Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Atlantic Herring Fishery

Özet

On May 8, 2008, the New England Fishery Management Council (Council), in cooperation with NMFS, announced its intent to prepare an EIS for Amendment 4 to the Atlantic Herring FMP to analyze the impacts of proposed management measures, which included measures to bring the FMP into compliance with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) requirements to specify annual catch limits (ACLs) and accountability measures (AMs). NMFS hereby notifies the public that only the ACL/AM components will move forward as Amendment 4, and that the Council intends to prepare an EA for the action. All other proposed measures formerly included in Amendment 4, including the catch monitoring program for the herring fishery, measures to address river herring bycatch, criteria for midwater trawl access to groundfish closed areas, and measures to address interactions with the mackerel fishery, will now be considered in Amendment 5. These measures will be analyzed in an EIS. Because comments submitted during the scoping process for Amendment 4 referenced all measures now under consideration in Amendments 4 and 5, the Council is not seeking additional scoping comments from the public