New England Fishery Management Council
50 Water Street, Mill 2
Newburyport, MA 01950
Tel (978) 465-0492 | Fax (978) 465-3116
Council Meeting Agenda | April 26-28, 2011
Mystic Hilton Hotel, Mystic, CT 06355
Tel 860.572.0731 | Fax 860.572.0238
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
9:00 a.m. Introductions and Announcements (Council Chairman John Pappalardo)
9:05 Reports on Recent Activities
Council Chairman, Executive Director, NMFS Regional Administrator, NOAA General Counsel, Northeast Fisheries Science Center and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council liaisons, and representatives of the U.S. Coast Guard, NMFS Enforcement/VMS, and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission
10:15 Review of Experimental Fishery Permit (EFP) Applications (Council Deputy Director Chris Kellogg)
Review and approve any comments on pending experimental fishery permits as appropriate
10:30 Briefing on a Proposed NEFMC-Sponsored Catch Shares Workshop (George Lapointe)
Presentation and discussion including approval of workshop goals and objectives; this issue was identified as a 2011 priority by the Council
11:00 Address to the Council (Mr. Eric Schwaab, Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries)
Summary of the agency’s management review of fisheries in the Northeast, with a focus on the
relationships among the NEFMC, the Northeast Regional Office and the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, and factors that affect the effectiveness of the three entities to carry out their responsibilities under fisheries law
12:15 p.m. Lunch Break
1:15 Open Period for Public Comments (John Pappalardo)
Opportunity for the public to provide brief comments on items relevant to Council business but not listed on the meeting agenda
1:30 Department of Interior Report
(Ted Boling, Counselor to the Assistant Secretary, Land and Minerals Management) Summary of the Department of the Interior’s “Smart from the Start” offshore wind initiative, including the ME, MA, and RI Task Force efforts to date
3:00 Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) Report (Dr. Pat Sullivan)
The following will be provided by the SSC:
·Committee review of the Massachusetts Fisheries Institute’s report Economic and Scientific Conditions in the Massachusetts Multispecies Groundfishery;
1. Recommendations for FSV Bigelow survey calibration method(s) developed by the Skate Plan Development Team for determining skate ABCs and stock status; the method will be applied to the 2009-2011 Bigelow survey data to set the 2012-2013 skate specifications;
2. Guidance to the Whiting Plan Development Team on options and methods for setting ABCs for silver, red and offshore hake;
3. Report on the recent peer review of the swept area seabed impact (SASI) model
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
8:30 a.m. Research Steering Committee Report (David Goethel)
Review of two most recent committee meetings, including the results of the committee’s discussions about the “mini-eliminator trawl” final cooperative research report, among other reports reviewed by the RSC
9:30 Monkfish Committee Report (Terry Stockwell)
Discuss and provide guidance about further development of Amendment 6 to the Monkfish Fishery Management Plan (FMP) based on scoping comments, advisory panel and committee reports and recommendations; this action may include some type of catch shares program; the committee also will report the use of trip limit exemptions in the monkfish cooperative research program
11:00 Standard Bycatch Reporting Methodology (SBRM) Summary and Discussion (Dr. Paul Rago, Northeast Fisheries Science Center)
Review of the SBRM three-year summary report and recommendations for observer sea-day allocations for 2011-2012
12:00 p.m. Lunch Break
1:15 Herring Amendment 5 Update (Doug Grout)
Update on the development of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Amendment 5 to the Atlantic Herring FMP; the discussion will be limited to an option in the document that requires federally-permitted herring dealers to accurately weigh all fish
2:30 SSC/NEFSC Report on EBFM (Dr. Michael Fogarty, NEFSC)
Receipt of the third of three presentations on the SSC’s white paper on ecosystem-based fisheries management, followed by a questions and answer period
Habitat Committee Report (David Preble)
Update on the most recent committee meeting, possibly including an overview of the NMFS presentation on deep sea corals
4:30 Overview of the Impacts of the SASI Model Peer Review Conclusions on Habitat Plan Development Team Activities (Chad Demarest, NMFS and the NEFMC Habitat Plan Development Team)
Summary of the conclusions in the SASI peer review report and their implications for the development of management alternatives in Habitat Omnibus 2
Thursday, April 28, 2011
8:30 a.m. Management Area Coordination (Council Staff)
Overview of the relationships between current groundfish mortality closures, current and proposed EFH closures, and access to fishery resources; discussion of a preliminary plan to evaluate the effectiveness of these areas and consider modifications
11:00 Groundfish Committee Report (Rip Cunningham)
Review and final action on Framework Adjustment 46 to the Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish) FMP; the action considers modifications to the haddock catch cap that applies to the herring fishery; the groundfish discussion also may include review and approval of Amendment 17 to the Northeast Multispecies FMP, which creates a mechanism for the operation of NOAA-funded state operated permit banks; a report on additional activities will include planning for a workshop to review the past year of sector operations and a recommendation to delay further work on an amendment to consider accumulation limits or caps in the groundfish fishery
12:00 p.m. Lunch Break
1:00 Groundfish Agenda Items – continued
4:00 Other Business
Times listed next to the agenda items are estimates and are subject to change. This meeting is physically accessible to people with disabilities. Council member financial disclosure forms are available for examination at the meeting.
Although other non-emergency issues not contained in this agenda may come before this Council for discussion, those issues may not be the subjects of formal action during this meeting. Council action will be restricted to those issues specifically listed in this notice and any issues arising after publication of this notice that require emergency action under section 305 (c) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, provided the public has been notified of the Council's intent to take final action to address the emergency.
Documents pertaining to Council actions are available for review prior to a final vote by the Council. Please call (978) 465-0492 for copies or check the Council website at www.nefmc.org. If you are submitting comments for Council consideration at this meeting they must be received at the Council office by 12 p.m. EST on Thursday, April 21, 2011. Notice Issue: April 5, 2011.