August 3, 2012 — The following is an informal update from N.E. Fishery Management Council Staffer/Groundfish Plan Development Team Chairman Tom Nies. It is a summary of issues addressed and items approved at Council’s Groundfish Committee Meeting, held on August 2, 2012 in Portsmouth, NH.
The Groundfish Committee took the following actions at its meeting August 2, 2012. These recommendations will be brought to the Council in September. This brief summary does not capture the entire discussion and only reports major decisions. Sound files are available (contact joleary@nefmc.org) and the meeting summary will be published in about ten days.
Much of the Committee work focused on responding to preliminary information provided by NMFS that indicates catch quotas for many stocks will probably be drastically reduced in fishing year 2013. That has been the subject of several news articles so I won’t repeat the details. The Committee took the following actions to provide opportunities to mitigate these expected low catch levels. These alternatives will be considered in FW 48 (with one possible exception noted below). A final vote on that action is planned for November and if approved by NMFS measures would be implemented May 1, 2013.
1. Added an option to FW 48 that would reduce minimum sizes to a level expected to reduce most regulatory discards of allocated groundfish. FW 48 already has an option that would eliminate minimum fish sizes for allocated groundfish.
2. Added an option to consider prohibiting possession of GB yellowtail flounder in FY 2013.
3. Added an option that if there is insufficient government funding to cover all at sea monitoring, the required level of coverage defaults to the NEFOP level.
4. Added an option to allow increased access to year round closed areas (while this is intended to be in FW 48, it is possible it may be submitted in a separate action):
a. Open the NLCA year round.
b. Open CAI from May 1 through February 15 for selective fishing gear
c. Open CAII south of 41-50N from May 1 through February 15 for the use of selective fishing gear
d. Open the WGOM closed area, except for an area referred to as Jeffreys Ledge on page 5 of a Habitat PDT memo dated August 15, 2011
e. Open the Cashes Ledge Closed Area year round except for an area around Ammen Rock identified as Habitat Area consistent with the Habitat PDT recommendation #4 on page 3 of the Habitat PDT memo dated August 15, 2011.
f. Items d and e might be modified slightly based on minor changes made by the Habitat PDT to these areas since last August.
g. Selective gear” was clarified to mean Ruhle trawls ,separator trawls, etc., as well as longline gear, but not sink gillnets and in the case of CAI and CAII, not recreational gear.
5. Removed options that considered providing additional ACE to help fund monitoring costs because legal advice is that this cannot be done in a framework (as currently structured).
6. Due to legal and policy guidance from NERO ,decided not to pursue an expanded/enlarged carry-over provision in this action.
7. Directed the PDT to further investigate a SNE/MAB windowpane flounder AM approach that would apply gear restrictions across gear types, regardless of fishery, rather than create sub-ACLs for the fluke, scup, squid, etc. fisheries that are managed by other jursidictions.
The Committee also received a report on the recent TRAC assessments for GB YTF, EGB cod, and EGB haddock and discussed at-sea monitoring issues.
CORRECTION:
August 17, 2012 — The Groundfish Committee took the following actions at its meeting August 2, 2012. These recommendations will be brought to the Council in September. This brief summary does not capture the entire discussion and only reports major decisions. Sound files are available (contact joleary@nefmc.org) and the meeting summary will be published in about ten days. Please contact me if there are errors or questions.
Much of the Committee work focused on responding to preliminary information provided by NMFS that indicates catch quotas for many stocks will probably be drastically reduced in fishing year 2013. That has been the subject of several news articles so I won’t repeat the details. The Committee took the following actions to provide opportunities to mitigate these expected low catch levels. These alternatives will be considered in FW 48 (with one possible exception noted below). A final vote on that action is planned for November and if approved by NMFS measures would be implemented May 1, 2013.
1. Added an option to consider prohibiting possession of GB yellowtail flounder in FY 2013.
This motion FAILED on a show of hands. The summary incorrectly said this motion passed.