Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish) Fishing Year 2023 Catch Limits, Allocations to Sectors, and Emergency Measures for Gulf of Maine Haddock

August 17, 2023

NOAA Fisheries approved Framework Adjustment 65 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan and is announcing final quotas for fishing year 2023. This action also approves and implements emergency measures for Gulf of Maine (GOM) haddock.

Bulletin |

New England/Mid-Atlantic

New England, Mid-Atlantic

Emergency Action

NOAA Fisheries is taking emergency action to increase the fishing year 2023 catch limit for GOM haddock from the level proposed in Framework 65, which represented a substantial reduction from fishing year 2022. Increasing the catch limit is expected to mitigate adverse economic impacts due to the unanticipated high level of fishery interactions with the 2020 year class and the potential for overly constrained fishing effort or a shutdown of the Gulf of Maine Broad Stock Area.

The emergency action sets the GOM haddock acceptable biological catch (ABC) at 100 percent of the fishing mortality rate associated with maximum sustainable yield (2,515 mt) while still preventing overfishing. The emergency action will be in place for an initial period of 180 days. NOAA Fisheries may extend the emergency action through the end of the fishing year after consideration of public comments on the action.

Fishing Year 2023 Catch Limits

Framework 65 sets annual catch limits for 16 of the 20 groundfish stocks. Quotas for the U.S./Canada area are shown in Table 1. The 2023 catch limits are listed in Table 2. The management uncertainty buffer has been removed from the GOM haddock and white hake sector sub-annual catch limits, as recommended by the Council. Sector annual catch entitlements (ACE) are shown in Table 3. These quotas replace those that were in effect at the beginning of the fishing year.

Sector and common pool quotas are based on the final fishing year 2023 rosters. NOAA Fisheries will subtract any sector or common pool overages in a separate action, if necessary, after finalizing fishing year 2022 catch information.

Table 1. 2023 Fishing Year U.S./Canada Quotas (mt, live weight) and Percent of Quota Allocated to Each Country

Quota	Eastern GB Cod	Eastern GB Haddock	GB Yellowtail Flounder
Quota	Eastern GB Cod	Eastern GB Haddock	GB Yellowtail Flounder	Total Shared Quota	520	No agreement	200
U.S. Quota	135 (26 percent)	1,520	106 (53 percent)
Canadian Quota	385 (74 percent)	2,320 (estimate)	94 (47 percent)

Table 2. Fishing Year 2023 Catch Limits (mt, live weight)

Stock	Total ACL	Groundfish sub-ACL	Final Sector sub-ACL	Final Common Pool sub-ACL	Recreational sub-ACL	Midwater Trawl Fishery	Scallop Fishery	Small-Mesh Fisheries	State Waters sub- component	Other sub-component
Stock	A to H	A+B+C	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H
GB Cod	500	375	364	11					42	83
GOM Cod	522	470	268	11	192				48	3.4
GB Haddock	11,301	11,080	10,829	251		221			0	0
GOM Haddock Emergency Action	2,452	2,362	1,537	32	793	23			58	8.3
GOM Haddock Proposed in Framework 65	1,888	1,818	1,183	25	610	18			45	6.4
GB Yellowtail Flounder	103	84	80	4.5			16.5	2.0	0.0	0.0
SNE/MA Yellowtail Flounder	38	33	25	8.1			2.7		0.2	2.0
CC/GOM Yellowtail Flounder	1,063	985	931	54					34	45
American Plaice	5,417	5,360	5,210	150					29	29
Witch Flounder	1,196	1,145	1,104	41					19	31
GB Winter Flounder	1,651	1,634	1,585	50					0	17
GOM Winter Flounder	772	607	519	88					153	12.1
SNE/MA Winter Flounder	604	441	387	53					19	144
Redfish	9,469	9,469	9,369	99					0	0
White Hake	1,844	1,826	1,808	18					0	19
Pollock	14,325	13,124	13,001	123					676	526
N. Windowpane Flounder	150	105	na	105			31		0.8	13
S. Windowpane Flounder	371	45	na	45			129		13	184
Ocean Pout	83	49	na	49					0	34
Atlantic Halibut	83	64	na	64					17	1.3
Atlantic Wolffish	87	87	na	87					0	0

na: not allocated to sectors. ACL = annual catch limit, GB = Georges Bank, GOM = Gulf of Maine, SNE/MA = Southern New England/Mid-Atlantic, CC/GOM = Cape Cod/Gulf of Maine, N = northern, S = southern.

