August 27, 2018 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
NOAA Fisheries Southeast Regional Office (SERO) has announced that commercial harvest of Atlantic Migratory Group cobia (Atlantic cobia; New York to Georgia) will close in federal waters on September 5, 2018 due to projections that the commercial annual catch limit (ACL) of 50,000 pounds will be reached on this date (FB18-060, https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/bulletin/commercial-harvest-atlantic-group-cobia-georgia-new-york-will-close-federal-waters-0). For more information on this closure, please contact the SERO Sustainable Fisheries Division at 727.824.5305.
The Commission’s Interstate Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for Atlantic Cobia complements these measures and requires that should the coastwide ACL be met, a coastwide commercial closure will occur (Sec. 4.2). Therefore, the states from New York to Georgia that harvest Atlantic cobia must close their commercial cobia fisheries in state waters by September 5, 2018.
For more information or questions about the Commission’s Cobia FMP, please contact Dr. Michael Schmidtke, FMP Coordinator, at mschmidtke@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.
A PDF of the announcement can be found here – http://www.asmfc.org/uploads/file/5b805da2SABoardMemo_2018CobiaClosure_Aug2018.pdf