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Update:
On Wednesday January 28th the NEFMC Herring Oversight Committee met to, among other things, craft recommendations for management alternatives for inclusion in Herring Amendment 4.
The Committee voted 7-1 to include the entire CHOIR proposal with Mary Beth Tooley from ME being the only no vote. The CHOIR proposal is the most effective from the perspective of protection of both forage and sport fish. The committee also voted to include the Industry proposal however this was definately a great step forward. The backbone of the CHOIR proposal is the idea of maximized retention (observes get to see ALL fish caught before being dumped), onboard electronic monitoring (cameras) and a strong
shoreside monitoring program.
The CHOIR Proposal alternative and three others will now be forwarded by the
Committee to the full Council, which will now need to officially accept all four
as alternatives. They will be discussing this at the upcoming Council meeting in
Portsmouth, NH, the week of February 9th.
The Honest ByCatch movement will be conducting an action alert aimed at the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission river Herring Meetings going on next week and then another action alert aimed at the New England Fisheries Management Council Meeting mentioned above during the following week.
Watch this web site for these upcoming actions.
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