March 2011 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 11. Commercial Fishing News


ARLINGTON, VA – Effective 2359 hours (EST) on February 28, 2011, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section and its member states will close the 2010/2011 fishery. The decision to close the fishery prior to the season end of April 15 was based on preliminary landings data that indicate that harvest is already at 4,192 metric tons, 192 metric tons in excess of the Technical Committee recommended landings level. The Technical Committee projected landings could total 7,000 metric tons if harvest continued through April 15. Section members expressed concern over the lack of a timely and complete reporting system for northern shrimp and the potential for this year’s overharvest to negatively impact the stock and next year’s fishery. A comprehensive reporting system would provide managers the necessary information to prevent overharvest of the stock ensuring a healthy population of shrimp for future fisheries. This issue will be addressed in the Public Information Document for Draft Amendment 2 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Northern Shrimp, scheduled to be released in March for public comment.


ASMFC CLOSES NORTHERN SHRIMP FISHERY


should be the foundation of next year’s fishery. The age 5 shrimp provide the greatest spawning potential and also receive a higher market price than smaller younger shrimp. The Northern Shrimp Technical Committee will update the stock assessment this summer to determine if this year’s overharvest has had an impact on the 2011/ 2012 fishery.


The Section’s action was taken pursuant to the emergency action provision of the Commission’s ISFMP Charter, Section 6(c)(10). The provision specifies that the Commission will hold four public hearings within 30 days of the action. The first public hearing was held during the Section’s February 18 conference call. The second hearing will occur at the Section’s February


28 meeting at the Urban Forestry Center, 45 Elwyn Road, Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The details of the remaining hearings will be posted to the Commission website (www.asmfc.org) on its Meeting page. For more information, please contact Robert Beal, ISFMP Director, at rbeal@asmfc.org and (703) 842-0740.


Senator Snowe Cosponsors Legislation Calling for


Prior to the start of the 2010/2011 fishery, the Technical Committee cautioned Section members that the abundance of age 5 shrimp in the population is significantly below average. This results in the fishery harvesting primarily age 4 shrimp which


WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Olympia J. Snowe, Ranking Member of the Senate subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard, has cosponsored legislation with Senator Scott Brown, to ensure that fisherman and fishing communities are not subjected to unnecessary and over-broad regulations imposed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Under National Standard 8 of the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act, NOAA is currently required to release a fishing impact statement prior to the ratification of any new fisheries management plan or amendment to the existing plan. The bill Senator Snowe is supporting, the Fishing Impact Statement Honesty (FISH) Act of 2011, S. 238, expands on that requirement by calling for those impact statements to be updated annually to


Annual Fisheries Impact Reports better track the social and economic effect of these regulations on the fishing community. Specifically, the FISH Act requires the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to select an independent third party to conduct the statement analysis.


“As a longtime leader in fisheries management issues, I fought hard to get National Standard 8 into law in the mid- 1990s. I could not be more pleased to support Senator Scott Brown’s legislation to strengthen the socioeconomic impact process and require an independent third party chosen by the GAO to handle the statement analysis,” said Senator Snowe. “Fishermen in Maine and across the nation


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have already sacrificed a portion of their livelihood during these challenging economic times so it is critically important that we have clear and accurate data when imposing new or amended fisheries management measures on this vital community.”


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