June 2015 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 13. Commercial Fishing News MISCELLANEOUS COMMERCIAL FISHING NEWS


has worked to ensure fi shery management regulations within Rhode Island and neigh- boring states are being upheld, consistently performing a high level of at-sea and dockside inspections of commercial and recreational fi shing vessels in his state, as well as numerous recreational shoreside fi sherman inspections. Sergeant Kane has worked with New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts Law Enforcement as well as NOAA Offi ce of Law Enforcement (OLE) on a number of fi sheries investigations and enforcement initiatives. Several of these multi-state investigations involved com- mercial and recreational lobster, scallop, striped bass, scup, American eels, winter and summer fl ounder. A couple of the investiga- tions have been high level, such as one case which involved the illegal possession and sale of striped bass taken from Rhode Island and offl oaded in Connecticut. Another case involved the successful prosecution of a Rhode Island commercial lobster fi shing investigation, which involved New York and NOAA OLE; several hundred illegal lobster traps were seized as part of the investigation. During the past several years, Sergeant Kane has also been involved with numerous viola- tions and federal referrals to NOAA OLE for commercial fi shing vessels landing over the legal limits or possession of illegal species. Outreach & Advocacy Contributions Janice Plante, former writer and associ- ate editor for Commercial Fisheries News (CFN) and Fish Farming News Through her diligent reporting on fi sh- eries issues, Janice Plante has signifi cantly advanced stakeholder understanding of fi sheries management and scientifi c activ- ities along the Atlantic coast. No writer or journalist has done more to bridge the gap between fi sheries managers/scientists and commercial fi shermen than Ms. Plante. For the past three decades, Ms. Plante has not only been committed to, but also excelled at, breaking down complex fi sheries man- agement and science issues in clear, under- standable, and accessible language that both inform and engage New England fi shermen in the fi sheries management process at all levels of government (state, interstate, re- gional and federal). Not an easy task given that she has had to digest complicated fi shery stock assessments, gear requirements, and regulatory issues, translating the bottom line into terminology easily grasped by commercial fi shermen and the public. She


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has covered a multitude issues ranging from American lobster to Atlantic herring, north- ern shrimp, spiny dogfi sh, and groundfi sh. Even though the news that she reported on has not always been favorable from the per- spective of the commercial fi shing industry, she has always done it in an unbiased way, presenting both the facts of matter and the full range of viewpoints, allowing her read- ership to come to their own opinions about the issue at hand. Throughout her career with CFN, Ms. Plante has work closely with Commission staff to ensure that her stories correctly characterize the management issues at hand and the science behind the Commission’s management decisions, al- ways with the intent to demystify and make more accessible the Commission’s activities to the stakeholders it impacts the greatest. Ms. Plante’s body of work is a true testament to her deep and abiding commitment to both the fi sheries management process and the industries it seeks to support.


ASMFC Atlantic Menhaden Board Sets 2015 and 2016 TAC at 187,880 MT & Initiates Amendment to Establish Ecological Reference Points


The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries


Commission’s Atlantic Menhaden Manage- ment Board approved a total allowable catch (TAC) for the 2015 and 2016 fi shing seasons at 187,880 mt per year, a 10% increase from the 2014 TAC. The increase responds to the positive fi ndings of the 2015 Atlantic menhaden benchmark assessment which in- dicates the resource is not overfi shed nor ex- periencing overfi shing relative to the current biological reference points. The TAC will be made available to the states/jurisdictions based on the state-by-state allocation estab- lished by Amendment 2 (see accompanying table). The Board also committed to moving forward with the development of an amend- ment to establish ecological based reference points that refl ect Atlantic menhaden’s role as a forage species. The amendment will also consider changes to the current state- by-state allocation scheme.


“The Board struck an important balance


by increasing fi shing opportunities to both the reduction and bait fi sheries and commit- ting to fully evaluating the ecological role of Atlantic menhaden through the amendment process,” stated Board Chair Robert Boyles from South Carolina.


The Board has established a working


group to aid in the development of issues to be addressed in the Public Information Document (PID) and draft amendment. The Board will meet later this year to review the working group’s progress. The PID is the fi rst step in the Commission’s amend- ment process. It will gather information concerning the Atlantic menhaden fi shery and resource and provide an opportunity for the public to identify and comment on major issues relative to the management of this species. For more information, please contact Mike Waine, Senior Fishery Man- agement Plan Coordinator, at mwaine@ asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.


ASMFC American Lobster Board Approves Addendum XXIV


The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries


Commission’s American Lobster Manage- ment Board has approved Addendum XXIV to Amendment 3 to the Interstate Lobster Fishery Management Plan. The Adden- dum aligns state and federal measures trap transfer programs for Lobster Conservation Management Areas 2, 3, and Outer Cape Cod regarding the conservation tax on trap allocations when whole fi shing businesses are transferred, trap allocation transfer in- crements, and restrictions on trap allocation transfers among permit holders who are au- thorized to fi sh both state and federal waters


(dual permit holder) within a single lobster management area. Addendum XXIV removes the 10% conservation tax on full business transfers. Transfer tax on full business transfers was found to be not necessary to prevent the ac- tivation of latent effort and that current reg- ulations provide suffi cient controls for latent effort. Addendum XXIV also specifi es traps shall be transferred in 10 trap increments in all areas that currently have a trap transfer- ability program, unless specifi ed otherwise. This change allows for fewer traps to be transferred at one time thus allowing more fl exibility for a permit holder in the trap transfer process. This repeals restrictions on vessel size and trap allocation transfers and does not require a permit be retired if the permit holder has less than 50 traps. Finally, Addendum XXIV allows dual permit holders to transfer allocation with dual permits holders from other states. If a dual permit holder chooses to purchase a federal trap allocation from a dual permit holder from another state, only the federal allocation will transfer. Therefore, the buyer must also purchase state allocation from a permit holder in their own state to align the federal and state allocations. If the state and federal allocations do not align, the most


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