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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 33 Number 12
August 2005
Herring Amendment 1; October hearings likely
For public hearing purposes, the New England Fishery Management Council has picked Alternative 7 as its “preferred alternative” for Amendment 1 to the federal Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Herring.
Public hearings are expected to take place in October.
The primary purpose of Amendment 1 is to implement a limited-access program for the herring fishery. The amendment also proposes to restrict midwater trawl fishing in Area 1A during the summer.
Here are the major components of Alternative 7.
Area 1 limited-access directed fishery permit – To qualify for this permit, which covers Area 1A and 1B, vessels must currently possess a herring permit and have landed at least 500 metric tons (mt) of herring in any one calendar year between Jan. 1, 1988 and Sept. 16, 1999.
Areas 2 and 3 limited-access directed fishery permit – To qualify for this permit, vessels must currently possess a herring permit and have landed at least 250 mt of herring in any one calendar year between Jan. 1, 1988 and Dec. 31, 2003.
Limited-access incidental catch permit – Vessels that don’t qualify for a directed fishery permit can obtain an incidental catch permit to fish in any herring management area if they currently possess a permit to fish for squid, mackerel, butterfish, and/or whiting and have landed at least 15 mt of herring in any calendar year between Jan. 1, 1993 and Dec. 31, 2002. Permit holders would be subject to a possession limit of 15 mt (33,000 pounds) of herring.
Open-access incidental catch permit – Anyone not qualifying for one of the above limited-access permits will be allowed to obtain an open-access incidental catch permit to possess a small amount of herring, which will be important to people who supply local bait markets. The possession limit options in Amendment 1 include 1 mt (2,204 pounds), 3 mt (6,600 pounds), and 5 mt (11,000 pounds).
Total allowable catch (TAC) cap – Once 95% of the TAC in any management area is projected to be reached, the directed fishery will be closed and all limited-access and open-access permit holders will be limited to 2,000 pounds of herring per trip as a bycatch allowance.
Purse seine/fixed gear-only area – Vessels using single and paired midwater trawls would be prohibited from fishing for Atlantic herring in Area 1A from June 1 through Sept. 30 during each fishing year. All gear types would be allowed to harvest herring from Area 1A from Oct. 1 through May 31.
For more information about draft Amendment 1, call plan coordinator Lori Steele at the council office at (978) 465-0492 or visit the council web site at <www.nefmc.org>. /cfn/
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