Atlantic Surfclam Permit Holders: NOAA Fisheries Announces the Creation of Three Exemption Areas Within the Great South Channel Habitat Management Area

This is part of the New England Fishery Management Council’s Habitat Clam Dredge Exemption Framework Adjustment.

The exemption areas are known as McBlair, Old South, and Fishing Rip. Coordinates for each area are below.

Fishermen that intend to fish in the exemption areas must obtain a Letter of Authorization (LOA) from the NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office. Participating vessels must hold a federal commercial surfclam permit and have a NOAA Fisheries-approved vessel monitoring system (VMS) unit that is capable of transmitting the vessel’s location every 5 minutes while within the HMA.  Each trip into the exemption areas must use the appropriate VMS trip declaration code. See our list of approved VMS units, or contact the VMS Team, Northeast Division, Office of Law Enforcement at (978) 281-9213 for more information. 

Vessels fishing for surfclams within the new exemption areas are still subject to the requirements of the individual transferable quota system. This includes restrictions on retaining other species of fish caught incidentally while using hydraulic clam dredge gear, which may depend on what other federal fishing permits the vessel holds. Vessels may not retain scallops from the HMA.

To fish for blue mussels in the new exemption areas, a vessel must hold a surfclam vessel permit. By holding a surfclam permit, the vessel owner and operator will be subject to reporting and monitoring requirements that would not normally apply to vessels fishing for blue mussels in federal waters. Mussel fishing vessels also need to obtain the new LOA and use the appropriate VMS trip declaration code for all fishing trips. Mussel vessels must use a non-hydraulic mussel dredge (also called a dry dredge), which cannot exceed 8 ft in width. These vessels cannot fish for, harvest, or land any species of fish other than blue mussels on trips into the HMA, but these vessels are still required to report all discards.