NOAA Fisheries has announced it is creating a temporary rule extending portions of carryover provisions in the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan for the 2019 year into 2020, and that it is extending waivers on observer requirements.
The emergency action on the scallop fishery is what was suggested by the New England Fishery Management Council in April. It is intended to offset the negative economic impacts the industry has faced due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This action is necessary to provide the scallop fleet with the opportunity to land allocations that otherwise may have gone unharvested and reduce economic harm to the scallop industry,” the organization said.
The new temporary rule will:
- Allow “limited access general category individual fishing quota vessels to carryover all fishing year 2019 unharvested quota into fishing year 2020,”
- Allow “any access area carryover pounds and unharvested research set-aside compensation pounds from fishing year 2019 to be available for harvest through August 31, 2020,”
- "Extend the time period vessels may utilize their 2019 access area allocation in the Nantucket Lightship-West through August 31, 2020, and then close the area on September 1, 2020, in order to minimize unwanted bycatch.”
The additional carryover will allow vessels more flexibility, allowing them to harvest roughly 5.2 million pounds of quota that would otherwise be lost, according to the statement.
“Extending these carryover provisions will not cause any annual catch limits to be exceeded in the scallop fishery,” NOAA Fisheries said.
In addition to the scallop emergency action, the organization has extended the waiver granted in March on observer requirements in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
NOAA added that it plans to end that extension on 1 July.
“During the month of June, we will continue to work with regional observer and at-sea monitoring service providers to finalize their observer redeployment plans, conduct outreach with industry, and finalize internal programs and policies that will support the safe and effective redeployment of observers and at-sea monitors in the region,” NOAA Fisheries said. “As has been done throughout the rest of the country, it is the intent of NOAA Fisheries to begin redeploying observers as soon as it is safe and appropriate to do so.”
NOAA Fisheries added that it continues to evaluate its plans, and will announce any changes to the current plan as soon as “practicable.”
Photo courtesy of NOAA Fisheries