Table 3. ACE (in 1,000 lb), by stock, for each sector for fishing year 2023^{#^}

Sector Name	GB Cod East	GB Cod West	GOM Cod	GB Haddock East	GB Haddock West	GOM Haddock Emergency Action	GOM Haddock Proposed in Framework 65	GB Yellowtail Flounder	SNE/MA Yellowtail Flounder	CC/GOM Yellowtail Flounder	Plaice	Witch Flounder	GB Winter Flounder	GOM Winter Flounder	SNE/MA Winter Flounder	Redfish	White Hake	Pollock
Fixed Gear Sector	34	61	4	52	328	6	5	0	0	34	51	27	1	24	10	112	41	897
Maine Coast Community Sector	7	12	97	114	716	424	326	4	2	136	1,840	311	29	105	22	1,922	556	3,664
Maine Permit Bank	0	1	7	1	9	39	30	0	0	7	138	18	0	6	0	172	67	491
Mooncusser Sector	36	65	39	131	827	131	101	2	1	66	108	46	34	38	25	1,026	450	3,199
NEFS 2	19	34	147	356	2,236	712	548	3	1	497	1,131	324	116	294	40	3,113	329	3,985
NEFS 4	22	39	69	196	1,232	307	236	4	2	139	1,115	223	25	99	10	1,387	332	1,984
NEFS 5	1	2	2	23	146	4	3	2	12	20	37	13	12	11	97	3	3	22
NEFS 6	9	16	17	115	723	152	117	4	4	84	517	147	41	59	18	1,422	182	1,060
NEFS 8	46	82	17	477	2,999	247	190	51	8	193	1,193	220	1,372	56	158	1,596	265	1,759
NEFS 10	2	3	15	6	37	46	35	0	0	90	142	54	0	122	6	70	27	223
NEFS 11	1	2	70	1	7	95	73	0	0	50	179	39	0	27	0	390	162	2,536
NEFS 12	1	3	18	3	20	37	29	0	0	182	94	16	0	136	3	48	12	205
NEFS 13	37	66	4	682	4,291	31	24	66	17	141	1,015	223	694	24	170	908	89	774
New Hampshire Permit Bank	0	0	7	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	3	0	0	1	0	4	3	32
Sustainable Harvest Sector 1	20	36	36	323	2,033	439	338	8	2	78	1,986	349	371	39	44	3,710	732	3,004
Sustainable Harvest Sector 2	8	14	12	97	609	153	118	5	2	115	419	85	98	62	50	956	139	890
Sustainable Harvest Sector 3	45	79	29	697	4,385	565	435	26	6	218	1,517	341	700	39	203	3,817	598	3,938
Common Pool	8	15	23	76	476	71	54	10	18	120	331	91	110	195	118	219	39	270
Sector Total	289	514	590	3,275	20,600	3,389	2,608	176	56	2,052	11,486	2,435	3,493	1,144	854	20,656	3,986	28,663

# Numbers are rounded to the nearest thousand pounds. In some cases, this table shows an allocation of 0, but that sector may be allocated a small amount of that stock in tens or hundreds pounds.

^ The data in the table represent the total allocations to each sector.

Common Pool Commercial Possession and Trip Limits – Effective August 18, 2023

In order to provide the common pool with the opportunity to harvest stocks with increasing common pool sub-ACLs, while avoiding early closures for the common pool and preventing overages, Framework 65 adjusts the common pool possession and trip limits as shown in Table 4:

Table 4: 2023 Common Pool Commercial Possession and Trip Limits

Stock	2023 Trip Limit
GB Cod (outside Eastern U.S./Canada Area)	100 lb (45.4 kg) per DAS, up to 200 lb (90.7 kg) per trip
GB Cod (inside Eastern U.S./Canada Area)	100 lb (45.4 kg) per DAS, up to 200 lb (90.7 kg) per trip
GB Cod [Closed Area II Yellowtail Flounder/Haddock SAP (for targeting haddock)]	500 lb (226.8 kg) per trip
GOM Cod	150 lb (68.0 kg) per DAS, up to 300 lb (136.1 kg) per trip
GB Haddock	50,000 lb (22,679.62 kg) per trip
GOM Haddock	1,000 lb (453.6 kg) per DAS, up to 2,000 lb (907.2 kg) per trip
GB Yellowtail Flounder	100 lb (45.4 kg) per trip
SNE/MA Yellowtail Flounder	200 lb (90.7 kg) per DAS, up to 400 lb (181.4 kg) per trip
CC/GOM Yellowtail Flounder	1,500 lb (680.4 kg) per DAS, up to 3,000 lb (1,360.8 kg) per trip
American plaice	3,000 lb (1,360.8 kg) per DAS, up to 6,000 lb (2,721.6 kg) per trip
Witch Flounder	1,500 lb (680.4 kg) per trip
GB Winter Flounder	500 lb (226.8 kg) per trip
GOM Winter Flounder	2,000 lb (907.2 kg) per trip
SNE/MA Winter Flounder	2,000 lb (907.2 kg) per DAS, up to 4,000 lb (1,814.4 kg) per trip
Redfish	Unlimited
White hake	750 lb (340.2 kg) per trip
Pollock	Unlimited
Atlantic Halibut	1 fish per trip
Windowpane Flounder	Possession Prohibited
Ocean Pout
Atlantic Wolffish

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