Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Amendment 18 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan

Résumé

We are proposing regulations to implement Amendment 18 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan. Amendment 18 was developed by the New England Fishery Management Council to promote fleet diversity in the groundfish fishery and enhance sector management. This action proposes to limit the number of permits and annual groundfish allocation that an entity could hold. This action also removes several effort restrictions to increase operational flexibility for limited access handgear vessels.