Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Monkfish; Amendment 5

Riepilogo

NMFS proposes regulations to implement measures in Amendment 5 to the Monkfish Fishery Management Plan (Monkfish FMP). The New England and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Councils (Councils) developed Amendment 5 to bring the Monkfish FMP into compliance with the annual catch limit (ACL) and accountability measure (AM) requirements of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson- Stevens Act). NMFS is considering disapproving proposed annual catch targets (ACT) that are not consistent with the most recent scientific advice. This proposed rule also proposes three management measures in Amendment 5 to promote efficiency and reduce waste: Automatic days-at- sea (DAS) adjustment for trip limit overages; authorization to land monkfish heads; and enable changes to the Monkfish Research Set-Aside (RSA) Program through framework adjustment, and to bring the biological and management reference points in the Monkfish FMP into compliance with recently revised National Standard 1 (NS1) Guidelines.