Council Actions

The public is invited to attend the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council's December 2011 meeting to be held at the Kingsmill Conference Center, 1010 Kingsmill Road, Williamsburg, VA  23185, phone 757-253-1703.  Below is the meeting agenda.
NOTE:  For online access to the meeting, register at:  https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/840797481.  Once registered you will receive an email confirming your registration with the information you need to join the Webinar.

Tuesday, December 13
9:00 – Noon                 Mid-Atlantic Monkfish Subcommittee
·                     Discuss issues and concerns unique to the Mid-Atlantic Monkfish fishery and potential management solutions
Noon – 1:00 p.m.       Lunch
1:00 p.m.                   Council convenes
1:00 – 2:30 p.m.         CIE Report – Excessive Shares
·                     Presentation on CIE Review of the June 2012 Excessive Shares                   
            Workshop – John Walden (NEFSC)
·                     Council discussion and identify next steps
2:30 – 3:30 p.m.         Presentation on Atlantic Wind Connection Project – Kris Ohleth
3:30 – 4:30 p.m.         Presentation from Regional Office Habitat Division – Chris Boelke & Lou          
Chiarella, NMFS
4:30 – 5:30 p.m.         November 14 Ecosystem and Ocean Planning Committee Meeting
·                     Council discussion and identify next steps
 
Wednesday, December 14
8:00 a.m.                   Council convenes jointly with Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Board
8:00 – 9:30 a.m.         Finalize Summer Flounder Management Measures for 2012 with Board
·                     Review SSC, Summer Flounder Monitoring Committee and Advisory Panel recommendations for 2012
·                     Adopt recommendations for 2012 commercial and recreational harvest levels and commercial management measures
9:30 – 11:00 a.m.       Finalize Scup Management Measures for 2012 with Board
·                     Review SSC, Summer Flounder Monitoring Committee and Advisory Panel recommendations for 2012
·                     Adopt recommendations for 2012 commercial and recreational harvest levels and commercial management measures
11:00 a.m. – Noon       Finalize Summer Flounder 2012 Recreational Management Measures with Board
·                     Review and discuss Monitoring Committee and Advisory Panel recommendations on summer flounder recreational management measures
·                     Develop and approve management measures for 2012 summer flounder recreational fishery
12:00 – 1:00 p.m.       Lunch
1:00 – 2:30 p.m.         Finalize Scup 2012 Recreational Management Measures with Board
·                     Review and discuss Monitoring Committee and Advisory Panel recommendations on scup recreational management measures
·                     Develop and approve management measures for 2012 scup recreational fishery
2:30 – 4:00                             Finalize Black Sea Bass 2012 Recreational Management Measures with Board
·                     Review and discuss Monitoring Committee and Advisory Panel recommendations on black sea bass recreational management measures
·                     Develop and approve management measures for 2012 black sea bass recreational fishery
4:00 – 5:30 p.m.         Review Amendment 17 to the Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass FMP Alternatives with Board
·                     Review alternatives to address spatial/regional management of the black sea bass recreational fishery
·                     Discuss potential complimentary action by Council and Board
5:30 – 6:30 p.m.         Public Listening Session             
 
Thursday, December 15
8:30                             Council Convenes
8:30 – 9:00 a.m.          Ricks E Savage Award
9:00 – 9:30 a.m.          Fishery Management Councils:  Decision-making, Communication, and Social Factors Associated with Ecosystem-based Fisheries Management – Ingrid Biedron, Cornell University
9:30 – 1:30 p.m.          Business Session
·  Approval of October minutes
·  Actions from October

Organizational Reports
·  NMFS Regional Administrator
·  NMFS NEFSC Director
·  NOAA Office of General Counsel
·  Federal Enforcement Officials (NMFS and USCG)
·  ASMFC Executive Director

Liaison Reports
·  New England Council (November 15-17)
·  South Atlantic Council (December 5-9)

Executive Director's Report – Dr. Moore               
·  Review and approve SOPP’s

Science Report – Mr. Seagraves                              
·  Review and approve 5-year Research Plan

Committee Reports
· Executive Committee
§  2012 Priorities
§  Ecosystem level goals/objectives
· SSC
· Monkfish

Continuing and New Business
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These documents have been made public by NEFMC staff.

Working papers for this week’s GOM cod assessment are available at the address shown below. Please note these documents have no official status.
 
The agenda is at this link.
 
You may also want to review other documents available here (see the SAW/SARC 53 documents)
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At its November meeting, the Council set management priorities for 2012 and addressed issues related to groundfish, herring, monkfish, spiny dogfish and scallop management. It also discussed actions related to the Touchstone Report, Review of the New England Fishery Management Process, prepared by Mr. Preston Pate and the SRA Consulting Group.

