The following message and letter was transmitted by NOAA advising fishers that there may still be opportunities to join sectors.
If you are interested in shifting from the common pool and joining a sector, there may still be opportunities. Contact sector organizers to see if any are willing to re-open their rosters. Act quickly, so the sector organizer can submit a revised roster to NOAA Fisheries Service before the November 20th deadline.
Changes to rosters may prompt additional environmental assessment analyses. If the changes to the rosters are significant (e.g., expanding the sector’s geographic range or gear types), the analyses will take some time, and the regulatory authorization for the added vessels may not be ready by the May 1 start of the fishing year. Roster changes received after November 20 can not be adopted and processed before May 1.
The regulatory processes for authorizing vessels that are already on a sector roster to start the season on May 1 will not be affected by this opportunity to reopen the rosters.