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Originally Posted by Offshore
The ASMFC action may be irrelevent anyway. The US Fish & Wildlife Service is considering a petition to "list" the American. If they do so, it will be declared either an "endangered" or a "threatened species".
If that occurs, it will be illegal to catch, transport, import or posess the eels anyplace in the US.
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The USF&WS and NOAA fisheries process is IMHO unlikely to list the eel as either endangered or threatened, if at all until about this time next year. They have unti the end of next July to make their preliminary decision, and if they think a listing is warranted there will be a peer review of the sceintific findings followed by a 90 Day public comment period followed by a thorty day waiting period. So any action likely won't happen until at least next Nov.
Furthermore, even if they do list the eel as threatened, there is no guarantee that all fishing for them will be stopped. Though IMHO it should be. Again IMHO, the eel will not be listed and the other regional fishery management groups (gulf coast and great lakes) will go along with whatever the ASMFC decides, which is why I consider their decision so important.
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