Additionally, a number of presentations were received on the following topics:

     -A report from the U.S. Coast Guard on the implementation of the Coast Guard Authorization Act

     -An overview of the Northeast Regional Ocean Council’s (NROC) most recent activities

     -A Northeast Fisheries Science Center report about standard bycatch reporting methodololgy and recommendations for observer allocations for next year

     -A briefing from the Science Center about the transition to a new stock assessment process for the New England and Mid-Atlantic regions, and

     -A summary, for scoping purposes, of a new amendment to the Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Fishery Management Plan that will address issues relevant to managing sandbar, dusky, blacknose and scalloped hammerhead sharks.

Read the council report.

 

 

 

 

 

The New England Fishery Management Council has given relatively low priority to the divisive issue of placing accumulation limits and other controls to modify the catch share system installed in May 2010 for New England groundfishermen.

The decision to drop the problem to the bottom of the council's to-do list was reported to the Times by advocates and opponents of the status quo who attended the council's three-day November meeting that ended Thursday.

But the sides agreed the the delay addressing the conflict — between better served and less well-served participants in the original allocations — was a tactical win for the signers of a "go slow" letter that was addressed to the Massachusetts congressional delegation and dated Monday — the eve of the start of the council meeting in Newport, R.I.

Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a summary of the major Council actions on groundfish at the November 15-17, 2011 meeting in Newport, RI. As always, this brief summary does not capture the entire discussion. Sound files will be available on our web page tomorrow, and motions will be available in about a week.

1.     Council priorities for 2012: The Council agreed on priorities for 2012. With respect to multispecies actions, the actions that will be undertaken, in priority order, are as follows:

        -coordinate action on the habitat omnibus amendment to include possible modifications of the groundfish closed areas
        -prepare framework action to adjust sector rules based on lessons learned from the October 2011 Sector Workshop, including determination of why OY is not being caught and the development of measures to attempt to achieve OY and review 10% quota rollover provision in response to Regional Administrator letter of June 20, 2011 (this list is not all-inclusive – there are a number of other sector issues that may be considered)
        -prepare framework to respond to new assessment info for 9 stocks
        -develop options to move unused ACE between scallop/groundfish fleets and between groundfish commercial and recreational fleets
        -continue Amendment 18 to consider fleet diversity and accumulation caps

   

    Over the course of the meeting there were a few other discussions related to these priorities worth noting. First, there were several discussions about how to address (a). Three ideas surfaced: split the habitat area issue and groundfish closed area issue into two separate actions and proceed independently, combine the groundfish and habitat PDTs and Committees and do all work together, or have the groundfish PDT and Committee work separately from (but in coordination with) the Habitat PDT and Committee until ready to meet to address the area issues. The latter approach, recommended by the Executive Committee, was adopted. Second, while Amendment 18 is a low priority the Council affirmed plans to proceed with scoping for the amendment this winter. We expect to develop a schedule and notice over the next week or two, and hope to hold scoping meetings in January.

 

2.     The Council selected preferred alternatives for Framework Adjustment 47 and voted to submit the framework. FW 47 updates specifications for several stocks and proposes changes to some elements of annual catch limit and accountability measure administration. For the most part the Council adopted the Committee’s recommendations on preferred alternatives (see the draft document on the Council web page). The Council did make one change in that when selecting the SNE/MA winter flounder No Action alternative (SNE/MA winter flounder landings would continue to be prohibited), it was specifically adopted as a proactive AM. Also, specific GOM cod catch limits will not be determined until after the assessment that is planned for December 2011. The document will be completed and submitted to NMFS over the next 6-8 weeks; a proposed rule will be published early next spring with implementation planned for May 1, 2012.

 

3.     The recreational fishery exceeded its sub-ACL for GOM haddock in FY 2010, and NMFS will select and implement accountability measures as a result. The Council heard advice from its recreational advisory panel (RAP) and several fishermen before developing a recommendation for those measures. The Council recommends that of the three measures possible as recreational AMs, NMFS should consider a bag limit first, minimum size second and closed season last. The Council recommendation differs from the RAP advice because many felt that increasing the minimum haddock size would lead to dead discards with no reduction in mortality ( a motion to adopt the RAP recommendation failed 6/8/3). This recommendation will be passed to NMFS, who will consider it and will publish a regulatory change in the next month or two.

 

4.     Fishermen expressed concerns that GOM winter flounder catch rates are up and the low quota is constraining fishing for other stocks. At the request of industry, the Council passed a motion asking NMFS to take emergency action to increase the FY 2011 GOM winter flounder catch limits based on the results of the June assessment of that stock. Please note that NMFS may or may not act on this request; fishermen should not assume there will be an increase until NMFS announces a change.

 

 

 

 

The New England Fisheries Management Council began a three-day meeting today in Newport, Rhode Island which, according to the trade journal Greenwire, poses a "historic change" in fisheries management in New England.

NEFMC will be voting tomorrow on an "ecosystem approach" to fisheries management, which differs from the current methodology of species-specific management.

"Ecosystems-based management is just a fancy name for facing up to the fact that if you are going to take the food out of the mouth of one group of animals, there are going to be consequences for that. There is essentially no free lunch," said Jud Crawford, science manager for the Pew Environment Group's Northeast Fisheries Program in the Greenwire article. "If you take it from one place, you have to pay for it somewhere else."

