Alexandria, VA – The Commission’s Spiny Dogfish and Coastal Sharks Management Board approved Draft Addendum III to the Atlantic Coastal Sharks Fishery Management Plan for public comment. The Draft Addendum proposes changes to the coastal shark species groupings for hammerhead and blacknose sharks and the establishment of a new commercial quota and recreational size limit for hammerhead sharks. Draft Addendum III was initiated to ensure consistency between the state and federal coastal shark plans. The federal Highly Migratory Species Fishery Management Plan was amended to address recent findings that scalloped hammerhead, blacknose, and sandbar sharks are overfished and/or experiencing overfishing.…
Press Releases
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Alexandria, VA – The Commission’s South Atlantic State-Federal Fisheries Management Board approved two addenda – Addendum I to the Omnibus Amendment to the Interstate Fishery Management Plans (FMPs) for Spanish Mackerel, Spot, and Spotted Seatrout and Addendum I to Amendment 2 to the Interstate FMP for Red Drum. Addendum I to the Omnibus Amendment establishes a pilot program that would allow states to reduce the Spanish mackerel minimum size limit for the commercial pound net fishery to 11 ½ inches during the summer months of July through September for the 2013 and 2014 fishing years only. The measure is intended…
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Alexandria, VA – The Commission’s American Eel Management Board approved Addendum III to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for American Eel and initiated development of Draft Addendum IV. Given the scope of issues addressed in Draft Addendum III and the wide range of input received through public comment, the Board decided to divide the issues between the two addenda, with Draft Addendum IV primarily focusing on management measures for the glass eel fishery. Addendum III establishes a 9” minimum size limit for recreational and commercial yellow eel fisheries, trip-level reporting for the commercial yellow eel fishery, a seasonal closure of…
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Arlington, VA – The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission announces the release of its report, Research Priorities & Recommendations to Support Interjurisdictional Fisheries Management. The report highlights research priorities and data critical to the continued success and improvement of the Commission’s 25 species management programs. The report can be used by state and federal marine fishery agencies, and university research programs to develop projects to answer outstanding research questions. The report identifies research priorities and recommendations by individual species and species groups, as in the case of diadromous species (American eel, shad, river herring, Atlantic sturgeon, striped bass), as well…
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Arlington, VA – The Commission’s South Atlantic State-Federal Fisheries Management Board has approved for public comment Draft Addendum I to the Omnibus Amendment to the Interstate Fishery Management Plans for Spanish Mackerel, Spot, and Spotted Seatrout. The Draft Addendum proposes a pilot program that would allow states to reduce the Spanish mackerel minimum size limit for the commercial pound net fishery to 11 ½ inches for one or more of the summer months of July through September for the 2013 and 2014 fishing years only. The proposed measure is intended to reduce waste of these smaller fish, which are discarded…
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Addendum Proposes Updates to FMP’s Habitat Section
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Please note this press release revises the May 22nd release, which incorrectly characterized the status of the Gulf of Maine Winter Flounder stock as in poor condition when in fact the status for that stock unit is unknown. Alexandria, VA – The Commission’s Winter Flounder Management Board has approved Addendum III to Amendment 1 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for the Inshore Stocks of Winter Flounder. The Addendum establishes an annual specification process to set commercial and recreational management measures for the Gulf of Maine (GOM) and Southern New England/Mid-Atlantic (SNE/MA) fisheries. Each year, with advice from the Winter…
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Alexandria, VA – The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has approved the Interstate Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for Black Drum. The FMP requires all states to maintain current regulations for black drum and implement a maximum possession limit and minimum size limit (of no less than 12 inches) by January 1, 2014. States will be required to further increase the minimum size limit (to no less than 14 inches) by January 1, 2016. Further, the FMP establishes a management framework to address future concerns or changes in the fishery or population. This will be particularly important as the Commission works…
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