Fisheries of the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and South Atlantic; Amendment 21 to the Snapper-Grouper Fishery Management Plan of the South Atlantic

Riepilogo

NMFS, Southeast Region, in collaboration with the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council), intends to prepare an EIS to describe and analyze a range of alternatives for management actions to be included in Amendment 21 to the Snapper-Grouper Fishery Management Plan for the South Atlantic Region (Amendment 21). These alternatives will consider several management approaches for limiting effort in the snapper-grouper fishery, including: trip limits, endorsements, cooperatives, catch shares, regional quotas, and State- by-State quotas. The purpose of this amendment is to rationalize effort in the commercial snapper-grouper fishery in order to achieve and maintain optimum yield (OY), prevent overfishing, and rebuild overfished stocks. Rationalizing effort is expected to mitigate some of the problems resulting from derby fishing conditions or at least prevent the condition from becoming more severe. The purpose of this NOI is to solicit public comments on the scope of issues to be addressed in the EIS.