New Groundfish plan amendment may bring some suprises.

[MakoMike]

Some you might have seen ( I didn't) the notice in Yesterday's Federal Register that the NEFMC is starting work on a new amendment to the groundfish management plan. At discussions yesterday two relatively controversial points that we have discussed here in the past came to the surface for possible inclusion in any new amendment. They Are:

1) A proposal to prevent the entry of new Party/charter boats into recreational groundfishing.

and

2) To Require a permit or license for all recreational fishermen fishing for groundfish.

The period for public comment is open for the next sixty days and there may not be another public comment period before the entire amendment is finalized, so I would suggest that anyone who feels strongly about either of those two issues should submit their comments now!

[DZ]

Thanks for the update - only a matter of time before those proposals are instituted. They take a lot of groundfish. Party/Charter fleet seem to be a major player in how regs are developed. You can see it when RISAA supports management plans - they almost always side with what the charter/party fleet want - many times to the detriment of the "average Joe".

DZ

[JohnR]

Thanks for the info Mike... Discussion?

Limited entry? Hmmmmm

[Raven]

then
they should also be discussing the impact the seals have on the ground fish if management is their concern.

[MakoMike]

No discussion of seals, but we almost unianimously agreed that something has to be done about the dogfish. One advisor cited a MA study that said that 80% of the juvenial codfish were being eaten by the doggies before they could be recruited into the stock!