The New England Fisheries Management Council (NEFMC) voted November 17 to increase the herring Total Allowable Catch (TAC) by 15 percent from the drastic reduction made at the September NEFMC meeting.
The National Marine Fisheries Service’s Science and Statistical Committee was pressed to reconsider their recommended 53 percent cut in the TAC for the next three years. Public outcry from the lobster industry over the impact such a cut would have on the lobster fishery and fishing communities was the driving force. The herring fleet also called for increases to the SSC recommended cut.
Although the SSC is not bound to reconsider its decisions, given that the stock is not overfished, and that there is some latitude in the number the SSC delivers for the TAC, they reconsidered.
The SSC produces a range between the most restrictive number and the least restrictive number for the TAC. Within that range they found it possible to move on the TAC.