December 12, 2024 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:
The New England Fishery Management Council met December 3-5, 2024 in Newport, Rhode Island and covered a wide range of topics. Here are some of the meeting highlights.
SPINY DOGFISH: The Council voted to recommend that NOAA Fisheries set the spiny dogfish acceptable biological catch (ABC) equal to the overfishing limit (OFL) for the 2025 fishing year. This is the highest limit allowed under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act’s (MSA) National Standard 1 Guidelines, which stipulate that ABC cannot exceed OFL.
On December 10, 2024, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council also voted to set the ABC at the overfishing limit. The resulting specifications package, if implemented by NOAA Fisheries, would result in a commercial quota of roughly 9.3 million pounds (see table at right). Spiny dogfish is managed jointly by the Mid-Atlantic and New England Councils. The Mid-Atlantic Council has the administrative lead for the fishery. In 2023, the two Councils developed specifications for the 2024-2026 fishing years for spiny dogfish.
However, in September 2024, the Mid-Atlantic Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) lowered its 2025-2026 ABC recommendations for spiny dogfish in response to updated projections using revised catch information. The SSC’s revised ABC recommendations were intended to keep in line with the MidAtlantic Council’s risk policy, which specifies a 46% chance of overfishing for a stock that’s just above its biomass target like spiny dogfish. Setting ABC at OFL would result in a 50% chance of overfishing, which is higher than generated under the Mid-Atlantic Council’s standard risk policy.