Washington, DC – On September 27th & 28th, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will hold an industry workshop for commercial fishermen from the states of Massachusetts through North Carolina. The Commission has designed this workshop so that industry leaders will actively participate in solving allocation issues facing their fisheries. Fishermen will discuss possible management options for modifying the commercial allocation formula for summer flounder, scup, and black sea bass as the stocks continue to rebuild. Each state selected two industry members to participate in the workshop.
The workshop seeks to develop a suite of management options to reduce fishery discards and address the growing dissatisfaction among fishermen and managers regarding disparate state-specific quotas. These options will form the basis of an addendum to address commercial allocation for the 2005 fishing year and possibly beyond. The Management Board will meet in October to review the draft addendum for public comment.
Participating industry members represent both mobile and fixed gear in inshore and offshore fisheries from Massachusetts through North Carolina. The public is welcome to attend, though very limited time has been scheduled for comment. The Commission encourages the public to speak with their respective state representatives prior to the workshop. The public will also have opportunity to comment on options during the addendum comment period in October.
The workshop will be held at the Hilton Philadelphia Airport Hotel, 4509 Island Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19153. It will start at noon on September 27, 2004 and will end at 2:00 PM on the 28th. For more information, please contact Toni Kerns, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at (202) 289-6400 or tkerns@asmfc.org.