January winds blew us out of the water but the political front continues to give us news to ponder.
The Mid-Atlantic Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Black Sea Bass Monitoring Committee agreed to increase the 2010 acceptable biological catch (ABC) for black sea bass from 2.71 million pounds to 4.5 million pounds.
The Fisheries Survival Fund (FSF), the largest national organization dedicated to protecting and strengthening the nation’s Atlantic sea scallop fishery, welcomed the announcement by the New England Fishery Management Council to reconsider its decision to restrict fishing opportunities for the Atlantic sea scallop fishery in 2010.
NOAA will convene a national summit on enforcement policies and practices in order to hear from constituents and experts in the field. The report is online at http://www.oig.doc.gov/oig/