Mystic, CT – The Commission’s American Lobster Management Board approved the development of an Interstate Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for Jonah Crab and initiated the development of Draft Addendum XXIV to Amendment 3 to the Interstate FMP for American Lobster. The Jonah Crab FMP was initiated in response to concern about increasing targeted fishing pressure for Jonah crab, which has long been considered a bycatch in the lobster fishery. However, growing market demand has doubled landings in the past seven years. Given the absence of state and federal management programs and a stock assessment for Jonah crab, there is concern…
Press Releases
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Mystic, CT – The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission presented Mr. Patrick Augustine, long-time ASMFC Commissioner from New York and fisheries advocate, the Captain David H. Hart Award, its highest annual award, at the Commission’s 73rd Annual Meeting in Mystic, CT. For nearly two decades, Mr. Augustine has passionately committed his time and energy to the betterment of Atlantic coast fisheries at all levels of fisheries management – state, interstate, regional, and federal. Over the past 16 years, he served at the pleasure of four consecutive Governors to represent New York’s fishing constituents on the Commission. Over that time, he…
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Mystic, CT – The Commission’s Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Management Board initiated the development of Draft Addendum XXVI to the Summer Flounder Fishery Management Plan (FMP). The Draft Addendum will propose alternate regional management approaches for the 2015 recreational summer flounder fishery to continue to improve equity in recreational harvest opportunities along the coast. The Draft Addendum will include options to allow for the averaging of harvest estimates, mandatory regions, and the sharing of unused quota. Draft Addendum XXVI is initiated to continue the use of regional management to harvest the coastwide recreational harvest limit for summer…
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Mystic, CT – The Commission’s American Eel Management Board approved Addendum IV to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan. The Addendum establishes a 907,671 pound coastwide quota for yellow eel fisheries, reduces Maine’s glass eel quota to 9,688 pounds (2014 landings), and allows for the continuation of New York’s silver eel weir fishery in the Delaware River. For yellow eel fisheries, the coastwide quota will be implemented for the 2015 fishing year but will not initially include state-specific allocations. Instead, the Addendum establishes two management triggers: (1) exceeding coastwide quota by more than 10% in a given year, or (2) exceeding…
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Arlington, VA – The Commission is pleased to announce the release of the River Herring Ageing Workshop Report. The report is the 8th in a series of publications focusing on improving consistency among state and federal laboratories on how fish age samples are collected, processed, and read. Fish age and growth information are key components of stock assessments. Age and length data are the basis for determining how fast a fish grows, how long it lives, when it matures, and how big it is at each age. This information is used by fishery scientists and managers to develop harvest strategies…
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Arlington, VA – The Commission’s American Lobster Management Board is seeking public comment on the Public Information Document (PID) for the Draft Fishery Management Plan for Cancer Crab. As the first step in the development of a FMP, the PID seeks public input on information concerning Cancer crab fisheries, including the identification of major issues and options relative to the management of these species. It is anticipated some states will be conducting public hearings on the PID; a subsequent press release will announce the details of those hearings once they become finalized. The PID was initiated in response to concern…
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Massachusetts Schedules Public Hearings
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