February 19, 2025 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:
The New England Fishery Management Council met January 28-30, 2025 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In addition to standard business, the Council received a series of presentations on fisheries research projects being conducted in offshore wind development areas. The Responsible Offshore Science Alliance (ROSA) organized the presentations at the Council’s request and planned an evening poster session (photos below). Presentations and posters are posted on the Council’s website here.
ATLANTIC HERRING / RIVER HERRING: The Council received a presentation on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) 2024 River Herring Benchmark Stock Assessment. ASMFC staff provided the overview and answered Council questions.
The Council then received an update on Amendment 10 to the Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan, which is an action to minimize user conflicts in the Atlantic herring fishery, support rebuilding of the resource, and address river herring and shad catch. The Council will receive another update in June.
During its September 2024 meeting, the Council took final action on fishing year 2025-2027 specifications for Atlantic herring. At the time, the Council’s proposed specifications assumed the 2024 acceptable biological catch (ABC) would be caught.
Given the limited activity in the commercial fishery over the past year, the Council did not expect the U.S. annual catch limit would be fully utilized in 2024. It therefore tasked the Herring Plan Development Team (PDT) with
reviewing preliminary 2024 year-end catch information and developing an updated 2024 catch estimate, which was presented to the Council at the January meeting along with revised projections.
Based on the new information, the Council agreed to ask its Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) to provide updated fishing year 2025 and 2026 overfishing limit (OFL) and ABC recommendations. The Council also asked the SSC to consider results from the March 2025 Atlantic Herring Research Track Stock Assessment and a risk analysis that will be prepared by the PDT.
The Council will receive the SSC’s report during its April 2025 meeting and discuss whether revisions to the 2025 and 2026 specifications are warranted.