Alexandria, VA – The Commission’s Atlantic Herring Section approved Addendum I to Amendment 3 of the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Herring. The Addendum includes management measures intended to stabilize the rate of catch in the Area 1A fishery and distribute the seasonal quota throughout Trimester 2 (June through September), which has 72.8 % of the season’s allocation. The following measures were approved by the Section: Days Out Program (effective for the 2017 fishing season) The Section will separately address days out provisions for federal herring Category A vessels and small‐mesh bottom trawl vessels with a federal herring Category…
Press Releases
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Arlington, VA – The Southeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program (SEAMAP) has released its 2016‐2020 Management Plan. Prepared by the South Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean components of SEAMAP, the Management Plan serves as a reference for official SEAMAP policies and procedures through 2020. The Plan also includes detailed information on SEAMAP activities and highlights how SEAMAP data meet critical needs for recent stock assessments and management decisions. Lastly and perhaps most importantly, the Plan details how SEAMAP’s core surveys have been impacted by level/declining funding. It identifies how expansions in funding could be used to refine existing assessments…
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Benchmark Assessment Finds Resource Not Overfished & Overfishing Not Occurring
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Alexandria, VA – The 2017 Red Drum Stock Assessment and Peer Review Report indicate overfishing is not occurring for red drum in either the northern (North Carolina‐New Jersey) or southern (South Carolina‐Florida) stocks. The assessment was unable to determine an overfished/not overfished status because population abundance could not be reliably estimated due to limited data for the older fish (ages 4+) that are not typically harvested due to the current fishery measures (slot‐limits). The Board accepted the stock assessment and peer review report for management use. No management action was taken at this time since overfishing is not occurring. The…
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Alexandria, VA – The Commission’s Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board initiated the development of Draft Addendum V to Amendment 6 to the Atlantic Striped Bass Fishery Management Plan (FMP) to consider liberalizing coastwide commercial and recreational regulations. The Board’s action responds to concerns raised by Chesapeake Bay jurisdictions regarding continued economic hardship endured by its stakeholders since the implementation of Addendum IV and information from the 2016 assessment update indicating fishing mortality is below the target. Addendum IV, implemented for the 2015 fishing season, required coastwide harvest reductions to reduce fishing mortality (F) to a level at or below the…
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Alexandria, VA – The Commission’s Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Management Board approved Draft Addendum XXIX to the Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Fishery Management Plan for public comment. The Draft Addendum proposes shortening the length of the commercial scup summer period and extending length of the winter period(s) to better allocate the commercial quota, which has been under‐harvested since 2011. The quota allocation for each period is not being altered. The Draft Addendum was initiated jointly with the Mid‐Atlantic Fishery Management Council to address concerns raised by Advisory Panel members that commercial landings have been…
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Alexandria, VA –The Commission’s Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Management Board approved Addendum XXVIII to the Summer Flounder and Black Sea Bass Fishery Management Plan, maintaining regional management for the 2017 recreational summer flounder fishery. Specifically, the Addendum requires a one‐inch increase in size limit and reduced possession limits to stay within the 2017 recreational harvest limit (RHL). These measures are broadly applied across all states to reduce harvest and provide for more coastwide consistency in regulations. The summer flounder regions, which are continued from 2016, are: Massachusetts; Rhode Island; Connecticut through New York; New Jersey; Delaware through…
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Alexandria, VA – The Commission’s American Lobster Management Board approved Addendum II to the Jonah Crab Fishery Management Plan (FMP). The Addendum establishes a coastwide standard for claw harvest and a definition of bycatch, based on a percent composition of catch, in order to minimize the expansion of a small‐scale fishery under the bycatch allowance. The Addendum responds to concerns regarding the equity of the claw provision established in the 2015 FMP, which instituted a whole crab fishery with the exception of fishermen from New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia who have a history of claw landings prior to June…
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Addendum Seeks to Address Southern New England Stock Declines
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