June 11, 2019 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:
The New England Fishery Management Council has approved Framework Adjustment 6 to the Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan (FMP), which contains 2019-2021 specifications for the fishery and a new overfishing definition for herring that is more consistent with the 2018 benchmark stock assessment.
The Council took several steps during its April meeting that helped guide the development of Framework 6. Here at its June meeting in So. Portland, ME, the Council made three additional decisions to complete the package:
- Overfishing Limit (OFL) and Acceptable Biological Catch (ABC): The Council voted to set OFL and ABC based on the ABC control rule that’s proposed in Amendment 8 to the Atlantic Herring FMP while using the original projections made by its Scientific and Statistical Committee. This was referred to as “Alternative 2 Original” in the draft framework.