Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Atlantic Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish Fisheries; Control Date for Atlantic Mackerel

Résumé

NMFS announces that anyone entering the commercial Atlantic mackerel fishery after September 12, 1997 (control date) will not be assured of future access to the Atlantic mackerel resource in Federal waters if a management regime is developed and implemented under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson- Stevens Act) that limits the number of participants in the fishery. This announcement is intended to promote awareness of potential eligibility criteria for future access to the commercial Atlantic mackerel fishery and to discourage new entries into this fishery based on economic speculation, while the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council) contemplates whether and how access to that portion of the Atlantic mackerel fishery in Federal waters should be controlled. The potential eligibility criteria may be based on historical participation, defined as any number of trips having any documented amount of Atlantic mackerel landings. If such a regime is implemented, fishery participants may need to preserve records that substantiate and verify their participation in the Atlantic mackerel fishery in Federal waters.