Saving Seafood

2018 will be good year for clam chowder, Bumble Bee, thanks to NOAA moves

January 9, 2018 — The makers and fans of New England clam chowder, including Bumble Bee Seafood, can feel confident that the kind of mollusk most often used to make the soup — ocean quahogs — will be in ample supply in 2018 thanks to two moves made recently by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Ocean conservationists, however, are not breaking out their party hats and noisemakers.

When John Bullard, NOAA’s northeast regional administrator, informed the New England Fishery Management Council last week that the agency will authorize the majority of NEFMC’s Omnibus Essential Fish Habitat Amendment 2 (OA2), many focused on the positive ramifications for scallop harvesters.

But NOAA’s approval of the council’s new plan for balancing the conservation of different sea life with the concerns of local fishermen also came with good news for harvesters of ocean quahogs and surf clams. Bullard informed NEFMC that his agency also agrees with its suggestion to provide a one-year exemption for clam harvesters to prohibitions against the controversial use of hydraulic dredging gear in the Great South Channel habitat management area (HMA), a deep-water passage that cuts between Nantucket and Georges Bank.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

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 The final rule implementing the new regulations will not be published until later this winter, but NMFS informed the Council on January 3 of its decision to approve “the majority” of the amendment, which sets the stage for what’s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.

 

John Bullard: Sector IX board’s failure to act stopped its fishing

January 8, 2018 — For New Englanders, Atlantic cod is not just another fish. The Sacred Cod that hangs in the Massachusetts State House is testament to the cod’s place in our culture and history.

For centuries, we fished for cod, and, as we watched the stock decline, we tried various ways to protect the resource that is considered as much a birthright as a commodity.

In 2009, the New England Fishery Management Council under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, agreed to try a system called “catch-shares,” which worked well on the West Coast.

The idea was simple: figure out how much fish from a particular stock can be sustainably caught— the “total allowable catch”—and divide that among fishermen.

By allocating quota, fishermen would have more control over when and how they fish, and — fishermen could fish when the weather and markets were most favorable. Catch shares eliminated the “race to fish” once a season opens.

A catch-share system allocating shares to groups of self-selected fishermen called ‘sectors’ went into place in the New England groundfish fishery in 2010. Within these sectors, fishermen organized themselves, determined how to fish their quota, and established other rules by which they would operate.

All sectors then submitted an operations plan to NOAA Fisheries and, under that plan, were responsible for policing themselves. The primary responsibility of a sector is to keep within its quota and account for its catch.

While most sectors have done a great job meeting this responsibility, Sector IX failed miserably over many years.

The former sector president, Carlos Rafael, is now behind bars for years of falsifying catch information, such as calling catch of low-quota, high-value cod, high-quota, lower-value haddock. He also admitted to tax evasion and bulk money laundering, all from his fishing operation.

Read the full opinion piece at the New Bedford Standard Times

 

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

 

Can you hear me? NOAA studies boat noise and fish

January 8, 2018 — NOAA scientists studying sounds made by Atlantic cod and haddock at spawning sites in the Gulf of Maine have found that vessel traffic noise is reducing the distance over which these animals can communicate with each other.

As a result, daily behavior, feeding, mating, and socializing during critical biological periods for these commercially and ecologically important fish may be altered, according to a study published in Nature Scientific Reports.

Three sites in Massachusetts Bay included two inside Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, a region well known to whale-watchers from the Cape because whales feed in the plankton-rich bank, and one inshore south of Cape Ann. All were monitored for three months by researchers at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) laboratory in Woods Hole, and at the sanctuary offices in Scituate.

Vocalizations, such as Atlantic cod grunts and haddock knocks, were recorded by bottom-mounted instruments at each site during spawning in winter and spring.

“We looked at the hourly variation in ambient sound pressure levels and then estimated effective vocalization ranges at all three sites known to support spawning activity for Gulf of Maine cod and haddock stocks,” said Jenni Stanley, a marine research scientist in the passive acoustics group at the NEFSC and SBNMS and lead author of the study.

“Both fluctuated dramatically during the study. The sound levels appear to be largely driven by large vessel activity, and we found a signification positive correlation with the number of Automatic Identification System (AIS) tracked vessels at two of the three sites.”

AIS is an automatic tracking system, used on ships and by vessel traffic services. It provides information on a vessel, such as its unique identification number, position, course and speed, which can be displayed on a shipboard radar or electronic chart display.

Read the full story at the Wicked Local

 

‘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

 

Massachusetts: No, sharks aren’t just freezing to death in Cape Cod Bay. But they are getting trapped

January 4, 2018 — Frigid temperatures may have transformed the waters off Cape Cod to ice, but it turns out the recent cold snap is not literally just freezing sharks to death.

It may, however, be contributing to the ocean predators getting trapped in Cape Cod Bay.

Greg Skomal, the senior fisheries scientist for the state Department of Fish and Game who leads the Massachusetts Shark Research program, said the thresher sharks — like the four that have been found dead in Wellfleet and Orleans in recent days — are dying as they attempt to swim to warmer southern waters but are getting stranded in shallow waters in Cape Cod Bay.

“The rapid cooling associated with this cold snap and water temps is forcing the sharks to move south at a faster pace, and the landmass of Cape Cod is contributing to them getting stranded in shallow water,” said Skomal, adding that the exact cause of the sharks’ deaths remains hypothetical at this time.

Cape Cod, with its shape of an outstretched human arm that hooks at Provincetown, can act as a natural trap for animals trying to move south quickly, and most shark species need to be continually moving in order to breathe effectively, he said.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

 

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.

 

Outsiders to eyeball fisheries council

January 4, 2019 — It staged a rolling tour of a dozen port meetings at the end of 2017 that would have made the Grateful Dead proud and now the New England Fishery Management Council continues to urge fishing stakeholders to weigh in on what the council does well and where it needs to improve.

The council embarked on its external review in November, visiting port cities up and down the northern Atlantic coast — with two port meetings remaining next week in New York and New Jersey — and continues to conduct a webinar that allows stakeholders to make their cases online.

The website address for the online survey is http://bit.ly/2AiZkMn.

This week, the council selected the six individuals — three fishery managers and three scientists — to serve on the independent review panel. The panel, according to the council, is set to meet March 13 to 16 at the Hilton Garden Inn at Boston’s Logan Airport. The meetings will be open to the public.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times