NOAA Fisheries announces the availability of Draft Amendment 12 to the 2006 Consolidated Atlantic Highly Migratory Species (HMS) Fishery Management Plan (FMP). This draft amendment integrates provisions of recently revised National Standard guidelines, a standardized bycatch reporting methodology rulemaking, and NOAA Fisheries policy directives into the 2006 Consolidated HMS FMP.
What is Draft Amendment 12?
Draft Amendment 12 will establish a framework to integrate provisions of recently revised National Standard guidelines and NOAA Fisheries policy directives into the 2006 Consolidated Atlantic HMS Fishery Management Plan (FMP).
Draft Amendment 12 will address a range of issues including:
- Proposed revisions to the objectives in the 2006 Consolidated Atlantic HMS FMP
- Proposed adoption of ICCAT stock status determination criteria for ICCAT-managed HMS
- The addition of fisheries and updates to HMS standardized bycatch reporting methodology
- Proposed establishment of triggers for review of allocations of quota-managed HMS
- Proposed modification to the timing for release of the HMS Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation Report
Draft Amendment 12 does not contain a proposed rule or regulatory text. It does not change any fishery quotas or implement any new HMS fishery management measures. Any operational changes to HMS fishery management measures as a result of Amendment 12 would be considered in future rulemakings as appropriate.
Public Comment
We encourage anyone affected or otherwise interested in the general management of Atlantic HMS and the contents of the Atlantic HMS FMP to participate in the Draft Amendment 12 process. We request comment on the provisions described in Draft Amendment 12.
Comments are due by October 26, 2020. You can submit comments online at the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal by searching for “NOAA-NMFS-2019-0096."
