Page 20. MAINE COASTAL NEWS March 2018 M C F N Continued from Page 13.
agement (BOEM) has 11 active renewable energy leases from Massachusetts to North Carolina and is considering additional lease sales in 2018 and 2019. BOEM has commit- ted via Northeast and Mid-Atlantic Ocean Plans to coordinate with the Commission. BOEM staff presented on the status of cur- rent and future leases. Aquaculture Aquaculture, particularly for shellfi sh,
has become a signifi cant management re- sponsibility for many of the states’ fi sheries agencies. The growth in this industry has resulted in an increasing number of requests for the interstate transfer of shellfi sh seed. With this increased rate of movement comes an increased risk of spreading shellfi sh veterinary disease, pathogens, and invasive species. To address this issue, the Board will re-populate the Interstate Shellfi sh Committee to explore development of a cooperative arrangement between shellfi sh seed-producing states. Such an arrangement would aim to: (1) enable enhanced control over the inter-state sale of seed as a means
to prevent the spread of shellfi sh disease and parasites; and (2) level the playing fi eld for growers and seed sources operating in good faith under the existing requirements. Electronic Reporting Subcommittee The Board also clarifi ed a motion made
at the American Lobster Board meeting regarding the establishment of a subcom- mittee to address electronic reporting. The clarifi cation was in the membership and specifi c tasks for the group. Lastly, the Board tasked the Law Enforcement Com- mittee with investigating the enforceability of ropeless fi shing (see American Lobster Board meeting summary). For more information, please contact
Toni Kerns, Director of ISFMP, at tkerns@
asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.
ASMFC Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Board Approves Adden- dum XXX for Recreational Black Sea Bass Management
The Commission’s Summer Flounder,
Scup and Black Sea Bass Management Board approved Addendum XXX to the Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass
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Fishery Management Plan. The Addendum establishes a regional allocation of the coast- wide Recreational Harvest Limit (RHL) to address state concerns regarding equity and accountability in recreational black sea bass management.
From 2012-2016, the recreational fi sh-
ery was managed under an ad-hoc regional management approach, whereby the states of Massachusetts through New Jersey indi- vidually crafted measures aimed at adjusting harvest by the same percentage, while the states of Delaware through North Carolina set their regulations consistent with the fed- eral waters measures. While this approach allowed the states fl exibility in setting man- agement measures, some states expressed a need for increased equity and accountability in managing harvest to coastwide catch lim- its.
Accounting for geographic diff erences
in the stock and fi shery interests, Addendum XXX uses a combination of exploitable biomass information from the latest stock assessment and historical harvest to region- ally allocate the coastwide RHL. The fi nal allocation is based on a hybrid of the alloca- tion options that were presented in the Draft Addendum. The three management regions are defi ned as Massachusetts through New York, New Jersey as a state-specifi c region, and Delaware through North Carolina; their respective allocations of the 2018 coastwide RHL are 61.35%, 30.24%, and 8.41%. The Technical Committee will work with the states to develop regional proposals for Board review and approval in March 2018. To improve accountability, the states
20
within each region will be collectively responsible for managing harvest to their regional allocation through the cooperative development of recreational measures. To increase regional consistency in measures, each region will establish a standard set of measures, with each state in the region af- forded the fl exibility to adjust their measures up to one inch in minimum size and three fi sh in possession limit. The Addendum also initiates the development of a new process for evaluation and specifi cation of measures against the annual catch limit, which aims to provide more year-to-year stability in management measures. The Addendum will be available on
the Commission website,
www.asmfc.org, on the Black Sea Bass webpage by late February. For more information, please contact Caitlin Starks, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at
cstarks@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.
ASMFC American Eel Board Approves Draft Addendum V for Public Comment The Commission’s American Eel
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Management Board (Board) approved American Eel Draft Addendum V for public comment. The Draft Addendum proposes alternative coastwide landings caps, man- agement triggers, state-by-state allocations, and transfer provisions for the yellow eel commercial fi shery; as well as alternatives to the current Maine glass eel commercial quota and the aquaculture provisions of the plan. The Board initiated Draft Addendum V in October 2017 in response to concerns over the management program as specifi ed in Addendum IV. Currently, the yellow eel fi shery is man-
aged to an annual coastwide landings cap of 907,671 pounds. The coastwide cap is eval- uated against two management triggers: (1) the coastwide cap is exceeded by more than 10% in a given year; or (2) the coastwide cap is exceeded for two consecutive years, regardless of the percent overage. If either of these triggers are tripped, state-by-state quotas will be implemented. 2016 landings
exceeded the coastwide cap by less than ten percent. If landings in 2017 exceeded the coastwide cap by any amount, state-by-state quotas would be implemented. The Board expressed concern that the current manage- ment triggers do not account for annual fl uc- tuations in landings and the immediate im- plementation of state-by-state quotas would pose signifi cant administrative challenges. Draft Addendum V proposes alternatives to the coastwide cap, management triggers, state-by-state allocations and transfer provi- sions to address the Board concerns. Draft Addendum V proposes alterna-
tive quota levels for the Maine glass eel fi shery. Specifi cally, increasing the quota above the 2015-2018 level of 9,688 pounds. The Draft Addendum also proposes changes to the aquaculture provisions of the plan. It includes an option that would allow con- tiguously bordered states to pool their 200 pound glass eel aquaculture allowance, up to a maximum of 600 pounds. It is anticipated the majority of states
from Maine through Florida will be con- ducting public hearings on the Draft Ad- dendum. The details of those hearings will be released in a subsequent press release. The Draft Addendum will be available on the Commission’s website,
www.asmfc. org (under Public Input) this spring. For more information on American eel, please contact Kirby Rootes-Murdy, Senior FMP Coordinator, at
krootes-murdy@asmfc.org.
Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Advisory Panel Meeting March 7-9, 2018
NOAA Fisheries intends to hold a meet-
ing of the Atlantic Highly Migratory Species (HMS) Advisory Panel (AP) on March 7-9, 2018, at the Sheraton Silver Spring Hotel, 8777 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20910. The AP meeting will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, March 7, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 8, and from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on Friday, March 9. A new AP member ori- entation session will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, March 7. The meeting on Wednesday, March 7,
Thursday, March 8, and Friday, March 9, 2018, will also be accessible via confer- ence call and webinar. Conference call and webinar access information on the meeting agenda web page. Participants are strongly encouraged to log/ dial in 15 minutes prior to the meeting. NOAA Fisheries will show the presentations via webinar and allow public comment during identifi ed times on the agenda. The intent of this meeting is to consider
alternatives for the conservation and man- agement of all Atlantic tunas, swordfi sh, billfi sh, and shark fi sheries. We anticipate discussing domestic implementation of recommendations from the 2017 meeting of the International Com- mission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas to include an emergency rule for shortfi n mako sharks, Draft Amendment 11 on shortfi n mako sharks, bluefi n tuna and northern albacore tuna quotas, and issues for 2018; three-year review of Amendment 7 on bluefi n tuna management; progress updates on various other rulemakings, including shark fi shery closure criteria, evaluation of existing bluefi n tuna management-related gear restricted areas, and evaluation of ex- isting fi shing gear modifi cation; recreational fi shery issues; closed area data collection and an update regarding the exempted fi shing permit request to conduct research in pelagic longline closed areas; updates on shark stock assessments. We also anticipate
Continued on Page 21.
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