Read the complete story from The Examiner.

 

 

 

 

The follwing was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Council. The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council is responsible for managing and conserving fisheries in federal waters from New York to North Carolina. A Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) report released last week indicates that the summer flounder stock was rebuilt in 2010.  However, the updated assessment predicts that the threshold fishing mortality rate will be exceeded in 2011 and that overfishing is occurring. The new information also suggests that the commercial quota and recreational harvest limit recommended by the Council for 2012 are too high and may need to be reduced substantially.

The new information became available only now because NEFSC scientists were unable to provide a comprehensive update earlier in the year.  The Scientific and Statistical Committee, Monitoring Committee, and Council had developed 2012 recommendations in July and August, which were based on a projection from a 2010 assessment update.

"The timing of this report from the Northeast Fisheries Science Center highlights the importance of making more resources available to conduct Mid-Atlantic species assessments when we need them," said Executive Director, Chris Moore. "More often than not, we find ourselves in a situation where Mid-Atlantic species are not a top priority and we're left with little or no information for our stocks.  It is unfortunate that instead of focusing on the success we've had rebuilding summer flounder, we are now in situation where we have to address and explain reductions in harvest limits."

"The current situation is an unfortunate consequence resulting from the redirection of Science Center resources to New England groundfish," said Rick Robins, Council Chairman." We appreciate the difficulty of beginning a new specification process for summer flounder but are committed to working with our management partners to provide a recommendation to the National Marine Fisheries Service as soon as possible."

The Council is scheduling meetings of the Scientific and Statistical Committee and Monitoring Committee to review the new information on summer flounder and provide recommendations at the December Council meeting.

The following was released by NEFMC:

Portland, ME Constructive civil and frank remarks from active New England fishermen have characterized the two-day workshop sponsored by the New England Fishery Management Council to address ““lessons learned”” relative to the catch shares management program that now governs the region’’s historic groundfish fishery. Wrapping up this afternoon, the workshop included over 70 fishermen and managers representing more than a dozen fishing groups known as sectors, a type of harvesting cooperative authorized a year-and-a half-ago to better manage a species complex that includes cod, haddock, pollock and flounders.

The new program replaces the onerous days-at-sea program that was in place since 2004 and eventually became almost universally despised by fishermen. Although limited fishing days resulted in measurable stock rebuilding, that system made it difficult for many businesses to remain economically viable.

Individual fishermen and sector managers identified the issues they face under the new program. One of the clear messages conveyed by the industry during the workshop was their need for management stability in order to promote long-term business planning. Portland, ME vessel owner Allyson Jordan said, ““Don’’t jump the gun and make drastic changes now. We need five years to make this work.”” Frank Patania, a Boston fisherman added, ““For the first time in years, I have control over my business.”” Others identified the ability to trade their fish allocations, held collectively by each sector for its members, to obtain the mix of fish needed to conduct their businesses, as a system that functions well and also fosters more cooperation among sector members.

Fishermen were equally clear about the improvements that would be necessary to improve sector efficiency and profitability. These included: cost-sharing with the government to pay for expensive at-sea monitoring; elimination of the many rules that have been held over from the former days-at-sea program, in particular opening the large offshore areas in which fishing for groundfish is prohibited; and the many redundancies that exist in the current data collection and catch reporting system.

The full Council is set to consider the industry’’s recommendations, only some of which are discussed here, at its November 15-17 meeting in Newport, RI. At that time it will approve priorities to be addressed in 2012.

View the document from NEFMC

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next NEFMC meeting will begin on November 15, 2011. It will take place at the Newport Marriott Hotel, 25 America’s Cup Avenue, Newport, RI 02840 (Tel 401.849.1000).

Read the complete agenda here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next in a public discussion series hosted by New Hampshire Sea Grant & Northeast Consortium:

“Improving Communications in the Fisheries Arena”

Thursday, November 10, 2011
5:30 – 7:30 pm
Lane Memorial Public Library
2 Academy Ave., Hampton, NH 03842

(Note:  location and time is different than usual!)
 
Speakers:
Pat Fiorelli, New England Fishery Management Council
Maggie Mooney-Seus, NOAA Fisheries Northeast Regional Office
Olivia Rugo, NOAA Fisheries Northeast Regional Office
 
NOAA's Northeast Regional Office and the New England Fishery Management Council are taking a good look at how input is sought from the fishing industry and other stakeholders, as well as how information is distributed in an effective and timely way.  What types of communications have been working?  What hasn’t worked so well?  Can technology be used in a better way?  Understanding regulatory changes, procedural guidance, and getting meeting notices out to fishing vessel owners, captains and crew is important, as is having public input on the management of fisheries.  We will have an informal discussion about the steps that NERO and NEFMC are currently taking to improve communications and what the most effective approaches might be.

For more information contact:

Rachel Feeney                                      Erik Chapman
Northeast Consortium                            NH Sea Grant and UNH Cooperative Extension
603-862-2276                                         603-862-1935
rachel.feeney@unh.edu                         erik.chapman@unh.edu