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.