August 18, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
NOAA Fisheries has approved a modification to the sector small-mesh exemption area. This action was proposed in an interim final rule published on April 28, 2017.
Through this action, we are expanding the area of the existing small-mesh exemption for groundfish sectors to increase sectors’ opportunities to use the exemption and to better match the footprint of the exemption to the fishery.
The larger area should create new opportunities for sector vessels to use this exemption, which will increase the efficiency of sector vessels participating in both the groundfish fishery and small-mesh exempted fisheries in southern New England.
All reporting and gear requirements for the exemption remain the same.
We are excluding the southern windowpane accountability measure areas from the sector small-mesh exemption area to limit impacts to groundfish stocks.
For more information, please see the notice as filed in the Federal Register.