January 31, 2020 — NOAA Fisheries announced the implementation of a New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) amendment to allow industry-funded monitoring in any fishery under its management.
The monitoring will better assess catch and reduce uncertainty around catch estimates. The amendment also establishes monitoring in the Atlantic herring fishery, which is faced with a significant quota cutback.
January 31, 2020 — The draft amendment to set at-sea monitoring coverages aboard all Northeast groundfish vessels has led an adventurous existence in the three years the New England Fishery Management Council has dedicated to developing the contentious measure.
There was last year’s partial shutdown of the federal government that delayed the rule-setting process. The council, in March 2018, also chose to tap the brakes on the development of the measure — known as Amendment 23 — because it didn’t believe the technical analyses associated with the measure were complete.
As late as last week, fishing stakeholders charged the council was working with insufficient data as it rushed to finally enact the draft management rule setting groundfish monitoring coverages in the Northeast multispecies groundfishery.
So why should anything become simple now?
The council voted Wednesday to send the monitoring amendment — which includes the approved draft of the measure’s environmental impact statement and the council’s preferred alternative for coverage levels — out for public comment in the spring. Final action is expected at its June meeting.
January 30, 2020 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:
The New England Fishery Management Council received a number of updates and reports on the first day of its January 28-30, 2020 meeting in Portsmouth, NH. Here’s a quick rundown of the day’s highlights.
The Council received a presentation on the Northeast Ocean Data Portal, which contains over 5,000 maps showing a variety of ocean uses, including fishing activity, and provides a wide range of information related to marine life, habitat, offshore wind, aquaculture, and more.
During the presentation, representatives from the Northeast Regional Ocean Council (NROC) and the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) informed the Council that they, along with the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean (MARCO), are working collaboratively to update commercial fisheries data on the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic Ocean Data Portals and engage industry through focus groups and other outreach efforts in the development of data products. The groups have federal funding for 2020 to advance regional data sharing to help in management decision making.
January 30, 2020 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:
The New England Fishery Management Council discussed several offshore wind and habitat-related issues during its late January meeting in Portsmouth, NH, including a proposed exempted fishing permit (EFP) for the Great South Channel Habitat Management Area (HMA) that would allow surfclam and mussel dredging within a defined portion of Rose & Crown – one of the HMA’s research-only areas.
The HMA was created through the Council’s Omnibus Essential Fish Habitat Amendment 2, which was implemented April 9, 2018. Surfclam dredge vessels were granted a one-year exemption to continue fishing in the area. The exemption expired April 9, 2019.
The Council developed a Clam Dredge Framework as a trailing action to the amendment to consider allowing the use of clam dredge gear and, subsequently, mussel dredge gear within the HMA if the gear could be used without harming sensitive habitat.
January 29, 2020 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council & Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:
The New England Fishery Management Council and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council have taken final action on an omnibus framework adjustment that will require commercial fishermen to submit vessel trip reports (VTRs) electronically as eVTRs instead of on paper for all species managed by both Councils. The Mid-Atlantic Council initiated the action in December of 2018 and signed off on the framework during its December 2019 meeting. The New England Council joined the framework in June of 2019 and took final action during its late-January 2020 meeting in Portsmouth, NH.
Once approved and implemented by the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office (GARFO) of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS/NOAA Fisheries), the framework will:
January 28, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
NOAA Fisheries announces that for fishing year 2020, the total target at-sea monitoring coverage level is 40 percent of all groundfish sector trips subject to the at-sea monitoring program. For more information, please read our letter to the New England Fishery Management Council and the Summary of Analysis Conducted to Determine At-Sea Monitoring Requirements for Multispecies Sectors FY 2020.
Per direction in 2020 appropriations, we have funds allocated for reimbursing industry for its at-sea monitoring costs. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will continue to administer the reimbursement program for 2020 as in prior years.
January 28, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
This is part two of our interview Rick Bellevance, a charter fisherman out of Point Judith, Rhode Island and a member of the New England Fishery Management Council, about his experiences using electronic monitoring and reporting. In this part, we focus on electronic monitoring. Read Part 1 for Rick’s take on electronic reporting.
Getting Started in Electronic Monitoring
You just recently started a pilot project using cameras to attempt to verify eVTR recreational fishing reports. Why did you start this project?
I started the project on electronic monitoring as a way to validate my electronic vessel trip reports. I grow frustrated with folks who feel like they need to double, triple, and quadruple check our vessel trip reports. I honestly believe that we all try hard to accurately report what we catch and what we throw back. This was my way of being able to show a full season of how my business works. So those cameras are, in my opinion, recording what I already know, and I want to have an opportunity to show that to people.
Where are the cameras located on your boat?
One camera is on the railing on my bridge that shoots down into the cockpit and captures all the anglers in the back of the boat and all of the fishing activity. There is a second camera that is focused straight down on the station where we generally measure all the fish to determine if they are legal-sized or not. And so as I understand it, they can take the images from the angler reeling in the fish. Then the fish is then captured by the camera where it gets measured, and you can see whether the fish is discarded or retained. That system validates the numbers of discards and kept fish that we reported.
Have you seen the video? How are the cameras on the vessel working out so far?
I did see a little snippet from the program. It’s really cool how you can see the fish get caught on the first camera, and then see the fish measured and tossed or kept on the second camera.
January 27, 2020 — The New England Fishery Management Council is set to resume action on the contentious groundfish monitoring amendment next week, but the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition is questioning whether the council is rushing its own process and operating with incomplete information.
The council, scheduled to meet for three days next week in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, will return Wednesday to the arduous task of completing Amendment 23, which will set monitoring levels for vessels operating within the Northeast multispecies groundfish fishery.
Those monitoring levels ultimately will dictate the magnitude of monitoring costs the industry will bear in future fishing seasons. The current draft of the amendment includes four alternatives that call for groundfish monitoring coverage levels of 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%.
The council, which has been working on the amendment for nearly three years, faces two pivotal tasks on Wednesday: It must approve a full range of monitoring coverage alternatives and it must approve a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) and accompanying analyses in advance of sending both out for public comment.
January 21, 2020 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:
The New England Fishery Management Council will hold a three-day meeting from Tuesday, January 28 through Thursday, January 30, 2020. The public is invited to listen live via webinar or telephone. Here are the details.
January 17, 2020 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:
The New England Fishery Management Council is seeking the services of an independent contractor to prepare visually rich and understandable materials for distribution and presentation during public information workshops about Ecosystem-Based Fishery Management (EBFM). Letters of interest and supporting materials must be received by February 14, 2020.