The higher yellowtail limits are set to go into effect with the new fishing year's start in May, but fishermen have pushed for immediate relief. The change could go into effect earlier if regulators can find a way to do it, said Patricia Kurkul, the Northeast regional administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service.
"Given the lateness (in the fishing year) of this legislation, there's a lot of complexity," she said. "We're trying to figure out how quickly we can do this."
Fishermen have also argued for a higher yellowtail catch limit, saying it was needlessly low, and threatened their businesses. Under federal rules, if fishermen exceed their limit on one species, they must stop fishing on all stocks.
A higher yellowtail limits frees up fishermen to chase other species that swim in the same area, such as winter flounder and haddock, with less worry they'll inadvertently catch too much yellowtail and exceed their catch limit.
Each year as part of the United States-Canada Transboundary Resource Sharing Understanding, the U.S. and Canada divide the fish that swim in a 45,000-square-mile section of U.S.-Canadian waters. Yellowtail flounder is the only species that was immediately affected by the new law because it was the only one that's entirely contained in this area.
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