January 31, 2020 — The draft amendment to set at-sea monitoring coverages aboard all Northeast groundfish vessels has led an adventurous existence in the three years the New England Fishery Management Council has dedicated to developing the contentious measure.
There was last year’s partial shutdown of the federal government that delayed the rule-setting process. The council, in March 2018, also chose to tap the brakes on the development of the measure — known as Amendment 23 — because it didn’t believe the technical analyses associated with the measure were complete.
As late as last week, fishing stakeholders charged the council was working with insufficient data as it rushed to finally enact the draft management rule setting groundfish monitoring coverages in the Northeast multispecies groundfishery.
So why should anything become simple now?
The council voted Wednesday to send the monitoring amendment — which includes the approved draft of the measure’s environmental impact statement and the council’s preferred alternative for coverage levels — out for public comment in the spring. Final action is expected at its June meeting.