Groundfish are fish species that live on or near the body of water they inhabit. The United States Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, recently announced new measures, to be effective May 1st, to end overfishing and continue the rebuilding of groundfish in the waters of the Northeastern United States. The measures include new limits on catches and a major change in how the fishery will be managed.
For the first time, the U.S. will impose a cap on the amount of all groundfish of any species that are permitted to be caught. In addition, there will be measures to mitigate if the catch limits are exceeded. These measures provide some of the strongest safeguards to date for recovering groundfish stocks, the majority of which are overfished. Commercial vessels will no longer be allowed to catch certain groundfish species, including windowplane flounder, ocean pout, wolffish and southern New England winter flounder.
In addition to the new caps, these measures will fundamentally change the way this fishery will be managed. Fishing vessels may now fish with others as a group, or "sector." Sectors, which are voluntary for fishing vessels, are formed each year and given a portion of the total available groundfish catch based on the combined fishing history of their member vessels.
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