The following press release has been revised with the addition of a Maine Department of Marine Resources’ public hearing on September 20th.
Arlington, VA – The Atlantic coastal states of Maine through North Carolina have scheduled hearings to gather public input on the Draft Addendum I to Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan, which considers potential changes to current provisions for commercial allocations, the episodic event set aside (EESA) program, and the incidental catch and small-scale fisheries (IC/SSF) provision. Some hearings will be conducted via webinar and some hearings will be conducted in person. The details of those hearings are attached.
The Draft Addendum’s proposed options consider changes to the baseline quota of 0.5% and the time series that apportions the remaining quota to each jurisdiction, which is currently historic landings from 2009 to 2011.
Furthermore, options within the Draft Addendum consider giving the Board the ability to change the proportion of the EESA from 1% up to 5%, with the option to make the potential change static with the approval of the Draft Addendum or dynamic such that the Board can reset it during the specification process. The Draft Addendum proposes a number of options to modify the IC/SSF provision in four major categories: the timing of the provision, permitted gear types, trip limits for permitted gear types, and catch accounting for the provision.
The Board initiated Draft Addendum I in August 2021 in response to the recommendations of a Board work group charged with evaluating provisions of the current management program and providing strategies to refine those provisions. Since Amendment 3 was adopted in 2017, the EESA and IC/SSF provisions have been impacted by recent trends in landings. The impacts have been most notable in New England, where states rely on the EESA to keep their commercial fisheries open while working to secure quota transfers and an increasing abundance of menhaden in New England has led to a rise in landings under the IC/SSF provision once commercial quotas have been met. The options in the Draft Addendum aim to align state quotas with recent landings and resource availability while maintaining access to the resource for all states, reduce dependence on quota transfers, and minimize regulatory discards.
Submitting Comments
The Draft Addendum is available here or via the Commission’s website at http://www.asmfc.org/about-us/public-input. All those interested in the management of Atlantic menhaden are encouraged to provide input either by participating in public hearings, which may be conducted via webinar, or providing written comment. Public comment will be accepted until 11:59 PM (EST) on September 30 and should be sent to James Boyle, FMP Coordinator, at 1050 N. Highland St., Suite 200 A-N, Arlington, Virginia 22201 or at comments@asmfc.org (Subject line: Atlantic Menhaden Draft Addendum I).
Comments received during a public comment period on a proposed management action play an important role in the Commission’s fisheries management process. All comments, whether they are individually submitted or as part of a larger, coordinated stakeholder response, are considered equally by a species management board when it determines final management action. When staff compiles all comments received, they use a categorization process to help the board effectively and efficiently navigate submitted public comment, whether it is 50 or 300,000 comments. Three or more comments that have the same language or state support for an organization’s comments are considered form letters. However, if the commenter provides additional comments/rationale related to a potential management action beyond the organization’s or letter’s comments, then it is considered an individual comment.
If your organization is planning to release an action alert in response to the Draft Addendum, please contact James Boyle at jboyle@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740, so he can work with you to develop a unique subject line to enable us to better organize and summarize incoming comments for Board review.