishing should be permitted in the Northern Edge HAPC and the full nature and extent of how such access would affect juvenile cod. The Council’s recommendations in this Amendment would open the most vulnerable portions of the HAPC and do not adequately mitigate or compensate for those impacts by restricting them or closing any other comparable habitat. The Council’s recommendation to allow even rotational fishing in this sensitive habitat appears to be inconsistent with its own rationale for the designation that the habitat in this area warrants particular concern and consideration.

For these reasons, we have disapproved this recommendation. Ifthis issue were revisited in the future, a more thorough discussion ofthese critical issues would be required. We will continue to provide support for reconsidering reasonably balanced approaches to providing limited fishing opportunities in this area, while protecting this valuable habitat and better minimizing the adverse impacts offishing.
Thank you for the Council’s work on this action. It was a massive undertaking and your staff, especially Michelle Bachman, should be proud of their groundbreaking work that went into supporting this Amendment. As always, our staff are available to answer any questions you may have on this decision.

View the letter in its entirety here.

For more information on some of the proposed changes in OHA2, as well as the perspective of the fishing industry on these changes, view this video.

 

Big changes likely for national monument just outside Gulf of Maine

December 14, 2017 — Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke may have decided Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument in northern Maine should be left as it is, but he’s proposing major changes to another monument established just last year in the Atlantic ocean, on the far side of the Gulf of Maine.

Zinke has recommended that commercial fishing activity resume in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument and two other marine monuments in the Pacific.

The marine monument, which encompasses nearly 5,000 square miles, lies outside the Gulf of Maine, roughly 100 to 200 nautical miles southeast of Cape Cod along the edge of the continental shelf. It was created by then-President Barack Obama in September 2016.

Since President Donald Trump ordered a review this past spring, Zinke has been reviewing the status of 27 monuments, five of them marine monuments, that were created by prior presidents.

Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument in northern Maine, also created last year by Obama, was among those under review. Last week, Zinke recommended that no changes be made to the northern Maine monument.

As part of the same report, which was released Dec. 5, Zinke recommended that fisheries in the three marine monuments should be subject to the same federal laws that apply to fisheries nationwide.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

 

NOAA decision could trigger largest scallop harvest in 14 years

December 12, 2017 — What the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) decides next to do about areas off the coast of New England that’ve been closed to scallop fishing for a decade or more could be the difference between another good season and a 14-year record in terms of harvest volumes.

Based on earlier surveys and estimates made by staff at the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC), the 2018-19 scallop season, which starts April 1, will generate at least 51.5 million pounds worth of landings – a little better than the roughly 47.5m lbs expected this season.

But it could also generate as much as 60m lbs, which would be the biggest harvest since the 2004-05 season when 64.6m lbs of scallops were landed.

One of the most important factors will be whether NOAA follows NEFMC’s recommendations and opens the Closed Area 1 “sliver” of the Georges Bank and also an area described as Nantucket Lightship West.

Based on surveys reported in September, Closed Area 1 contains 19.8m lbs (9,016 metric tons) of exploitable scallop meat, meaning a lot of scallops were found with shells at the minimum 4 inch-wide diameter needed to be caught in dredging nets. Even better, as much as 45.6m lbs (20,670t) of exploitable scallop meat is projected to exist in the western portion of the Nantucket Lightship area.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

Fisheries council boosts Gulf of Maine quotas for cod, haddock, pollock

December 11, 2017 — The New England Fishery Management Council voted to increase cod and pollock quotas for 2018, a move that is expected to benefit New England’s fishing industry.

The council passed a rule Thursday that sets new quotas and has a number of other groundfish adjustments.

The species with substantial quota increases are Georges Bank cod, Gulf of Maine cod, Gulf of Maine haddock and pollock.

The redfish quota will rise by 5 percent.

The biggest percentage increases all were in the Gulf of Maine, where haddock has been nearly tripled to 8,738 tons, and pollock doubled to 37,400 tons.

Cod was increased 156 percent on Georges Bank and 39 percent in the Gulf of Maine, both signs of improving health of the cod stock.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

 

Cod quotas rise, flounder sinks

December 8, 2017 — Northeast commercial groundfishermen will face a mixed sampler of annual catch limits when the 2018 fishing season opens, with significant increases to some Gulf of Maine stocks but continued declines in many of the flounder quotas.

The New England Fishery Management Council, at its meeting Wednesday in Newport, Rhode Island, approved its groundfish Framework 57, which sets the annual catch limits for 2018-2020 fishing years.

Groundfishing stakeholders applauded the 2018 increases for such stocks as Georges Bank cod, Gulf of Maine cod, Gulf of Maine haddock and pollock in 2018, but said the gains still don’t come close to closing the credibility gap they believe exists between NOAA Fisheries’ science and what fishermen are seeing on the water.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

NMFS finalizing new rules for New England fisheries

December 5, 2017 — Tuesday, 5 December is the final day for the public to submit comments on a series of proposed changes to essential fish habitats and areas within the New England Fishery Management Council’s jurisdiction.

The new regulations were designed to keep the council in compliance with the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which calls on the councils to review designated habitat areas and protect those areas as much as possible to allow fish to mature and spawn.

The proposed changes include opening the northern portion of Georges Bank, a shallow plateau located between Cape Cod and Nova Scotia, to scallop fishermen.

The council said the potential economic benefits outweigh the benefits of keeping the area closed. The scallop fishery have averaged nearly USD 500 million (EUR 421.2 million) in revenue over the past five years. By allowing fishermen in Georges Bank, it could increase their revenue by almost USD 190 million (EUR 160 million).

Read the full story at Seafood Source