June 16, 2016 — NANTUCKET, Mass. — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is closing one of the key fishing areas off of New England where fishermen seek scallops.
The administration is closing the Nantucket Lightship North Scallop Access Area to scallop vessels that fish under “limited access general category” rules. The closure goes into effect at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Portland Press Herald
June 15, 2016 — The following was released by NOAA:
Effective at 0001 on June 16, we are closing the Nantucket Lightship North Scallop Access Area to the Limited Access General Category (LACG) Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) scallop fleet.
As of June 16, 2016, no scallop vessel fishing under LAGC IFQ regulations may fish for, possess, or land scallops in or from the Nantucket Lightship North Access Area. The scallop regulations require that we close this area once we project that the LAGC fleet has fished all of the 485 trips allocated to them in this area.
Vessels that have complied with the observer notification requirements, have declared a trip into the Nantucket Lightship North Scallop Access Area using the correct Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) code, and have crossed the VMS demarcation line before 0001 on June 16 may complete their trip and retain and land scallops caught from the Nantucket Lightship North Scallop Access Area.
December 17, 2015 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:
Framework Adjustment 27
At its early December meeting, the New England Council finalized its recommendations for Framework 27 to the Atlantic Sea Scallop FMP. The action contains catch specifications for the 2016 and 2017 (default) fishing years.
Fishermen will receive allocations that are projected to result in landings of about 47 million pounds of scallops in 2016. Forty million pounds are allocated to the scallop limited access fleet. Of the remainder, about 4.5 million pounds are allocated to the limited access general category (LAGC) fishery which numbers about 100 active vessels, and about 800,000 pounds are reserved for the observer set-aside program.
Several other specifications are the same as fishing year 2015 — 1.25 million pounds for the research set-aside program, 70,000 pounds for vessels with Northern Gulf of Maine LAGC permits, and 50,000 pounds for vessels with incidental LAGC permits.
Compared to 2015, the approximately 340 active limited access vessels will be allocated slightly more days-at-sea (DAS) in open areas this year and the same level of effort in the Mid-Atlantic Access Area (Delmarva, Hudson Canyon and Elephant Trunk Areas are combined in this action).
The proposed allocations for limited access vessels, as approved by the Council, will be 34.55 open area days-at-sea (as opposed to 31 DAS in 2015) for full-time vessels and 51,000 pounds in the Mid-Atlantic Access Area. Part-time vessels will receive 13.82 days-at-sea and 20,400 pounds in the Mid-Atlantic Access Area.
After much discussion, the New England Council also would allow a portion of the total LAGC allocation to be taken from the northern part of the Nantucket Lightship Access Area. The maximum removal from this relatively small area is proposed at 300,000 pounds, or about 7% of the LAGC total allocation. The proposed action also prohibits any scallop vessel from undertaking research set-aside compensation trips in the Lightship Area. The LAGC fleet’s total allocation from the Mid-Atlantic Access Area is 1.2 million pounds. Both areas would be closed to these vessels once the fleetwide LAGC quota is reached.