NEWPORT, RI – While pledging to revisit a number of issues related to catch monitoring on Atlantic herring midwater trawl vessels, the New England Fishery Management Council on Nov. 20 did not support the use of emergency action to prohibit the fleet from fishing pending 100% observer coverage.
Back in September, council member Tom Dempsey of Massachusetts put a motion on the table proposing such action. This request, which would have been submitted to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), called for a ban on the use of midwater trawl gear “in New England federal waters” until “100% at-sea monitoring and comprehensive dumping regulations” were implemented.
The motion caught most people off guard, and, since the issue had not been advertised on the agenda, the council postponed action until its next meeting.
Word spread. People organized.
Read the rest and much, much more in the January issue of Commercial Fisheries News.
Read online immediately and download for future reference.
Updating...