Charleston, SC – The Commission’s Atlantic Herring Section has approved Addendum II to Amendment 2 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Sea Herring. The Addendum modifies the process to set specifications and the definitions (and associated acronyms) used by the Commission in setting Atlantic herring specifications. It also establishes quota overage accountability measures. These changes were made in order to complement the New England Fishery Management Council’s Amendment 4 and will not affect the overall management scheme which allocates a total quota to Areas 1A, 1B, 2, and 3.
The Section agreed to distribute the 2011 Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine) total allowable catch (TAC) seasonally with 72.8% available from June – September and 27.2% allocated from October through December. The fishery will close when 95% of a seasonal period’s quota has been harvested and underages from the June – September period may be rolled into the October – December period.
The Section also initiated the development of Draft Addendum IV that would allow small mesh bottom trawls and small purse seine vessels additional landing days on ‘days out’ of the fishery. The draft addendum is intended to allow smaller day-boats an equal amount of fishing days as larger vessels that can hold fish for several days and will include an analysis of the potential impacts of the proposed action to river herring stocks. The draft addendum will be available for Section review and possible approval in January. If approved, it will be released for public comment in the winter, with final Section approval slated for March.
For more information, please contact Christopher Vonderweidt, FMP Coordinator, at 703/842-0740 or cvonderweidt@asmfc.org.