February 24, 2014 — The following was released by NOAA:
Today, NOAA Fisheries announced that the agency will cover observer and at-sea monitoring costs for groundfish sectors in 2014 to meet the requirements developed and recommended by the New England Fishery Management Council under its groundfish plan.
This year, the monitoring target is 26 percent of the fishing trips by groundfish vessels.The fishery management plan requires at-sea monitoring for groundfish sectors to ensure that all catch, including discards, is accounted for and ultimately that quotas are not exceeded, and also requires the industry to pay for their costs of this monitoring.
Since implementation, NOAA Fisheries has paid for all at-sea monitoring costs. Based on anticipated effort in the groundfishery for the coming fishing year, which begins on May 1, the agency expects to be able to continue to cover the groundfish industry’s portion of these costs for fishing year 2014 which runs May 1, 2014 through April 30, 2015.