2022 Quota Managed Menhaden Fishery to Resume on July 11
The state’s quota managed menhaden fishery will resume on Monday July 11, 2022 (Legal Notice). This is the result of additional state quota achieved through transfers from other Atlantic coastal states. These transfers help minimize the use of the incidental catch and small-scale fishery allowance, in which landings are not accountable to the coastwide total allowable catch (TAC). Upon Monday’s re-opening of the quota managed fishery, the limited access fishery will continue operating at a 25,000-pound trip limit, as established and implemented by DMF issued Statement of Permit Conditions. Open access fishery participants will be able to continue to harvest menhaden under the 6,000-pound trip limit.
The quota managed fishery shall remain in effect until DMF projects 100% of the 2022 transfer-adjusted commercial menhaden quota is taken. Once that occurs, commercial fishing for menhaden may only continue under the incidental catch and small-scale fishery trip limit. This prohibits industrial-scale fishing for menhaden, while allowing commercial fishermen to continue to retain, possess, land, and sell up to 6,000 pounds of menhaden per trip or calendar day, whichever period of time is longer.
This resumption of the quota managed fishery follows the closure of the 2022 Episodic Event Set Aside (EESA) fishery (Closure Notice). Massachusetts opted into the EESA program—a provision of the interstate fishery management plan—on June 23, 2022. The 2022 EESA, a 1% set-aside of the TAC, was shared among two states experiencing unusually large amounts of menhaden in their state waters in comparison to their state’s initial commercial quota allocations. The 2022 EESA is projected to be exhausted after today and the Commonwealth’s 2022 EESA fishery will close effective July 8, 2022. Upon closure of the EESA fishery, the previously issued Statement of Permit Conditions governing EESA fishery participation are rescinded.
For more information regarding the management of marine fisheries in the Commonwealth, please visit our website: www.mass.gov/marinefisheries.
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