June 27, 2012 – At the request of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, NOAA Fisheries is proposing a change in the Council’s risk policy regarding stocks without an overfishing limit. The current risk policy does not allow increases of the acceptable biological catch for stocks that do not have an overfishing limit derived from the stock assessment.
The modification will allow increases of the acceptable biological catch for stocks that have stable or increasing trends in abundance, and for which there is robust scientific information to suggest that an increased acceptable biological catch will not lead to overfishing.Though the proposed action would only modify the Mackerel, Squid and Butterfish Fishery Management Plan, it will apply to all of the Council’s managed species, including Atlantic mackerel, butterfish, Atlantic bluefish, spiny dogfish, summer flounder, scup, black sea bass, Atlantic surfclam, ocean quahog, and tilefish with the exception of longfin squid or Illex squid; these species are exempt from these requirements because they have a life cycle of less than 1 year.
Read the notice in the Federal Register here.