October 31, 2019 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
The Commission’s Spiny Dogfish Management Board approved Addendum VI to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for Spiny Dogfish. The Addendum allows commercial quota to be transferred between all regions and states to enable the full utilization of the coastwide commercial quota and avoid quota payback for unintended quota overages.
The Commission’s FMP allocates the coastwide quota to the states of Maine-Connecticut as a regional allocation and to the states of New York-North Carolina as state-specific allocations. Previously, the FMP only allowed quota transfers between states with individual allocations, with regions excluded from benefitting from quota transfers. The 2019-2020 coastwide quota was reduced by 46% due to declining biomass. If landings in the 2019-2020 fishing year remain the same as 2018-2019 landings, there was concern the coastwide quota would not be exceeded but some states could face early closures due to reaching their allocation and being unable to access available unused quota from the northern region through quota transfers.
In order for the northern region to participate in quota transfers the Director of each state’s marine fisheries agency within the region must agree to the transfer in writing. As with transfers between states, transfers involving regions do not permanently affect the shares of the coastwide quota. Additionally, the Addendum extends the timeframe for when quota transfers can occur up to 45 days after the end of the fishing year to allow for late reporting of landings data. The Addendum’s measures are effective immediately and allow for transfers between all states and the northern region starting with the 2019-2020 fishing year.
Addendum VI will be available on the Commission’s website (www.asmfc.org) on the Spiny Dogfish webpage in early November. For more information, please contact Kirby Rootes-Murdy, Senior Fishery Management Plan Coordinator at krootes-murdy@asmfc.org or