The Council met last week in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina to adopt spiny dogfish management measures for the 2004/2005 fishing year and take action on monkfish. The Council also met with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Board (Board) to set planning priorities for 2004 and beyond. In addition, the Council held its annual election of officers and conducted a swearing-in ceremony for new and reappointed members.
Ricks E Savage was reelected as Council Chairman and Ronal W. Smith was reelected as Vice Chairman for the ensuing year. Anthony P. Bogan (New Jersey) and Eugene J. Kray (Pennsylvania) were officially sworn in as new Council members by Patricia Kurkul, National Marine Fisheries Service Northeast Regional Administrator. Dennis L. Spitsbergen (North Carolina), Robert L. Pride (Virginia), and Laurie A. Nolan (New York) were also officially sworn in to serve another three-year term on the Council.
In regards to spiny dogfish, the Council adopted an annual bycatch quota of 4 million pounds to be divided into two semi-annual quota periods for the 2004/2005 fishing year. The specified quota for period 1 (May-October) would be 2.316 million pounds and period 2 (November-April) would be 1.684 million pounds. The Council recommended that the trip limits for both quota periods not exceed 1,500 pounds. The 4 million pound quota is intended to act as a cap on landings and reduce the directed fishery for dogfish.
The Council took action on the public hearing document for Amendment 2 to the Monkfish Fishery Management Plan (FMP) and approved numerous items for inclusion in the document as preferred alternatives.
The Council and Board accepted the priority recommendations for summer flounder, scup, and black sea bass outlined in a September 25, 2003 memorandum by Dr. Christopher Moore. These recommendations include: (1) begin and complete Framework 5 to allow for multi-year specifications beginning in 2005; (2) develop and adopt a Commission addendum in 2004 to continue/modify the current state-by-state allocation system for black sea bass; (3) analyze alternatives to the current commercial quota system for summer flounder with particular emphasis on systems that are similar to scup and/or allow for equal allocations after a base level is reached; and (4) review the current formula used to allocate landings to the commercial and recreational summer flounder fisheries. In addition, both entities agreed to jointly engage a consultant to develop a scup assessment as soon as possible.
Under the Research Set-Aside Program (RSA), the Council approved the research set-aside priorities for the 2005 fishing season. The list includes the same priorities as 2004 with two additions: gear modification in the scallop fishery to reduce bycatch of summer flounder, and studies on incidental catch and discard mortality of dogfish in the directed fisheries of other Mid-Atlantic RSA frameworked species, with emphasis on gillnets, trawls, and hook and line.
The Council agreed to have the New England Groundfish liaison develop comments regarding Amendment 13 to the New England Council's Groundfish FMP. These comments will be submitted to the New England Council on October 14, 2003 for review.
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