Category: NEFMC

Editorial – Changing of the guard at New England council

Effective the end of this month, Pat Fiorelli, who has been the public affairs officer for the New England Fishery Management Council for nearly three decades, is leaving to begin a new chapter in her life, retirement. Stepping into her shoes is former Commercial Fisheries News Associate Editor Janice M. Plante, who has been working …

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Councils to select prelimary preferred options for monitoring of mackerel, herring fisheries

MONTAUK, NY – At its Apr 12-15 meeting here, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council will review new cost analyses for monitoring landings and discards in the Atlantic mackerel fishery under the pending Industry-Funded Monitoring (IFM) Omnibus Amendment, a joint council initative in which NOAA Fisheries (NMFS) has lead development responsibilities. The Mid-Atlantic council is likely …

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New England council sponsoring two-day Feb. 22-23 inshore scallop workshop in RI

GLOUCESTER, MA – Due to concerns raised about the potential impacts of increased effort on the nearshore scallop fishery over the past few years, the New England Fishery Management Council has set up a two-day inshore scallop workshop to be held Feb. 22-23 in Warwick, RI. The fishery is comprised of two fleets: •  About …

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New England council adds ASM relief measures to Framework 55

PLYMOUTH, MA – At its Sept. 29-Oct. 1 meeting here, the New England Fisheries Management Council added alternatives to Framework Adjustment 55 to the Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish) Fishery Management Plan (FMP) to include enforcement, adding a new sector, and to make the at-sea monitoring program more efficient and cost effective. Changes in federal policy on …

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Real people who help shape the process: This issue, meet Lori Steele, NEFMC staffer

NEWBURYPORT, MA – After 18 years as a staffer for the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC), Lori Steele is moving to the other side of the country – and the other side of the table. Steele will be leaving the council in early October to take over the helm at the Portland, OR-based West …

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New England Council approves Draft EIS for AMD 18 to Groundfish FMP

MYSTIC, CT – Four years after its initiation, the New England Fishery Management Council (NEMFC) has approved the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for Amendment 18 to the Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish) Fishery Management Plan. The action, taken during the council’s April meeting here, was not without controversy.  See Guest Column, page 6. The council also …

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New England Council takes on sticky issue of at-sea monitoring costs

MYSTIC, CT – At the end of the New England Fishery Management Council’s (NEFMC) April meeting, the council requested that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) prepare an estimate of the cost-revenue ratio for at-sea monitoring of Northeast Multispecies sectors that would take into account rapidly declining annual catch limits (ACLs) and coverage methodology. The …

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NEFMC Special Insert – Omnibus Essential Fish Habitat Amendment

  Sponsored Supplement to the August 2014 edition of Commercial Fisheries News (Click Page to Download)  

New England council proposes new/altered closed areas to protect habitat, spawning fish

DANVERS, MA – Who among us can’t see Closed Area II or the Western Gulf of Maine Closure Area in our sleep?  The age-old, familiar boundaries of these and New England’s other closed areas – some of which have been in place for two decades now – are deeply embedded in our understanding of the …

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New England council adopts river herring catch caps

HYANNIS, MA – Fishermen who use midwater trawls or bottom trawls and land more than 6,600 pounds of Atlantic herring will need to pay extra attention to river herring and shad bycatch in the future. During its late September meeting here, the New England Fishery Management Council adopted area-specific and gear-specific catch caps for a …

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