Regulations

March 29, 2012 — NOAA Fisheries today announced final annual catch limits and accountability measures for the silver hake, red hake, and offshore hake stocks for 2012 fishing year.

Read the new measures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

NOAA Fisheries Service announces Final 2012 Recreational and Commercial Quotas for Mackerel; Final 2012 Commercial Quotas for Illex Squid and Longfin Squid; and Interim Final 2012 Commercial Quota for Butterfish.

Effective Date: April 20, 2012

Read the limits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

WASHINGTON – March 26, 2012 — NOAA today announced proposed measures for the groundfish fishery.  The measures include: annual catch limits for nine groundfish stocks and total allowable catch limits for three U.S./Canada stocks for fishing years 2012-2014, revise the yellowtail rebuilding schedule, revise accountability measures for five stocks, remove the cap on yellowtail flounder that can be caught in the scallop fishery access areas, and create an in-season mechanism to re-estimate the Georges Bank yellowtail flounder sub-annual catch limit for the scallop fishery.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING COMMENTS IS April 11, 2012.

Read the proposed rule as it appeared in today's Federal Register.

March 23, 2012 – NOAA today announced publishing of its final rule to implement measures in Amendment 17 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan which was approved on March 8, 2012. This action amends the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan to explicitly define and facilitate the effective operation of  state-operated permit banks.

Read the final rule.

 

 

 

 

 

In recent weeks, NOAA Fisheries has signaled a willingness to slide past a dire assessment of Gulf of Maine, or inshore, cod to give the industry a year of relief — with a 22 percent cut in the catch limit as a feasible interim adjustment, as opposed to one much deeper.

But for 2013, it will likely take an act of Congress to save the inshore fishery from a virtually complete shutdown due to catastrophic cutbacks — as much as 90 percent — in the Gulf of Maine cod limit, according to industry leaders and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials.

Now, industry leaders David Goethel, a New Hampshire fisherman and three-term member of the New England Fishery Management Council, and Brian Rothschild, a professor of marine science and technology at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth are pointing to the need for Congress to override the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which is said to allow just a single year of "interim" catch limits before requiring the government to align catch limits with the official assessment of the stock and end overfishing.

Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

WASHINGTON – 8 March 2012 – Effective immediately, NOAA Fisheries Service is increasing the possession limits for Georges Bank cod and Southern New England/Mid-Atlantic yellowtail flounder for Northeast multispecies common pool vessels for the remainder of the 2011 fishing year, through April 30, 2012.

If a sub-ACL is projected to be exceeded by the end of FY 2011, in-season adjustments to decrease the trip limit would be considered. The rates of harvest of all NE multispecies stocks are updated weekly on the internet at http://www.nero.noaa.gov.

Read the complete notice from NOAA.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This rule proposes catch limits and associated measures for the Northeast Skate Complex Fishery for the 2012-2013 fishing years.

The proposed action was developed by the New England Fishery Management Council pursuant to the provisions of the Northeast Skate Complex Fishery Management Plan. The proposed catch limits are supported by the best available scientific information and reflect recent increases in skate biomass.

Read the complete proposed regulation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

NOAA Fisheries Service announces that a voluntary vessel speed restriction zone (Dynamic Management Area – DMA) has been established in the vicinity of Great South Channel to protect an aggregation of 8 right whales sighted in this area on February 16, 2012. This DMA is in effect immediately through March 2, 2012.  Mariners are requested to route around this area or transit through it at 10 knots or less.

Great South Channel DMA — active through March 2, 2012
42 01N
41 16N
070 25W
069 25W

Please visit www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/shipstrike for a graphic depicting all Dynamic Management Areas currently in effect.

 

 

 

 

 

Arlington, VA – Effective 2359 hours (EST) on February 17, 2012, the Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section and its member states will close the 2012 northern shrimp fishery. Preliminary landings data indicate harvest reached 1,996 mt on February 11, 2012. Given harvest has averaged about 400 mt per week and the fishery is known to have considerable late reporting, landings are projected to have already exceeded the total allowable catch (TAC) of 2,211 mt.

When it set the specifications for the 2012 fishery, the Section had announced its intention to close the fishery when landings were projected to reach 95% of the TAC (2,100 mt). Any landings above the established TAC is expected to lead to a fishing mortality rate in excess of the management program's fishing mortality threshold (F threshold) of 0.41. Any fishing above the F threshold would lead to overfishing of the stock.

The trawl season began on January 2, 2012 with three landing days a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday), while the trap season started on February 1, 2012 with a 1,000 pound landing limit per vessel per day. The states of Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts will be issuing closure notices consistent with their state procedures. For more information, please contact Robert Beal, ISFMP Director, at rbeal@asmfc.org and 703.842.0740.               

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Scallop access area trip assignments for 2012 are provided in the attached list. These assignments are based on full-time vessel ownership information from January 9, 2012, and are dependent upon permit renewals for the 2012 fishing year. NOAA will update these allocation assignments and re-post this list on our website closer to March 1, 2012, to reflect any vessel replacements or ownership changes that may occur prior to the start of the upcoming fishing year.

The New England Fishery Management Council recently requested that NOAA implement an emergency action to close the Delmarva Access Area and redistribute trips allocated into that area into other areas. NOAA is currently considering this request for emergency action. Regardless of the agency’s decision on taking emergency action, NOAA will not take action prior to the March 1, 2012, start of the scallop fishing year. As a result, these trip assignments are effective for 2012 until further notice.

If NOAA does close the Delmarva Access Area, they will notify the public as soon as possible of any adjustments to your access area trip allocations. In the meantime, vessels with Delmarva trips can fish their trips at the start of 2012 or wait until NOAA has announced any plans on adjusting these allocations.

Read the entire notice with the assignments here.