Northeast Multispecies Amendment 23 Implementation Outreach Events
Webinars for the public about implementation of Amendment 23 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan.
About
In 2016, the New England Fishery Management Council initiated Amendment 23 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan to revise the groundfish sector monitoring program. The Council adopted Amendment 23 in September 2020 and submitted an initial draft to us in April 2021. We published a proposed rule on February 28, 2022, with a comment period ending March 30. On April 13, 2022, we approved Amendment 23. A final rule with implementing regulations will be published soon.
The approved measures include a requirement for 100 percent of sector groundfish trips to be monitored, if the agency can reimburse industry's costs. The at-sea monitoring coverage target would be set at the highest level for which federal funding can pay NOAA Fisheries costs and industry costs. Sectors would be able to use human at-sea monitors or either of two electronic monitoring options, or a combination of those options, to meet their monitoring requirement. Trips with low groundfish catch will be excluded from the at-sea monitoring requirement to minimize costs. NOAA Fisheries is reviewing comments on how we proposed to implement the Amendment 23 measures.
We hosted three informational webinars this spring to assist the public in preparing for the implementation of Amendment 23. At each informational webinar, staff presented what was proposed for approval and answered questions to provide more detailed information.
Past Events
April 4, 2022 (ASM and EM Service Providers, Industry welcome)
March 24, 2022 (NE Multispecies Permit Holders and Industry Members)
March 22, 2022 (NE Multispecies Permit Holders and Industry Members)
NOAA Fisheries staff presented the Amendment 23 measures proposed for approval and discussed how NOAA Fisheries proposed to implement the measures, if approved. Expert staff answered questions from the public. The March events focused on fishing industry members and the April event focused on monitoring service providers.
October 12, 2021
During the informational webinar, NOAA Fisheries staff presented information about the new Maximized Retention Electronic Monitoring model, implementation decisions made to date, a timeline for additional implementation decisions, and our outreach plan to engage constituents in collaboratively planning implementation details.