April 21, 2014 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (MAFMC):
The following summary highlights Council actions and issues considered at the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council's meeting on April 8 – 10, 2014 in Montauk, New York. Please refer to the April 2014 Council Meeting page for additional information about any of the following topics or other agenda items addressed at the meeting. Presentations, audio files, and meeting minutes are posted on the meeting page and linked to in the relevant sections below. Click here to open the summary as a PDF.
Golden Tilefish Management Measures
2015 – 2017 Management Measures
After receiving an update on the recent golden tilefish stock assessment and reviewing recommendations from its Scientific and Statistical Committee, Tilefish Monitoring Committee, and Tilefish Advisory Panel, the Council adopted golden tilefish management measures for the 2015-2017 fishing years. For 2015, the Council recommended a 1.766 million pound annual catch limit (ACL). After accounting for discards, total allowable landings (TAL) would be set at 1.755 million pounds, resulting in allocations of 1.667 million pounds to the individual fishing quota (IFQ) fishery and 87,744 pounds to the incidental fishery. For 2016 and 2017, the Council recommended an ACL of 1.898 million pounds and a TAL of 1.887 million pounds, resulting in a 1.793 million pound TAL for the IFQ fishery and a 94,357 TAL for the incidental fishery.
Recreational Issues and Catch Accounting Framework
Although the Council considered adjustments to the current recreational possession limit of 8-fish per person per trip, no action was taken. However, the Council did initiate a framework that could result in new catch and discard accounting procedures for both the commercial and recreational fisheries. Specifically, the framework would consider deducting discards after the TAL has been divided between the IFQ and incidental fisheries to allow for more sector specific discard adjustments. The framework could also result in changes in the recreational possession limit accounting process to accommodate multiday trips for party/charter vessels.
Read the full release from the MAFMC