ALEXANDRIA, VA - On Thursday, February 10, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council met in a joint session with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Management Board to recommend management measures for the scup fishery. The Council and Board recommended that the Secretary of Commerce take action to close the Winter 1 scup fishery effective February 16, 2000 at 12:01 a.m. All member states are required to communicate their final intention to meet this deadline within 24 hours of the scheduled closure. The Commission determined that the Winter 1 scup quota will require states to close the scup fishery as specified in the Fishery Management Plan (FMP). The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) stated that preliminary 1999 data indicates that the Winter 1 and Summer period allocations were exceeded, and this circumstance requires a corresponding reduction in those periods in 2000.
The Council and Board authorized their respective executive directors, Daniel T. Furlong and John H. Dunnigan, to send letters to NMFS regarding the 2000 proposed regulations for scup. An alternative proposal for managing the summer 2000 scup fishery will be developed by Council and Commission staff and presented to the Council and Board prior to April 1 for appropriate final action.
On Friday, February 11, the Council developed a new alternative to the regulated mesh area proposed by NMFS, authorized the initiation of Amendment 13 to the Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Fishery Management Plan (FMP) regarding the adoption of conservation equivalency in the summer flounder recreational fishery, authorized the initiation of Amendment 14 to the FMP regarding the allocation of scup discard by fishing seasons and the reinstitution of state-by-state quotas during the summer fishing season, and authorized the initiation of a framework measure to address black sea bass pot management during the black sea bass fishing closures, i.e., vents opened, or traps removed.
On January 28, 2000 NMFS published a proposed rule regarding, among other issues, scup discard and a regime of regulated mesh areas to reduce scup bycatch. The Council disagreed with the NMFS proposal and will submit a new alternative (Alternative 7) to NMFS by the close of the comment period on February 28, 2000. Alternative 7 would cover a smaller geographic area and include the 10 minute squares previously identified by Council staff as having high scup discards. This alternative will reduce the landings of scup discards by 50 percent. It will also reduce revenues by approximately 4 million dollars as opposed to the proposed NMFS alternative which reduces revenues by 13 million dollars. The Council also approved the development of an exempted fishery program that will allow fisheries to continue providing they do not exceed a 10 percent scup bycatch. The Council directed staff to write a letter to exempt black sea bass pots in Area 5 and categorize them as "nontrap gear" that will allow them as incidental catch.
###
