September 27, 2022 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:
The New England Fishery Management Council opened the first day of its September 26-29, 2022 hybrid meeting in Gloucester, MA by holding its annual election of officers. For the second year in a row, the Council elected Eric Reid and Rick Bellavance, both of Rhode Island, to lead the Council as Chair and Vice Chair, respectively, for the year ahead.
Eric is a fisheries consultant based in North Kingstown, RI. He was the Council’s Vice Chair for two years before taking over as Chair. Over his 48-year career in commercial and recreational fisheries, he has been actively engaged in all facets of the industry both at sea and shoreside. He previously owned and operated his own vertically integrated business for 11 years. Chair Reid is a founding member of several industry organizations and serves as the New England Council’s liaison to the Mid-Atlantic Council. He also is a U.S. Commissioner to the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) and serves as Rhode Island State Senator Susan Sosnowski’s proxy on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC).
Rick Bellavance is the owner/operator of Priority Charters, LLC, a charter fishing business located in Point Judith. A lifelong Rhode Island resident, he has engaged in a variety of recreational and commercial fishing industries for over 30 years and currently Photo: Eric Reid (left) and Rick Bellavance (right) will lead the Council as Chair and Vice Chair, respectively, for the 2022- 2023 Council year. Both are from Rhode Island. –NEFMC photo serves as the president of the Rhode Island Party and Charter Boat Association. Rick has worked steadily to help develop electronic reporting tools that can improve recreational catch estimates and strongly supports improvements to the Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP). He represents the Council on the NOAA Fisheries Highly Migratory Species Advisory Panel and the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) Advisory Committee to the U.S. Section of ICCAT, as well as several MidAtlantic and South Atlantic Council committees. During this meeting, Vice Chair Bellavance was sworn in to serve his third consecutive term threeyear term on the Council.