Council Streamlines Specification Setting Process During its May meeting in Secaucus, NJ, the Mid-Atlantic council took an action that has the potential to significantly impact its future workload. The Council adopted Alternative 3 in Framework 5 to the Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Fishery Management Plan. This alternative would allow the Council, in lieu of its annual specification setting process, to specify Total Allowable Landings (TAL) for up to 3 years in the future. Under this alternative, if multi-year TALs are implemented, no annual review of updated information on the fishery would occur. In other words, once all of the TALs are specified, there would not be any adjustment in year 2 and/or 3. This approach to establishing future TALs would increase administrative efficiency and is designed to provide for the fishing community, both recreational and commercial, with knowledge of future landing levels so as to develop business plans with greater confidence. The Council voted to rescind actions that were approved at its March meeting for Amendment 1 to the Spiny Dogfish FMP and postpone future actions on Amendment 1 for an indefinite period of time. Currently, there is no directed fishery on dogfish and that will continue to be the case for the foreseeable future. For the current fishing year, there is a 4 million pound incidental take fishery that is split into two seasons, May 1-October 31 and November 1-April 30. The quotas are governed by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s dogfish plan that assigns specific sub-quotas to its member states. Hence, there is no compelling need to move forward with an amendment to the plan at this time. The Council also voted to support the concept of the Clean Ocean Zone which is a project of the Clean Ocean Action. The Clean Ocean Zone is a program established to permanently protect the waters of the NY/NJ Bight by reducing pollution, protecting marine ecosystems, and supporting marine resources. These objectives are intended to safeguard the waters of the NY/NJ Bight for present and future generations. More information regarding this program can be found at: www.cleanoceanzone.org.
The Council also voted to support the concept of a state-by-state uniform recreational finfish salt water license or permit. The purpose of this program would be to improve data collection in the recreational sector by using the Atlantic Coast Cooperative Statistics Program’s license format. Letters communicating this decision will be sent to various management authorities throughout the Mid-Atlantic.
The May Council meeting also served as a meeting forum for five of its committees, i.e. the Fisheries Issues Focus Committee, the Research Set Aside Committee, Surf Clam/Ocean Quahog Committee, Atlantic Mackerel, Squid and Butterfish Committee and the Executive Committee. Each committee reviewed information concerning activities within its purview and developed a number of motions for future Council consideration.
The Council also reviewed excerpts from the Governor’s Draft of the Preliminary Report of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy. Particular attention was focused on the 26 recommendations concerning Chapter 19 of that publication which addressed achieving sustainable fisheries. A comment letter is in the process of being developed to provide the Commission with the Council’s view of the Commission’s recommendations. In conjunction with that review, the Council also reviewed “Taking Stock of Regional Fishery Management Plans,” a November 2003 publication of the Pew Charitable Trust with the intent of identifying and communicating inaccuracies and misrepresentations in the report.