The common pool trip limit of Gulf of Maine winter flounder is set at 1,000 lb per trip for the remainder of the fishing year.
On April 26, 2019, we published a rule containing the common pool measures for fishing year 2019 in the Federal Register (84 FR 17926), effective on May 1, 2019. In this rule, we incorrectly listed in a table that the Gulf of Maine winter flounder common pool trip limit is 2,000 lb per trip in fishing year 2019. This was a typographical error. A notice we filed on May 10, 2019 in the Federal Register has corrected this error.
If you have declared your trip through the vessel monitoring system (VMS) or interactive voice response system, and crossed the VMS demarcation line prior to 0001 hours on May 10, 2019, you are not subject to the 1,000 lb trip limit for that trip.
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Frequently Asked Questions |
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Why is this action being taken? |
We are correcting a typographical error in the rule that set the GOM winter flounder trip limit to help prevent an early closure of the GOM Winter Flounder Trimester Total Allowable Catch (TAC) Area and to prevent an overage of the common pool’s quota allocation for GOM winter flounder. |
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What happens if the Trimester TAC is exceeded? Underharvested? |
If the Trimester 1 or Trimester 2 TAC for a stock is exceeded, the overage is deducted from the Trimester 3 TAC. Any unused portion of the Trimester 1 or Trimester 2 TAC for the stock is carried forward to the following trimester. No unused portion of the total annual quota may be carried over to the following fishing year. |
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What happens if the annual quota is exceeded? |
If the 2019 fishing year quota is exceeded, the amount of the overage will be deducted from the common pool’s quota for fishing year 2020. |
