September 18, 2023 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council will hold a four-day meeting from Monday, September 25 through Thursday, September 28, 2023.  This will be an in-person meeting coupled with a webinar option for individuals who cannot or prefer not to attend in person. Please participate remotely if you do not feel well.

LOCATION:  Hotel 1620, Plymouth, MA.

START TIME:  12:00 p.m. on Monday and 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  The webinar will end shortly after the Council adjourns each day.

PUBLIC COMMENT OPPORTUNITIES:  The Council wants to hear from you.  Here’s how you can let the Council know what you think.

• WRITE A LETTER:  The deadline for submitting written comments for consideration at this meeting is 8:00 a.m. on Thursday, September 21, 2023. Please note that written comments must address items listed on the agenda for this meeting.
• TALK TO THE COUNCIL:  You’ll be able to address the Council directly through two different avenues:

1. By commenting on motions at the discretion of the Council chair (if commenting remotely, raise your hand on the webinar and unmute yourself when called upon); and
2. By speaking during the open period for public comment.  Here are the Guidelines for Providing Public Comment.

• OPEN PERIOD FOR PUBLIC COMMENT:  On Wednesday, September 27, 2023 at 4:30 p.m., the Council will offer the public an opportunity to provide comments on issues relevant to Council business but not listed on this agenda.  Given the Council’s busy meeting schedule, we ask that you limit remarks to 3-5 minutes.
• • SIGN UP:  Interested in speaking?  If attending in person, fill out the sign-up sheet on the table at the entrance to the Council meeting room.  To speak remotely, email Janice Plante at jplante@nefmc.org to get on the list.

WEBINAR REGISTRATION:  Online access to the meeting is available at Listen Live.  There is no charge to access the meeting through this webinar.

• Here are instructions in the Remote Participation Guide for successfully joining and participating in the webinar.
• THIS IS KEY!  If you want to speak during opportunities for public comment, you need to: (1) register for the webinar; and (2) actually “join” the webinar.  People who call in by telephone without joining the webinar will be in listen-only mode.  Those who take both steps – register and then join the webinar – will see the meeting screen and be able to click on a “raise hand” button, which will let the meeting organizer know you want to be unmuted to speak.
• We have a Help Desk in case you get stuck joining the webinar or have trouble along the way.  Just email helpdesk@nefmc.org and we’ll get right back to you.

CALL-IN OPTION:  To listen by telephone without joining the webinar, dial +1 (562) 247-8321.  The access code is 184-787-597.  Please be aware that if you dial in, your regular phone charges will apply.  Remember, you will not be able to speak if you do not first join the webinar as described above.  This phone number provides a “listen-only” option without the webinar component.

AGENDA:  All meeting materials and the agenda are available on the Council’s website atNEFMC September 25-28, 2023 meeting webpage.  Additional documents will be posted as they become available.

THREE MEETING OUTLOOK:  A copy of the New England Council’s Three Meeting Outlook is available HERE.

COUNCIL MEETING QUESTIONS:  Anyone with questions prior to or during the Council meeting should contact Janice Plante at (607) 592-4817, jplante@nefmc.org.

September 2, 2023 — The New England Fishery Management Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) will meet by webinar to discuss issues related to groundfish, the new Catch Accounting and Monitoring System (CAMS), and other matters.  The public is invited to listen live.  Here are the details.

August 30, 2023 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

NOAA Fisheries is soliciting proposals for the 2024 Scallop Research Set-Aside (RSA) Program. The funding opportunity opened on August 23, 2023 and will close on October 23, 2023. The solicitation and administrative aspects of the funding opportunity are being handled by the NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office (GARFO). All project proposals should support the New England Fishery Management Council’s scallop research priorities as shown in the table below and outlined in this report.

NEW THIS YEAR: As a result of changes recommended by the Council in June 2023 and subsequently approved by NOAA Fisheries, RSA proposals that support regional scallop surveys for stock assessment purposes and specification setting can be funded for up to four years covering 2024-2027. Regional survey proposals may be submitted for the Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank, and/or the Mid-Atlantic area. The four-year opportunity does not apply to discrete, finescale surveys or other research priorities, which will continue to be funded under one-or-twoyear awards.

Multi-year regional survey applications must describe the research needs for each year of the proposed project period and demonstrate that a multi-year award is in alignment with the Council’s research priorities.

August 7, 2023 — The following was released by New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) will meet by webinar to discuss issues related to Atlantic deep-sea red crab, white hake, a NOAA technical memorandum, and other matters.  The public is invited to listen live.  Here are the details.

WHEN:  Thursday, August 10, 2023

START TIME:  8:30 a.m.

WEBINAR REGISTRATION:  Online access to the meeting is available at Listen Live.  There is no charge to join the meeting through this webinar.  The Remote Participation Guide is posted here.

CALL-IN OPTION:  To listen by telephone, dial +1 (562) 247-8422.  The access code is 208-654-676.  Your regular phone charges will apply.

