October 9, 2020 — The following was released by the NOAA Fisheries:
On September 30, 2020, the New England Fishery Management Council voted to approve Amendment 23 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan, including two options for sectors to use electronic monitoring, instead of human at-sea monitors, to meet their third-party sector monitoring requirements.
Under an electronic monitoring program, cameras and gear sensors are placed on your vessel to monitor catch and discards, and collect catch information. There are two different kinds of electronic monitoring programs for sectors in Amendment 23: Audit and Maximized Retention. We created a fact sheet and an infographic in order to help groundfish sectors understand the similarities and differences between these two programs as they consider which monitoring tools they would like to use in future fishing years. The fact sheet and infographic are now available on our northeast groundfish monitoring program webpage.
Questions?
Electronic Monitoring: Contact Claire Fitz-Gerald, Sustainable Fisheries, 978-281-9255
Amendment 23: Contact Mark Grant, Sustainable Fisheries, 978-281-9145
Media Inquiries: Contact Jennifer Goebel, Regional Office, 978-281-9175