Spiny Dogfish Addendum VII

In August 2024, NOAA Fisheries published a proposed rule (Federal Register notice 89 FR 65576; August 12, 2024) to approve and implement Spiny Dogfish Framework Adjustment 6, as recommended by the Mid-Atlantic and New England Fishery Management Councils (MAFMC and NEFMC, respectively). The rule, which was approved in December 2024 by NOAA Fisheries and will be effective as of May 1, 2025, will implement time- and area-based gear requirements in the spiny dogfish gillnet fishery to reduce bycatch of Atlantic sturgeon for harvesters that possess a federal spiny dogfish permit. However, harvesters that do not possess a federal spiny dogfish permit and only fish in states waters are not be captured by the action. Because the specific areas included for additional management span state and federal waters, Addendum VII was initiated to implement corresponding measures for state-only permit holders to maintain consistency between the federal and interstate FMPs.

In February 2025, the Spiny Dogfish Management Board approved Addendum VII, which implemented corresponding gear requirements for harvesters with state spiny dogfish permits to be implemented on May 1, 2025. In May 2025, the Management Board approved Technical Addendum I to Addendum VII, which corrected a mistake in the longitude of one of the bycatch reduction areas and added language to specify which ends of the gillnet mesh size range were included in the measures.

The Spiny Dogfish Management Board conducted the following public hearings to gather input on the draft addendum:

Public comment on Addendum VII was accepted until 11:59 PM (EST) on January 3, 2025. This included comments received at a public hearing or written comments submitted to the Commission. All comments were reviewed by Commission staff and compiled into a Public Comment Summary, which was provided to the Spiny Dogfish Management Board as part of the meeting materials for the 2025 Winter Meeting.

• James Boyle, Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, JBoyle@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740