AGENDA:  The SSC will meet to:

• Review information provided by the Council’s Red Crab Plan Development Team and recommend the overfishing limits (OFLs) and acceptable biological catches (ABCs) for Atlantic deep-sea red crab for fishing years 2024-2027;

• Review draft analyses provided by Council contractors on recruitment assumptions used in stock projections for white hake and comment on their utility when modifying the rebuilding plan and setting specifications;

• Comment on the draft NOAA technical memorandum titled “Technical Guidance for Estimating Status Determination Reference Points and their Proxies in Accordance with the National Standard 1 Guidelines”; and

• Discuss other business, including brief updates on: (1) identifying SSC members to serve as discussion leads for developing ABC recommendations; (2) enhancing use of SSC sociocultural and economic expertise; (3) planning for the eighth meeting of the Council Coordination Committee’s Scientific Coordination Subcommittee; and (4) commenting on NOAA Fisheries’ intent to update National Standards 4, 8, and 9 Guidelines.

COMMENTS:  The deadline for submitting written comments for consideration at this meeting is 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday, August 8, 2023.  Address comments to Council Chair Eric Reid or Executive Director Cate O’Keefe and email them to comments@nefmc.org.  Additional information is available in the meeting notice.

MATERIALS:  All documents for this meeting will be posted on the SSC August 10, 2023 meeting webpage.

QUESTIONS:  Contact Joan O’Leary at (978) 465-0492, ext. 101, joleary@nefmc.org or Janice Plante at (607) 592-4817, jplante@nefmc.org.

August 4, 2023 — The following was released by New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council’s Groundfish Committee will be hosting a facilitated meeting on August 17, 2023 to discuss draft goals and objectives for modifying or replacing the existing acceptable biological catch (ABC) control rules for groundfish. ABC control rules are used in setting annual catch limits. They define how catch and/or fishing mortality change with stock size.

The Council is inviting members of the Groundfish Committee, the Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC), the Groundfish Plan Development Team, the Groundfish Advisory Panel, the Recreational Advisory Panel, the Risk Policy Working Group, and the public to participate in the discussion.

This will be a hybrid meeting conducted at the Four Points by Sheraton in Wakefield, MA, coupled with a webinar option. The start time is 9:30 a.m.

PLANNING TO PARTICIPATE? The Council is encouraging all groundfish stakeholders to engage in the conversation either in person or online. For planning purposes and to ensure a proper meeting room setup, the Council is asking everyone who intends to participate to fill out this Google form to indicate whether you plan to attend in person or tune in via the webinar. Your response is not binding! The form

July 25, 2023 — The following was released by New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council (Council) is looking for an independent contractor to facilitate a meeting that will discuss draft goals and objectives for Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish) Acceptable Biological Catch (ABC) control rules. This is a short-term, temporary contractor role, commencing on or about August 7, 2023, and expected to be completed by October 2023.

July 13, 2023 — The following was released by New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council (Council) is looking for an independent contractor to prepare a study about potentially establishing a coordinating body for New England groundfish research – in particular, cooperative research. This is a short-term, temporary contractor role. The application deadline is August 2, 2023.

THE IMPETUS: In January 2023, the Conservation Law Foundation and UMass-SMAST convened a workshop to bring together a diverse working group with broad representation from commercial and recreational fisheries, federal and state fisheries agencies, academia, and non-governmental organizations.  The objectives for this workshop were to:

June 29, 2023 — The following was released by New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council has approved a problem statement to guide its work on revisiting the Inshore Midwater Trawl Restricted Area that was developed under Amendment 8 to the Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan

The restricted area, also referred to as a buffer zone or exclusion zone, was implemented by NOAA Fisheries but subsequently vacated by a federal court on March 29, 2022. More information on the court’s ruling can be found here. As a next step, the Council made it a 2023 work priority to take another look at the area and address issues raised by the court.

The Council approved the problem statement for this subsequent action during its June 27-29, 2023 meeting. The vote was 13-to-4. The problem statement, outlined in full on page two, expands the geographic scope and potential range of measures and gear types to be considered under a new action.

Since this next action will go beyond revisiting the original Amendment 8 provisions, the Council also had to approve a change to its 2023 Council priorities, which it did by a large majority. As a result, the Council will:

“Explore a range of management alternatives to minimize user conflicts, including spatially and temporally explicit gear restrictions, area closures, and possession limits”; and

“Consider, but not be limited to, the spatial extent of the Midwater Trawl Restricted Area approved by the Council in Amendment 8, with a particular focus on areas not already subject to seasonal closures to midwater trawling.”

The Herring Plan Development Team, Herring Committee, and Advisory Panel (AP) will work on the new herring action over the summer using the problem statement as its starting point. The Council will receive an update during its September 2023 meeting.

June 29, 2023 — The following was released by New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council voted during its late-June meeting to ask the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS/NOAA Fisheries) to modify the Scallop Research Set-Aside (RSA) Program to allow for longer-term RSA awards for regional survey work.

More specifically, the Council’s request was to “allow regional scallop surveys used for stock assessments and specification setting to be funded for up to four years, with an option for a one-year extension for completing grant reports and data analysis.”

The proposed changes stem from recommendations made by the Council’s Scallop Survey Working Groupand through the 2019 RSA Program Review.

In an April 12, 2023 letter, NOAA Fisheries confirmed it could consider RSA awards of up to five years but typically limits awards to four years as a “best practice.”