January 23, 2019 — The New England Fishery Management Council will meet as scheduled next week, but the agenda for the three-day meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, will be colored by the ongoing shutdown of much of the federal government.
While the council is not scheduled to vote on any final actions, the shutdown has precluded a legion of scientific and fisheries management staff at the Gloucester-based Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office and NOAA Fisheries’ Northeast Fisheries Science Center from contributing analysis and participating as they normally would in the management process.
“It’s really affected the plan development teams,” said Janice Plante, council spokeswoman. “Without their participation, the plan development teams just can’t get the analyses done. We knew this would be one implication of the shutdown. But the longer and longer it goes on, the more and more we miss their participation.”